Tuckin' In For A Tube Ride

My shoulder was still not improving even after going thru the punishment of several months of physical therapy. My doctor reluctantly agreed to schedule surgery to clean up my rotator cuff and shave down the bone spur in my left shoulder. The surgery date was set for January 13 (my grandma’s birthday), 2003. At twenty four years old I was pretty sure I was going to die during surgery from some sort of genetically inherited family curse passed on by my father. My Father had his palm read when he was young and the palm reader told him that we would die before he was thirty years old, and he did. 

I have no memory of him because he died when I was two years old. I have a few pictures of my father and I look just like him although my mom says I look slightly better than him. I didn’t tell anyone about my fear of dying before I turned thirty, I didn’t want anyone to worry about me or think I was paranoid.

I figured this day may be the last time I got to go out surfing so I had better make the best of it. Skip and I checked out the avenues and ended up at Burnout. There was only a few heads out and the rights were super clean. The sun was bright and there was only a slight off shore breeze and a few people sat on the big storm sand berm’s to watch the surfers brave the cold water. We paddled out and I was already dialed in after just a few waves. I did a lot of one arm paddling back to line up to limit the stress on my bad shoulder. All the waves barreled and I had a good chance of making it out of most of them. I didn’t mind not making it out of the barrel, because when I did make it out I wondered if I could’ve gotten in deeper. 

Surfer: Eric Cedeno
Location: Burnout, Torrance CA

Between waves I saw a man sitting on the sand berm with a big camera and a very long lens. He must’ve been shooting for a magazine or something and of course I wanted my picture taken so I kept getting barreled. It wasn’t the biggest wave to come by but I could tell it was lining up to be a good one. I made the quick drop and tucked into the pocket. The sun’s reflection off the water was bright and dragged my right hand in the water to slow down just a little. I was surprised the wave held up as long as it did. It’s true, when I’m in the barrel time does slow down. I calmly made it out of the pocket and kicked out over the top of the remaining wave. I paddled back out for more hoping that the guy with the big camera would stick around long enough for me to find out if he got any pictures of me, but he soon left.

Two days later (Thursday November 23, 2002) Skip calls me up and tell me that I have to go buy the news paper. Skip said,” There’s this guy on the second page of the Daily Breeze that you know. Go get one and check it out.” So I did. I opened it up and saw a picture of me surfing Burnout. I knew the exact wave, the precise moment that the picture was taken. I'll never forget it.

Surfer: Eric Cedeno
Location: Burnout, Torrance CA
Published: Daily Breeze
Date: November 23, 2002