read this post today about female surfing

https://griffithreview.com/articles/is-it-hard-to-surf-with-boobs/

this really hit home

When I finally took up surfing in my thirties, I struggled. It's a difficult sport to master; you need strength, agility, a willingness to suspend fear, and most of all, time. Unlike my adolescent self, I now possessed little of these things: not as fit, sometimes pregnant, always busy, and restrained by an overbuilt sense of caution. Many times as I was swept down a beach in churning white water, arms aching, face full of snot and seaweed, having failed to even make it out to where the waves break, I would start ruminating on those wasted adolescent hours sitting on the beach. Why didn't I learn to surf when I was young? I was athletic, loved sport, and secretly thought sunbaking tedious; no one ever told me I wasn't allowed to, I just never thought to try. Eventually, I realised why. As American activist Marian Wright Edelman said: 'You can't be what you can't see.'

(except i was never athletic)

i get really bummed out watching old- and new-surf clips and you only see gratuitous shots of girls on the shore in their bikinis. thank god it's too cold up here for bikinis, generally.