My surf instructor was a wirey man in his 50's. He had super tan skin and a grey beard. He said things like "epic", "I love it" and "keep your cup full" all the time. In some ways he was very much the stereptype of a surf instructor. I really enjoyed him. He was a great teacher.
We started off learning some surfing etiquette like take turns on waves, be careful of reef life, don't swim up the impact zone, watch out for other people catching the same wave you are catching, the person at the peak of the wave has right of way etc. For thenmostart it seemed like common courtsey to me but I'm sure I am missing finer points. After our ettiquete talk we practiced moving from laying on the board to standing in one quick fluid motion. Then we got in the water. We spent maybe 20 minutes pf the lesson on land. I was pretty stocked because I thought I would spend way more time practicing jumping up and other stuff on land.
He started me out on a baby wave. He told me when to paddle and gave me a little shove then started yelling stand up and all of a sudden I was up. It was super fun!!!!! I paddled back out and he told me that he rarely has people come back out with such big grins on their faces. He thought one baby wave was enough so we moved to slightly bigger but still pretty small waves. The good surfing waves seemed to be spaced with a bunch 8f crummy waves then three or four good waves in a row. I would catch a wave then get hammered by three or four as I tried to turnnmy board and get to the channel where the waves weren't breaking. My instructor said it is called paying tax. I really like the expression.
I was so lucky to go out when I did. The waves were nice for a beginner and there weren't many other people around. There were a few locals, two other personal surf lessons, a really nice Belgian lady and us. It made it easy to get waves without worrying about other people getting in the way or steering into you. My instructor knew the Belgian lady. Apparently she has been out nearly every day with anfented board trying to figurenit out. She was realy nice. I was impressed by her stick-to-it-ness. My instructor would help her when I was paddling back out.
I had a nu ber of suoer awesome rides and a few super awesome wipe outs. My favorite ride was my second to last ride. It was the only one I didn't need a little push on. I finally paddled fast enough to get up on the wave by myself. Standing up felt seemless. All of the things I had been told kind of came together for an awesome ride. We had planned for it to be my last one but after such a great one we decided for one more. My arms were absolutly wasted going out for thenlast wave but it was totally worth it. After a good sized one I rode baby waves the rest of the way in.
I had two pretty good wipe outs. The first was on the first of the bigger waves. I stood up and knew my feet were in the wrong place so tried to do a little hop to correct it like I was told. Unfortunatly I hopped one foot off the board and came down with ont leg in the water and the other on my board. Needless to say I wasn't able to save it. The second bit wipe out was when I set up for a pretty big wave (a bomber according to my instructor). With a little help I was able to get on it and stand up but I was way way to far back on my board and slide off the back of it. The board went flying up in the air and a big wave crashed on my head. I was quite ammused by the whole event.
After the lesson I got to try an apple bananna. It was shockingly tastey,
I am so grateful that I was able to take a surf lesson. I really appreciate Rob making it work with our schedule, pushing me into it, finding a good insturctor and helping pay. Rob made the whole thing possible. Thank you Rob!
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| This is me and my surfing instructor paddling out. Special thanks to Rob Sharp for getting a photo for me. |
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