Stingrays - The Little Fuckers

Had a productive day overall.

I went to an indoor rowing clinic in southern california in the early am. An olympic rower reviewed my technique -- good enough for government work. He said I should buy rollers because the inertia coming forward may be messing with my technique. But rollers for the concept2 are $220 (or so I'm told) so I'm not so interested in them.

Afterward I headed over to the ocean to get some surf in. I actually caught a few waves (and noticed the difference of being 25 pounds lighter). I was on the inside just working the foam -- which is perfect for me. As I was walking out. . . BAM!!

I stepped with my left foot -- and felt something sharp prick my left foot in the arch between the heel and the ball of my foot. Immediate thought: This isn't good. I figured I either had tweaked something, or I'd be dead in 3 minutes from some super charged beast of the ocean.

I walked about a mile up the beach to my truck. Put my surfboard away and rinsed off. I walked into a surf shop and said -- I think I was stung by something in the water -- any idea whether I need to seek first aid? The guy behind the counter was quite helpful and said -- probably a jelly fish let me call the lifeguards for you. The lifeguards were there minutes later and performed spectacularly.

Evidently, they quickly determined not a jellyfish, rather a stingary that zapped me. The shard goes into the body (through my surfing booty) and then it dumps its poison into the body (presumably similar to a snake). Since it was 25 minutes after the incident, the lifeguard concluded I was allergic otherwise "I would be dead" or at least having extreme trouble breathing.

I went over to the main lifeguard station and they said -- solution to this problem is simple: The venom injected in you is killed off by high temperatures; therefore, were going to put your foot in the hottest water you can stand for 20-40 mins. Sure enough, it mostly helped (for about 20 mins).

I don't recommend it.

k