After years of practice it took only a second to realize his mistake. He shift his weight just a bit to far off the center of the board again. There was no mistaking it, he was going under whether he tried to stop it or not. He only had a second to fix it, or two if he was lucky. Dane tried to adjust just a little back toward the center of the board. Too much and he would throw his balance off the other direction. It was difficult to judge how far to move when you are ducked down low inside the swell of a wave. He tried to concentrate on enjoying the moment of riding inside a great wave like this, while still adjusting. For a moment it was perfect, then he felt the board fish-tail as he overshot his adjustment. The world flipped upside down and took a quick breath before going under the wave. The strength of the wave was much greater than his, and it rolled him under the water for a few seconds as the full wave passed him. He couldn't tell which direction to swim for a moment, but he quickly noticed the feel of the line attached to his ankle pulling telling him where his board was floating on the surface. Coming to the surface, he shook the water from his face and grabbed his board for support. Damn, he thought, I nearly had that one perfect. Shaking his head again, he climbed onto his board and started to paddle in. He could see his younger brother on shore waving him in; probably to tell him he was late for dinner again. As he reached shore, he stood and held his board under his arm. He brother walked over with the all too familiar look of, you're in trouble, but nice wave. “That was a great wave you had. You know , until you were eating coral.” Ethan tried to hide a smile, which always turned into a half grin after a second or so. “Speaking of coral, I hope you had some, because moms not too happy with you missing dinner, again.” “Yeah, I figured that was why you were here. I just lost track of time again.” Dane said as they walked up the beach towards the bike racks. “Did ya save me any, or am I on my own tonight?” “Nah, I saved you some. It is in the fridge. But that won't save you from mom.” He smiled as he joked, while Dane removed the lock from his bike. They rode home down the empty street. It only took about two minutes to get from their home to the beach on their bikes, and sure enough as soon as they got home, their mother was waiting on the front porch for them. Ethan when straight inside, while Dane put the bikes in their garage. As he came up to the porch, he opened his mouth to talk but his mother was faster. “You know that family dinners are for families to get together, and enjoy a meal together right?” She sounded exhausted of having this conversation again. “I know, and I'm sorry. I just lose track of time when I'm out there.” He replied, feeling more guilty from how she said it, than for actually missing the dinner. “Well lucky for you, your younger brother set some aside for you again.” She looked at him for a moment before getting up to go inside. He hated feeling guilty but he enjoyed the beach so much, it was difficult to leave until he really had to. He walked inside and put his board on the back porch, before heating his dinner and heading to his room. For a few hours he surfed the web, checking to see what his friends were doing, watching some videos and playing around with some new board designs