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Published: April 25th 2006
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Woohoo!!! I can surf - ish!
Had my first ever surfing lesson yesterday... and I'm asking myself why I didn't do it 5 months ago!?
Met up at the surf shop at 9.45am... slightly nervous about the prospect of jumping on a surf board for the first time and hitting the waves (and making a complete idiot of myself!), but their moto is that you are guaranteed to stand up in your first lesson and if you don't then you get the lesson for free... well, at least I wouldn't be out of pocket I guess! I donned a (still soggy) wetsuit and rash vest (?!) and jumped into the bus that took us and the surf boards down to the beach.
Unloaded the surf boards and had to carry them in pairs down to the beach. These weren’t your ‘cool’, good looking type of surf boards that I would have been happy to pose on all day… no no no, these were HUGE pink and blue slabs of foam which I struggled to even get my arm around in order to carry! I became slightly more nervous at the thought of me being able to surf on
Surfer arms!
Yup... think I look like a pro... or a prat?! something so huge… and heavy!
So, I was nervous enough to begin with but this was made even worse when they started stretching… eeek… I haven’t so much as flexed my little finger in months, let alone subjected my body to a rigorous work out that these guys were talking about! I started to panic a little bit more at this stage… doing my best to stretch my limbs and link my hands behind my back (ummm, this proved v. difficult... maybe I should take up some regular exercise?!)
Then we played about at jumping up on the board whilst still on the safety of the beach. Not jumping up and down on the board but working out how to stand up and balance! I first had to work out if I was going to land with my left foot at the front (Regular) or my right (goofy)… well, that kinda made the decision for me, and I decided from there on in that I was not going to be know in surfing circles as ‘goofy’ so I had to make a conscious effort to land with my right foot at the back and left at the front.
Surfer arms?
Maybe I haven't mastered the surfer pose yet? Once I had mastered where the middle of the board was in order to plant my front foot - not an easy task on such a Huge board, we're talking stretching a good couple of feet in order to get myself centered... took me back to some of my Yoga stances! - and then positioned my arms in the typical surfer dude pose - this apparantly helps you balance... I would argue that it's just a way to make you look more like a 'surfer' ... 'cos thats what they do! - and then holding my weight forward onto my front foot, and bending my knees which in turn made me stick my bum out,.... and then looking in the right direction... I think I was set to go!
We all splashed out into the water dragging our huge lumps of foam behind us and waited in the surf for the instructor to push us onto a wave. The current was horrendously strong and it was constantly pushing us down the beach and it made it really difficult to stand still and wait in line whilst also attempting to control the huge surf board! Well... even before I
Concentrate!
I should really be thinking about planting that front foot... but I just couldn't help but giggle at the fact that I was up on the board... surfin! had attempted to get up onto the board I had swallowed a litre and a half of salt water... up my nose, in my mouth, my ears, eyes... but it has sorted out my cold I think!
I couldn't see a thing when the instructor called me over to get pushed onto my first wave because I had salt water in my eyes... but I bravely plodded thru the water and jumped aboard my floating machine... the anticipation whilst waiting for the right wave to come was making me more and more nervous and I suddenly couldn't remember a THING of what I was supposed to do when he eventually shouted "UP UP UP"!
Well, lets just say... I was born to surf! Now,... I don't like to blow my own trumpet or anything here
,... but I thought I was going to be hopeless at this,... but it turns out that I could stand up on the first go (which meant that I didn't get a free lesson! doh!) and also on every subsequent go, of which I lost count, but it was AWESOME ... Dude!
The first time I jumped up, I didn't have a Argh... think I'm going to fall off!?!
What you can't see in the photo is the little kid i'm about to collide with! clue what to do with my feet, or my arms, or where to look, but it must have all been right because there were times when I was surfing along and actually had chance to think "Hey,... I'm surfing! Awesome ... dude!" before then falling off because I wasn't concentrating! But it was only into about 3 inches of water... which seriously hurts your bum if you don't land the right way!
Suddenly, a guy from the surf team appeared guy brandishing a camera... eeeek! Not being particularly photo-genic to begin with, I thought that I would look even worse having been battered by a couple of waves and with salt water in my eyes and concentrating on what I was doing... but I just had to get the CD with the photos on... because as I'm sure you will agree, they are quite hilarious!!!
Well,... after a couple of hours in the water I was knackered, but totally stoked and hooked by the surfing thing! So much so that I'm booked in for a second lesson tomorrow,... possibly some more photos to follow!
Clare x
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Kate
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Wet and Wild!
Well I can't say I'm surprised - nothing you do surprises me anymore ! You're looking great and really @ home in the waves -so surfer girl next stop NZ and visit from baby bro , have a great time and keep on travelling K@G