Melvin Hangs Ten (Part 2)
EVERYONE WAS LOOKING and pointing and talking, as no one had ever seen a sea lion paddle on a surfboard before. Melvin sure seemed to be enjoying himself, as he now had a smile on his face, and he was making noises from his throat that made it sound like he was a happy sea lion once again. We had all figured that Melvin would be satisfied with just paddling around on the surfboard next to the pier for a few minutes, but boy, were we wrong.
As soon as Melvin got the hang of paddling, he started staring at the new set of waves that were coming in from the end of the pier. There were a couple of small waves at the beginning of the set, then at the very end, there was a great big, giant wave that was so big and massive and blue, that it looked more like a sea mountain and than a wave.
You would think that Melvin would want to start out practicing his surfing skills on some small waves before moving on to bigger waves. But Melvin was a very determined sea lion, and he wanted to go big right away. He used his flippers to line himself up with that big blue mountain that was coming straight toward him, and as soon as it was about 20 feet away, Melvin pointed the nose of the surfboard straight toward shore, and started flapping his big greasy flippers so hard, that I was afraid that they might break off and sink to the bottom of the ocean. But they didn’t, and Melvin started going faster and faster through the water.
The giant wave was right behind Melvin now, and the crest of the wave picked up the surfboard, and I saw a look on Melvin’s face that was one part confusion and one part excitement. He had caught the wave, and his board was going fast enough for him to try to stand up. Since Melvin didn’t have any feet, this was going to be the hard part. But for some reason, Melvin did not seem to be intimidated by any of this, and he just went for it.
Melvin placed both of his flippers on the side of the surfboard, and grabbed onto the rails. He then used every muscle in his body to balance himself on his rear flippers, so that the front part of his body was standing up. The board was going really fast now, and Melvin was flying down the wave.
In an instant, Melvin was standing up on his back flippers, with both of his front flippers in the air. Melvin was going so fast, that the wind was blowing his whiskers straight back, making him look like he was flying a plane 10,000 feet in the air.
All of the surfers stopped and stared and pointed and watched, none of them believing what they were seeing. A surfing sea lion at Newport Beach! The wave was huge and Melvin had a long, long ride. He just kept going and going and going, all the way down the shoreline for at least a mile. At one point, Melvin was flying down the face of the wave and went right by a surfer who was paddling over the other side of the wave. Melvin held out his flipper, and the surfer held out his hand and gave Melvin a high five, right there on his surfboard!
But, all good waves come to an end, eventually. Melvin’s great big, gigantic wave puttered to a stop, and Melvin rode the whitewash onto shore. He saw the teenage boy floating out by the pier, waiting for Melvin to return his surfboard. Melvin hopped back on the board and paddled with his flippers all the way back out to the pier, slid off the surfboard, and nudged it with his nose back toward the teenage boy. The boy was so impressed with what he saw, that he stuck out his hand and patted Melvin on the head real gently, giving Melvin a thumbs up. Melvin floated on his back, clapped his flippers together, and let out a great big happy YELP!!
Melvin swam a few more circles around all of us, then slipped into the water, and we did not see him for the rest of the day.
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All of us surfers were so impressed with what Melvin had accomplished, that we all chipped in a few dollars and bought him his very own surfboard. We keep it right there on the sand, leaned up against the pier, with the name MELVIN painted on the top in bold, red letters. Everyone in Newport Beach knows that that surfboard belongs to Melvin.
Melvin is one of the locals now, and I see him out in the water from time to time. Although we are not able to talk to Melvin, we all share a bond as fellow surfers, and despite his occasional grunts and hollers, we are glad to have Melvin with us.
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