What is not average about going surfing with a friend?

Surfing is not that important in the grand scheme of things. Surfing, despite the worship it receives by many who practice its disciplines, is a nice form of recreation. In that sense it is average. But there is something that is not average when one goes surfing with one's friend(s). The memory.

All senses are activated in a proper surf session. The smell of the ocean breeze, that odd wet sweetness flowing through your nose. The feel of the sand on your feet. Your wetsuit smells so pungent your taste is activated when you first put it on. The sting of your eyes from sun and salt. The burn of the back of your arm when paddling out one to many times. The cup of coffee and the pepper on your eggs activating in your mouth to produce that odd but desired bite in your mouth. All of these helps you to remember the not so average part of it all - you shared this time with friend.

I've laid in a hospital bed with cancer and thought that I would die. Never did I desire to just go surfing. But I would not have traded a single memory surfing with Ben, David, Bill, Wyn, Jay, or Jake. For it was a memory of the gift of friends. Not just people who share an interest in surfing, but people who care deeply for me and in spite of me. They gave themselves to enjoy life, so short an enterprise, with me. They are precious gifts. Memories of this storm at that beach with friends are what is not so average about going surfing. For, as one man told me, it is only memories that we will take with us.