A Good Reason Not To Surf

Growing up in the Midwest, I spent very little time by the ocean as a child.  One vacation to Florida when I was in my tween years is all I can recall.  Lake Michigan has no sharks.   Yes, it has gar, pike, and other fresh-water barracuda-like varieties in very very limited quantities, but they leave humans alone. 

Images of sharks, jelly fish, the deep-deep-ocean, giant squid, the Pacific gyre, barracuda & sea urchins  (while snorkeling), violent storms and hurricanes give me pause... and make me think... "being on land is good".

Our son, who has spent nearly the last 20 years of his life in South Carolina, and nearly 1/2 of that in Charleston, has no such fear of the ocean, and in fact, is drawn to it, at home in it, one with it.