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Today we’re in Grand Turk. As part of my teen program, every cruise I offer a shore excursion where the teens get to go on a tour in port with their friends and me - no parents. Gin, who is cruising with me, and I had had plans to go on a tour of the island and hang out on the beach afterwards. But with such a high teen count, of course I had enough teens sign up to run the tour this cruise, so I had to work.
Ginny went off on the bus tour on her own and I met my teens to take them ashore. I had 8 teens today - the largest teen tour I’ve ever run! We didn’t have far to go; our tour was right on the beach at the end of the ship’s pier. But did we ever have fun . . .
Today’s tour was the Grand Turk Flow Rider. It’s a man-made wave machine that you get to body board and surf on. There were 15 people in total including our big group. A team of instructors hopped into the wave to show off the tricks we’d be attempting to
do. Then for the next 2 hours, we all cycled through taking turns on the Flow Rider.
This thing is crazy! The water is extremely fast and can really whip you around. You start out at the top holding a body board, then flop down onto your stomach. From there you’re either immediately tossed off, or else you’re riding the wave. Once you’re able to just stay on the wave, the instructors get you to try the different tricks. You’re the only one on the wave - the instructors are at the bottom showing you onland what to try to do on the water. We attempted to rise to our knees, tried pushing off the board then catching it again, tried doing a full roll onto our backs then back onto the board. We all succeeded at different things and had plenty of failed attempts. Any time you fail, you lose your board and the wave literally whisks you up the incline and tosses you out. It is nuts!
After we all tried body boarding, we then tried surfing. For surfing, you start at the bottom. You stand on the board which is mostly in the water but
partly on the edge with the instructor holding it. You try to figure out how to stand properly and how to hold your balance. Then you’re let go into the wave. For the most part, all of us immediately crashed and were washed away. But a couple people managed to actually surf a bit!
After an attempt at each, we could choose which to do in subsequent turns. At first I was determined to get the surfing down. I mean, I’d actually taken surf lessons when in South Africa and loved it. This should be part of that progression right? Except in surfing when you fall, you fall into water of some depth. Here it’s just a padded surface with rushing water over top of it. And on my second surf attempt, I had a nasty fall that left me feeling a bit stunned after. (And now hours later, my neck is aching!!) So then I stuck to body boarding and attempting the tricks there.
The Flow Rider is right beside Margarittaville and their pool at the edge of the beach. So big crowds gathered to watch, cheer and laugh at our failures. I took so many photos
and videos of the teens - and got some crazy wipe-out shots!
Towards the end of the tour, Ginny appeared, back from her tour and some shopping. So she joined me and the teens when we headed back to the ship. Tomorrow’s a sea day, so lots of work to do. Then one more cruise with Ginny - and hopefully we’ll luck out with the guest luxuries for next cruise too!
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