Riding The Waves

In my wetsuit at the end of our lesson!
We didn't get any pictures while were out on the water...
but that's probably a good thing.

After class this morning and a quick lunch, Ryan and I jumped on a bus down to Maroubra Beach.  After a little time reading in the sand under the afternoon sun, we pulled on our wetsuits, grabbed our boards and followed our instructor down to the waves.  We started at the very end of the beach away from all the real surfers and learned about the rip tides, currents and some other safety things before learning how to paddle, balance and then finally stand up.

I knew that I was going to be pretty bad at this but honestly, for me, learning how to surf was really just learning how to fall off of a surf board in various (often acrobatic!) ways.  When you first start, you have to find the part of the water that the lifeguards have marked as a rip so it can bring you "out the back."  Here you lay or sit (sitting makes you look really cool, but it's actually really hard to do) while huge swells roll under and sometimes over you and in my case, scare the crap out of you.  I've been going to beaches all my life, but I've never gotten over my irrational fear of really big waves. Also, seeing rocks on the bottom through the crystal clear water made me think I was seeing sharks...enough said.

Our instructor, who has been surfing for 12 years was really great. He told us right from the beginning that everyone picks it up at a different pace and it was really obvious that he was used to people having no idea what they were doing.  With his stereotypical chill and patient attitude, he ended up being a really calming presence for me.  He was out in the water with us the whole time and somehow always managed to bring us to the right spot, tell us when to start paddling for the waves and sometimes even push the back of our boards for a bit of extra speed, all without ever tipping himself over.

The process of standing up is done in a few steps; the first two are basically like doing yoga (upward then downward dog) then the rest are the placing of your feet, all while looking forward, balancing the board and trying not to hit the other surfers around you.

Myth: Surfing is easy.
Fact: I'm a terrible surfer.

However, I did stand up on a few waves! But each time pretty soon after I stood up, I got so excited to finally be standing, that I lost my balance and fell.  I didn't realize how much strength is required for surfing; it always looks so effortless, but between the waves and the paddling and the mid-ocean floating yoga...I was exhausted.

At least now I can check one more thing off my bucket list!