Re: Alvin Ever After: Alvin in the Fourth
I was sure to stay out of the competition area and was out far enough that I could slide off my board, slip off my shorts, and swish them back and forth in the water to get them clean… well cleaner than they were. I was also careful to clean not just my backside but also my front too as the mess had smeared all the way through my legs and covered my hairless, wrinkled, sack.
“How do I poop so much when I hardly ever eat?” I groaned.
A familiar voice from behind me spoke, “I thought that was you!”
I spun in the water and shouted, “GARY YOU SCARED THE HECK OUT OF ME!”
“Ooh!” He said while ignoring what I had just said and was pointing past me, “Meek’s about to make his first run.”
Holding my board with one hand and trying to put my shorts back on while not hurting my knee and while watching Meek, was almost impossible, but I managed.
“Oh he’s too far back!” Gary observed.
“No, watch. He’s setting himself up for…” I began, “Oh there it is! YEAH GO MEEK!”
“Well I’ll be!” Gary exclaimed while helping to steady my board as I tried to straddle it.
As I did so I was sure, Gary would see my swollen knee and say something but he didn’t because he was too busy watching Meek.
“Did you teach him that?” he asked.
“Nope, that’s all him.” I said as I repositioned to get my knee under the water where the cooler temperatures would continue to help the swelling.
“Not the best I’ve seen thus far, but with that he’ll stay in contention for winning this shindig.” Gary commented.
Gary was being kind. Although it was a cool maneuver, the rest of his run didn’t show off his best skills. He’ll be lucky if he hangs onto first place after that run.
Without really thinking about it, I said to Gary, “I have a problem.”
“Which one?” He asked with a chuckle.
I pulled my knee out of the water and watched his face. He went stone cold serious.
“How the hell did that happen?” he asked.
I explained to him what had happened and while doing so I watched his face grow dark with anger. He looked toward the land as if my grandfather, Adam and Scotty were all standing at the shoreline mocking me.
“We need to get you in and get that taken care of.” He told me then pointed to my arm, “You’re bleeding too.”
Ignoring the blood comment I shook my head, “Can’t. That’s why I am way out here. Everybody and their mom are looking for my blonde head!”
Again watching the land, he appeared deep in thought. Suddenly he pulled his leg out of the water, unstrapped his leash and right before tipping himself over into the water he tossed it to me and said, “Hold this! I’ll be right back!”
He was down a long time; longer than I could have been. When he came back up, he plopped a fist full of Seadragon onto his board. Seadragon is a sort of long, leafy seaweed.
With no warning, he grabbed my ankle and pulled on my leg, nearly pulling me off my board in the process. It hurt so much that I screamed and began to sob big crocodile tears.
“Stay on your board. Whatever I do, stay on it.” He said while still keeping the tension on my leg.
He grabbed the Seadragon and went under again. I could not see what he was doing, but from the feel of it, I thought he was trying to rip my leg off at the knee.
I’d rather not include this, but why stop being honest now? I wept like a baby. I couldn’t help it; it hurt so much that I couldn’t stop the tears.
I felt him release my leg and when he came up he said, “Best I can do out here, but it should help. Now let me see that arm.”
I quickly splashed my face with one hand while Gary was holding my other. It was weird because as I was splashing my face it felt as if the pain in my leg was draining down and out of my toes.
Gary plucked a couple pebbles out of my arm as he said in reference to what he’d done to my leg, “Know that hurt. But it had to be done.”
I lifted my leg out of the water and saw that he’d used the Seadragon to tightly wrap my knee. It was like natures ACE Bandage and boy was it tight.
“Where’d you learn how to do that?” I asked while watching him do the same thing to my right elbow.
I attempted to bend my knee but only managing to get it to move a bit. I was however able to wiggle my toes and move my ankle just fine.
“Old Aztec Witch Doctor,” He said and I was not sure if he was telling the truth or not.
“Will make for getting up on your board more difficult, but it will keep it from buckling under your weight.” He explained.
It wasn’t what he’d said, but how he said it which gave me the idea that he was again calling me fat.
“I’m not that fat!” I whined.
“Said the porky little piggy!” he joked and poked me in the belly.
“Gary!” I whined and slapped away his hand.
We’d missed the other two competitors but we did catch the scores. The announcer’s voice seemed to drift over the waters like a fog.
“With the completion of their first run of the day, Group One stats are as follows. First place with an outstanding perfect score on his first run, “Minkus Dawson”.
I looked at Gary in disbelief. They had used Meek’s real name, not his pseudo name.
“Guess they finally figured it out.” Gary chuckled.
