Surfing is Hard
We really do. . .
Day 2 of our surfing safari dawned bright and beautiful and we headed down to the beach at Huntington, er, Beach, to find a place to learn how to surf. Found Zach's Surf Shop and had a great lesson from a very cool guy named Chris.
Let me tell you that I've gained a lot more respect for people like Laird Hamilton and other big-wave surfers who make it look incredibly easy. Had expected it to be tough and, big surprise, it was.
To begin, we pulled on our wetsuits, necessary in the 58-degree water, and headed down to the water for our lesson. Began with a little work on the sand, learning how to hop up from your stomach to a standing position. Oh sure, it worked great on land. Sadly, it's a different story once you're on your stomach riding a wave.
It's exhausting, difficult, exhilarating, frustrating, wet, salty, exciting and tranquil, all at the same time. Jen and I were both able to "get up" a couple of times for a short second or two, before eating the Pacific. After the hour of instruction, our teacher left us with good wishes and headed back up, while we took a break.
We rested for a while and then got back at it. About 10 minutes into our second session, I took a major, Greg Brady-style, wipeout that left me shaken and stirred at the same time. I came off the board face first, churned by the wave behind me, and then got slammed by a wave breaking from the side at the same time. Went down once, came back up, gulped air before being slammed down again, and then went down again. At this point, I raised up my hand, hoping Jen had seen me, as I prepared to go down again. Popped up this time instead, not too much worse for the wear, but feeling a little trashed.
Let me tell you that I've gained a lot more respect for people like Laird Hamilton and other big-wave surfers who make it look incredibly easy. Had expected it to be tough and, big surprise, it was.
To begin, we pulled on our wetsuits, necessary in the 58-degree water, and headed down to the water for our lesson. Began with a little work on the sand, learning how to hop up from your stomach to a standing position. Oh sure, it worked great on land. Sadly, it's a different story once you're on your stomach riding a wave.
It's exhausting, difficult, exhilarating, frustrating, wet, salty, exciting and tranquil, all at the same time. Jen and I were both able to "get up" a couple of times for a short second or two, before eating the Pacific. After the hour of instruction, our teacher left us with good wishes and headed back up, while we took a break.
We rested for a while and then got back at it. About 10 minutes into our second session, I took a major, Greg Brady-style, wipeout that left me shaken and stirred at the same time. I came off the board face first, churned by the wave behind me, and then got slammed by a wave breaking from the side at the same time. Went down once, came back up, gulped air before being slammed down again, and then went down again. At this point, I raised up my hand, hoping Jen had seen me, as I prepared to go down again. Popped up this time instead, not too much worse for the wear, but feeling a little trashed.
Despite all that, it was a great experience and I think we're going to hit it again on Friday. We'll most likely try Newport Beach after we got a tip that it might be a little easier wave than what we found at Huntington Beach. All in all, we're sunburned, a little sore, but feeling pretty cool that we've tried something new that we've wanted to do for a long while.
posted by W.S. Wuori at 12:13 AM
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