One of my life dreams is to live on a beach and surf. I would own a little taco hut, tikki bar thing and in the afternoons I bar tend. The problem is, or was, that I had never surfed.
After I closed on my new apartment this spring I went to inspect it. Inside the previous owner had left his old, perfectly awesome surfboard! It’s a Gordon & Smith Fish, which I think is a respectable surf board. This seemed to me like a surf omen. I must surf. I must surf soon.
Enter Delvecs. He is an old friend of mine who happens to love surfing. We kind of put all the pieces together and planned some weekend trips to surf! Awesome!
We drove out to Rockaway Beach “New York City’s only break.” There, we met Delvec’s pal Jay (who actually happens to work with my brother) and got suited up in our wetsuits. What did I wear? You’re g’damnd right I wore my TYR Cat 5 triathlon wetsuit! Turns out it was perfect for the water temps.
Out at the beach we had a little Surf 101. Jay is a very good surfer from California so between him and Delvecs I was covered.
The breaks were pretty crowded so we hung to the right by a jetty to start. I jumped in the water and started paddling, worried I wouldn’t get past the breakers, but I did. I guess all those Triathlons have helped my swimmy arms.
We floated on our boards now, waiting for the good stuff. Songs like ‘Catch a Wave and you’re sitting on top of the World’ and ‘Surf Wax America’ rattling around in my head.
Then, Delvecs instructed me to catch the next one and to start paddling. I did this and I did it without looking back, I just paddled.
Out of nowhere this unseen force swept me up and sped me along at an increasing speed! Without thinking, as I barreled down the wave, I just ‘popped’ up as they had instructed me. I was surfing! I held the line until the wave faded out. I was so happy!
Back out with the guys they they congratulated me. I was thrilled and so we kept at it.
We surfed from 8AM to 11:30AM. I caught a few more waves and really started to get a good feel for it.
Now, I would be a poor sport if I left out a few of the wipeouts I took and just let you to believe I was some Cinderella Story surfer. I took some serious nose dives from the top of the waves! Here’s the thing, if you are situated too far back on the board everything goes wrong. Lets replay my description of catching a wave, but change my body position.
Out of nowhere this unseen force swept me up and sped me along at an increasing speed! Without thinking, as I barreled down the wave,my nose went forward and slammed into the water tossing me forward the wave crashing on top of me.
So, that happened a few times.
All in all I am so excited to have learned how to surf! Now I just need to spend some quality time out there honing my technique a bit. Big thanks to Delvecs and Jay, my awesome surf instructors!
Surfs up bitches.