Half a second later the announcer was heard, “Or as many of you have come to know him by…” and then gave Meek’s pseudo name to which the roar of the crowd could be heard.
“There it is!” Gary laughed.
“And on a side note, you’ll all be happy to know he has been reunited with his parents and I and the judges have personally spoken with them. He is now competing today with their permission.
It took a while for the crowd to quiet down enough for him to continue.
The announcement continued, “A close second is Luisa Tang.”
“And trailing at a distant third we have Rodney Hildegard.”
“Way to go Minkus!” Gary cheered while pumping a triumphant fist into the air.
“While our first group comes in, may we please have our next contestants report in?”
Scotty Hildegard come on down!!!”
And let’s have Chad Baker! Come on Chad!”
“and…”
The crowd crazy for like three whole minutes.
The announcer then laughing said, “Now wait for it… the two time Junior Surfing Champion, Alvin Holloway!”
And just like Meek, they had announced my name… my REAL NAME. However, unlike Meek, the announcer didn’t even bother with my pseudo name. Maybe he didn’t because the crowd never got quiet. From my position, I could see the people on the beach pointing and waving in my direction. I waved back which seemed to make the crowd get even louder.
Even as far out as Gary and I were, the roar of the crowd was surprisingly loud.
“Oh there he is!” The announcer laughed, “Wave to the camera Alvin!”
Beaming with pride, Gary said to me, “Can’t let your fans down! Get out there, wait for the perfect wave and just in case this is your last run, give it everything you have.”
My eyes filled with tears again as I stretched out on my board and began to paddle toward the competition area.
Behind me, I could hear Gary shouting instructions, “If the pain gets to be too much, bite your inner cheek as hard as you can!”
“Looks like our returning Champion is eager to get started, he’s already out there! Scotty and Chad, you best get going!” the announcer said with a laugh which caused the crowd to laugh too.
Thinking about Gary’s words, I knew he had meant that I should give my all as if this were my last run of the competition, however in my head I was thinking just a little differently. I was telling myself that this could be the last time I surfed… EVER! And if that was the case, then I wasn’t going to play it easy or safe. I was already out far enough to catch a choice wave, but I didn’t want a choice wave, I wanted a perfect wave.
Setting up on my board I looked back to Gary who I could only just see waving an encouraging arm in the air. I looked toward the land and could see two surfers about halfway between me and the crowd who from my vantage point looked like a massive flesh toned blur.
I looked to Gary once more and spoke what I fully expected to be the last words of my life, “Thanks and I love you.” Of course, there was no way he heard me, but I had to say it anyway.
I then turned the nose of my board toward Hawaii, flattened out and began to paddle my arms for all I was worth. The crowd’s roar soon vanished, but I didn’t stop. I kept going out farther and father until I was nearly to the drop off where the ocean floor suddenly drops.
It’s an area even the big ships avoid, because the ocean is so unpredictable there. Watching out to sea at the black wall that was the storm, I read the surface of the ocean I knew almost exactly when and where the low ocean would hit that underwater cliff. What happens is right before it hits the cliff wall, there is a suction effect, which can pull you down. I’ve heard of several people who were killed being out there at the wrong time. However, if you know what you are doing and you are positioned just right, after the ocean sucks you down, it will eventually spit you back out. That is what I was hoping would happen.
There was no way Scotty and Chad would come out so far. Only a lunatic would risk being swept out to sea. Well label me a lunatic then.
Sliding back and dropping the tail of my board I held on with my legs dangling in the water. I was still belly to the deck and had made myself into an untethered buoy, which would be grabbed and pulled under.
No sooner had I got into passion then I felt the pull. I sucked in a quick lung full of air and held onto my board, as it was the only thing that would save me now.
I was down a long time. Too long! My lungs ached for fresh air and my ears felt like they were going to rupture under the pressure but I couldn’t risk letting go of my board to equalize my ear pressure. What seemed like forever I felt my downward pull change as I was fired upwards like a missile.
Seconds later, my board and I were launched into the air. I gasped in fresh oxygen as I looked down and prepared to hit the top of the wave. If I didn’t hit just right, that would be the end of Alvin Hollow.
I hit the wave feet first and screaming like a wounded animal as I fought against the power of the ocean to pull myself up while attempting to force the nose of my board down. Before I knew it, I was up and moving fast. I was already several stories and yet the wave was still growing. I hadn’t chosen the perfect wave… like an unspoken agreement, King Neptune had understood what I had intended and sent me a killer wave.
