There was always sound on the beach. Layers of it, overlapping on each other like folds in fine cloth. There was the most noticeable, stack on top of the rest and strewn messily about - families, the sounds of chaotic life on the sands and in the waves. It was the most common, the most jarring to hear.
Then there was the sound, the feel of people watching. Judging. It was the sound on contestants and friends, of people who cheered and people who jeered. If one did not focus on the first layer, then surely they would find themselves nestled in this one. Like that comfortable spot you enjoy when you’re familiar with your surroundings, used to being there often. Paid to be there and uncaring of how they’d never been to the area, because all they needed to know was the ocean.
The last type was the one that one couldn’t feel unless they were out on the waves, confined to nothing but their own minds and the sea. It was that sort of noise, the sound of the spray and the rolling blue, that Kai enjoyed the most. Out atop a wave, looking to the beach as he rode in amidst the other competitors around him.
Kai was completely soaked by the time he made it back to the beach, flashes from cameras popping in his peripherals but he didn’t blink. It was normal for people to catch photos for some article or another at these sorts of events, and he’d learned long ago to really only interact if one of them tried to talk to him. So he grabbed his board, threw a friendly smile at the closest, youngest one, and plopped down maybe five feet away.