L O V E
SURF’S UP!
THEY MEET Jake and Amanda meet for the first time at Wave House. They get acquainted for a few minutes before suiting up to ride the eternally perfect wave. Despite being an avid snowboarder and wakeboarder, Jake admits that he’s not much of a surfer. Amanda laughs when Julie, a friendly Wave House manager, points out that her wetsuit is on backwards. Wipe Out! Jake manages to stand on his own two feet during his first attempt at riding the wave, and then mixes in some head-over-heels wipeouts just for good measure. Amanda is more unsteady, but she has a blast and never stops smiling. After about an hour of almost surfing, the two dry off and change back into their civilian clothes for a romantic bayside evening at the Dana on Mission Bay’s relaxing Firefly restaurant.
As the sun fades, seagulls squawk in concert with the delicate sounds of the rippling bay. Sitting on Firefly’s heated patio, Amanda and Jake talk, smile and laugh over drinks. Things seem to be going well. Before dinner is served, PacificSD splits the couple for mid-date debriefings.
He says... I’m having a good time. Riding the wave was harder than I thought it was going to be. I admire Amanda for trying; she’s a cool, good-looking girl. She seems adventurous, like she’s down for anything. I dig that about her. I don’t like girls who just stand back and watch. Most of the conversation so far has been about how awkward this is. I haven’t really figured her out yet – still wondering if there’s a connection there. One weird thing is that she keeps looking at my chest or at my neck or something, instead of my eyes. She’s absolutely playing her cards close to the vest. I think she feels more awkward than I do, and I feel the pressure to make this work. She seems to be waiting to be pushed, and I’ll absolutely take that role. We’ll get some drinks, you know, and that’ll help us loosen up a bit. Plus, she’s only got one way out of here, and I got the keys to it. My friends have been texting me all night, asking what she’s like. I’m looking forward to the rest of the night.
She says... I was scared sh#!less when I first stepped into the water, but I had fun on the wave. By the way, I’m glad that I wore a wetsuit over my bikini, because there could have been articles of clothing everywhere. It would have been pretty awkward to be naked in front of Jake and everyone else at Wave House. Waves are definitely scarier than guys. Jake’s a really, really, really nice guy, which is both a draw and a repellent. He’s been such a gentleman; he pulls out the chair and he leads me places. I’m totally not used to that. Normally, I’ve dated not very nice, conceited guys. When I look for guys, I look for them to take the lead, to be really powerful. On a scale from 1 to 10, level of attraction is a 6 or 7. There wasn’t that instant when I was like, “Wow, he’s hot!” but he’s definitely good-looking. Once we start talking more at dinner, if he blows me away with conversation, and if he’s really funny, that would totally do it for me. I like clever, witty, intelligent guys. I want to see him show some feeling and emotion. [ Continued on page 48 ]
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MAY 2008
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