I was feeling better this morning. I still hadn’t eaten anything but crackers and bananas for the last 3 days, but I was feeling better. Because it was our day off a group had planned to go surfing on the coast. And I just couldn’t pass up an adventure so I decided to join the group. For $10 we were able to get a wet suit, a lesson, and a board for two hours. I have wanted to try surfing ever since I listened to the Beach Boys in my Jams with my brother. But, a couple years ago I chickened out when I watched my brothers get churned by the ocean (disclaimer: my brothers are excellent surfers, but on the rare occasions when they fell, it looked painful). Turns out we were blessed by an excellent teacher, which I do believe was an act of God because I was praying hard as I shook with fear and jumped into the crashing waves.
Less than an hour later I was dragging myself and my board out of the water. I expected surfing to take a lot of skill, but I did not expect it to be so difficult physically. Three times I was successful in getting up on board to ride the waves all the way in. Three other times I was thrown from the board and tumbled with the wave until I gulped a stomach full of salt water and became disoriented underwater. After the first tumble I was ready to go in, but my teacher encouraged me to keep trying and I’m really glad I did. After riding my third wave I could barely lift my arms, so I knew it was time to head in. I was exhausted, but exhilarated. To me this is what a day off should look like it was a great way to relax and rejuvenate.
By the way all of our day-off activities are funded from our own pockets.
I may look cool here, but I was really nervous.
The waves seemed a lot bigger to me when I was in the water.
