Brigid

Summer 1995. My BFFs, Brigid and Tracy, decided they were going to take summer classes at UC Santa Cruz, coinciding with my PhD interview west coast road trip and surf adventure. I drove from New Hampshire to Seattle, WA to Corvallis, OR to Bend, OR to Eugene, OR to Berkeley, CA to Santa Cruz, CA to Santa Barbara, CA to San Diego, CA back to New Hampshire, interviewing for PhD positions at many, many schools and surfing at even more amazing breaks along the way. I was surfing a TON at that time, which leads to the Santa Cruz story…

Brig and Tracy didn’t have a lot of money that summer, so the two of them ended up finding a little room that they shared in a house with two local SC lifeguards, who were, well, very stereotypical SC brah types. I showed up while they were in class and asked Ryan (one of the roommates) where he would suggest I go surfing for the day. He sent me to Ano Nuevo. Knowing nothing about the area, I went to Ano Nuevo, had an amazing day surfing BY MYSELF under the California sun, ripping waist high peelers all day. After I was done, I went back to the house and told them what a great day I had. Ryan looked at me and said, “you really went in?!” I said, “of course, you sent me there!” He looked at me and said, “I didn’t think you’d really go! The locals call it ‘Shark Cafe!’” 😳

The same guy then challenged me to bomb a local hill on skateboards, not once, not twice, but three times, just to prove I could. As the girls will tell you, I bombed it three times and he took his toys and went home. #legendarymoments

The three of us spent a very windy day at the beach, drinking Sierra Nevada Pale Ales. We burned their class notes from summer school in fire pits on the beach in Santa Cruz, while local unhoused individuals tried to bogart our joint. We took pictures under the bluest sky I’ve ever seen, in front of fields of sunflowers as far as the eye could see. And we parted ways on the highway, two by air, one by road (with a little pocket glass to usher on the next adventure), as we headed back to the other side of the country.

Core memories. Moments that will last for eternity and beyond. Captured in a picture, at a moment in time almost three decades ago.

Brig and I would go on to be roommates for many years that followed. When I think of red wine, Melrose Place, Catahoula Leopard Dogs, Fettucine Alfredo, the House of Life, and so so many more memories of the New Hampshire sea coast, there is absolutely no one else I will ever have in my mind than my BFF, Brigid.