Grab Your Pom Poms

Those that knew me when know that I’m a recovering cheerleader, ready to fall off the wagon at a moment’s notice watching any sporting event devised by man. I even got into curling when we went to Canada to escape the Y2K Apocalypse that was going to bring the U.S. to its knees. Hey, I wrote some of those programs (for defense contractors) that were hastily being rewritten to avoid accidentally bombing the now-defunct USSR.

But after shooting a video in our own backyard this weekend, I feel I need to go back to rehab. “Hi. My name is Susan. And I’m a cheerleader.”

Seriously, Sunday at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk on the City of Santa Cruz’s main beach, had me cheering for squads—none of whom I knew. Mothers would turn to me with a strange smile like “Who are you and why are you cheering for my daughter?”

Then there was actually being able to lead the cheerleaders in singing the Boardwalk song or scream the Board-Squawk, the audio exclamation point at the end of each Boardwalk commercial. I was in cheerleader heaven. If I could have done a cartwheel, without breaking a hip, I would have done one right then and there.

I know cheerleaders, like mimes (although they are nothing like mimes), drive some people nuts but how can you resist all that boundless energy and all those ear-to-ear smiles? My Spartan past wouldn’t allow it. Yes, I was a Spartan cheerleader at Pacifica High AND San Jose State – how weird is that? I just had to join in. Go, fight, win!

Now put that energy right in the middle of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and it made for a really fun albeit exhausting day (I hadn’t busted so many moves in one day in many a moon). Great fun, non-stop entertainment, and the lines were practically non-existent. And just think of it, when you’re screaming like a girl on the Giant Dipper, you’ll sound just like everybody else.

All you Santa Cruz locals out there, mark your calendars for next year’s cheer competition, September 27th and 28th, 2014. If it’s as beautiful as it was this last weekend at the beach, you’ll find me there. “Here we go Boardwalk, here we go.”