i finally made it to switchfoot-fan mecca, a day known as bro-am. the day started at 7am with the rob machado bro-junior event (seriously, those little kids weren't even scared of the giant waves) and kept going all day with surfing, music, and sunburns.
THE jon foreman catching a wave!
i know nothing about surfing...literally nothing...so the second i saw the switchfoot boys walk on the beach i completely stopped caring about the competition.
first chad walked up and upon spotting his family (they were already on the beach) he took off at a run and scooped up his daughter. she giggled like mad and i think my heart literally melted.
tim was the next switchfoot member to make an appearance. as he walked up the beach with his family chad's son ran over and gave tim's son a hug and there are few things cuter in the world than two little 6-7 year old boys hugging like they're grown-ups...i'm assuming they've seen their dad's greet each other this way and were just copying them but it doesn't change the fact that it was frickin' cute.
finally jon strolled up and walked like 5 feet in front of me and i internally fan girled so hard i'm surprised he didn't feel my stares and hear my internal monologue, "i just think you're so wonderful, and i love your songs, and look at you carrying a surfboard, and where are your wife and daughter?" not wanting to come across as the uber-fan that i am, i stayed at a safe distance all day. which means i didn't get to give him the tank top i had brought for him but it's probably for the best or i would have ended up gushing all over him about how great i think he is.
i just want to be his friend, ya know?
after hours of watching the surf competition (and stalking the band) it was nearing the time for switchfoot to begin. wandering over to the stage area of the beach we (my roommate who went with me) stopped by a trash can to survey the crowd for a place to sit/stand. as we were scouting out a good spot an older gentleman came up and said, "we're packing up to leave, would you ladies like our spot?" we agreed and he said to give them a couple minutes to finish packing up their stuff. three minutes later he motioned us over saying, "hurry and get in here before someone else takes the spot!" as we thanked him and made sure that it was okay that they were giving us their spot (we're minnesotan, it's what we do, okay?) he said, "it's fine, my son's the drummer, we've seen them a couple of times."
WHAT?
after taking a second to recover, i mumbled something like, "really?! we're huge fans" and he said, "me too" and walked off.
so maybe i still don't know anything about surfing and my purse still reeks of sunscreen and i didn't get to give jon the tank that he inspired but i DID get to meet chad's dad.
literally one of my favorite days of my life.
xo
