Fond memories

Awarded the Barnacled Hourglass of Oceanic Contemplation, given once every blue moon to those who stare into the waves not to conquer them—but to remember what they once whispered.

Here we behold a myth in wetsuit form: the fabled Sea-Thinker of Point Saint-Malo, an elder of the surf covens known to meditate precisely when the sun kisses the waterline. In Brittany’s oral chronicles, this figure is said to divine maritime futures through the rhythmic folding of waves and the chorus of foam-sprites. One tale from Plouha speaks of an entire fishing fleet saved from storm due to her silent foreboding alone.

Back in 1894, surf-scryers of San Sebastián sat like this for days—wrapped in rubber and riddles—until the tide revealed their true calling. Often mistaken for statues, they were occasionally offered sandwiches by tourists. History, like the tide, returns.

—Dr. Étienne Balthazar Crowley, Sea-Chronicler Emeritus, Order of the Whispered Gulls