It was the wave of a lifetime! The kind of wave people hope and pray for but never get. To anyone who hadn’t spent their entire life on the ocean, it would have surly been a killer wave. For me, and my less than perfect leg, it was surly going to be the death of me.
With tears streaming down my face I set my eyes forward and attempted to either tame the wave, or die trying. It was the longest and scariest run of my life.
As I rode the wave, the pain left me. It was just me, my board and the bucking, violent waters beneath me.
Now you are going to think I am crazy, that I have completely lost my mind when I tell you what happen next, but I swear to you that it is 100% true. I felt a hand on my right shoulder and when I turned my head, I saw my father on my board, directly behind me just as he used to do when I was a very young boy.
“Loosen your toes.” John said, “That a boy!”
“Get that butt down and bend your knee.”
“You’re doing great Son!”
I looked back at him again; just to be sure he was really there.
“Alvin, keep your eyes forward.”
“Get ready for the rise! Now lean into it! Lean Alvin! Lean!”
I was leaning so far forward, I was almost parallel to my board.
“Get your arms back!”
“HOOOOOLD IT!”
“AND CUT NOW!”
“That’s my boy! Now bring it back around and set yourself up for… Look out it’s breaking high! Get yourself in position!”
“You’re too high! Get that nose down!”
“Alvin, get that nose dow…”
I was half a second slow and ended up out of position as the wave began to break above me, engulfing me in the largest tube I had ever surfed. If you have never surfed a tube you probably cannot understand what it is like. Most of the time you cannot see anything but water in all directions. You just have to point your board and pray you emerge before the tube swallows you.
When the only way out seemed closed that’s when I began to realize that maybe this was it for me. Maybe this was going to be the end for real. I’ve said that before, but this time… this time I was sure. I began to imagine that stories would be told for years to come, about me and people will tell how they were there the day Alvin Holloway disappeared within a tube and was never seen again. They would probably rename the competition in my honor and erect some memorial that in a few years would be just another ignored landmark on the boardwalk for the Seagulls to poop on.
Just as I was about to give myself to the wave by cutting to the left into the wave I again heard John, soft and very close, “Alvin you need to get yourself out of here.”
I shook my head, “I can’t.”
“Yes you can.”
“I-I don’t want to!”
My tears were mingling with the seawater as I saw John’s face in the wave, “Alvin, you need to get out of here now! I want you to get yourself out of here now!”
“Dad I…” I was blubbering.
“Tiger-fish you have so much life left! I’m not supposed to tell you this, but the love of your life is standing on the beach right now! Soon you are going to fall in love, and one day marry her, and have beautiful children with her! But you have to get yourself out of here now! Please son, I need you to get yourself out of here and live!”
I hadn’t thought about what I was doing, I just reacted as I slid my bad leg back and curled my toes over the right edge of my board. At the same time, I slid my other foot as far forward as it would go. I then stretched one arm forward and the other back, as I got very low to my board. I tucked my chin to my chest, rolled my eyes forward, while my toes curled over the nose of my board. I was in essence doing a full split on top of my board, making myself as low as possible. The speed I picked up was incredible. Later I would learn that when I emerged from the tube I was clocked at 53 knots, just 1.10 knots shy of the world record.
As I emerged, I heard John Cheer as if from a great distance, “Good save son! Good save!”
When I came out, the cheers of the spectators suddenly assaulted my ears, but I wasn’t done.
Pulling my left leg back I was able to turn into the wave then cut right and putting myself back on top of the wave. For a split moment, I saw Scotty and Chad on the backside of the wave, coming up from their duck dive under it. They hadn’t caught a wave yet, they were too busy watching me.
I was cutting left and right, kind of showboating. Then as I read that the wave was quickly losing its fierceness I leaned into my board, cut left real sharp, brought the nose up and launched myself into the air. I’m told that I was at least thirty feet above the wave when I did a flip and then corkscrewed back down to the wave.
I road the dying wave as I looked up into the sun and smiled at John.
“Thanks Dad!”
I could hardly hear or understand the announcer. He was so ecstatic that he was shouting into the microphone. I picked up bits and pieces there like…
“I saw it and I still don’t believe it!”
“That ladies and gentleman is how it’s done!”
On and on he went, trying to be heard over the crowed.
Not waiting to hear how my two opponents were fairing; I again laid myself upon my board and began to paddle parallel to the shore in the direction I’d left Gary. However, Gary was nowhere to be seen. I was sure he would see me coming and meet me, but he didn’t.
Away from the competition area, I turned my board and headed in land, sure I’d see Gary waiting there. However, he wasn’t there either but there was someone there I recognize.
Still a good three hundred feet from shore I had zero doubt of who it was.
