The wave that ended the season looked like any other, right up until it did not. What followed was months on land for an athlete who lives in the water.
Rehabilitation is its own discipline — repetitive, unglamorous and easy to abandon without a reason to keep going.
The return, when it came, was deliberately small: a short paddle out, an easy wave, a careful ride to shore.
The goal now is not the biggest swell but the next one, and the one after that.
