Montanita - Day 2

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. Okay I'm being dramatic but lets just say my first crack at surfing was amazing.

My teacher is a ridiculously fit guy and i can see why. All my upper body muscles are killing me right now. We started with lots of stretches on the beach, then some practicing in the sand going from a pushup and popping up with *arm strength only* into a sideways standing position. Add a tipsy board and the ocean and you can imagine its not easy. Plus your feet need to wind up in the right spots or it all goes sideways fast. Sometimes literally.

Shockingly i got up on my very first try (and bailed hard seconds later). My teacher was impressed. On my 4th try i rode the wave all the way in. Once my teacher stopped holding the board for me before the wave arrived and not giving me instructions on when to paddle and when to pop up, it got a lot harder. Reading the waves is an acquired skill in itself. And timing is huge. So is stamina. A number of times my pop ups were a bit lazy and didn't work out so great.

Eventually he left me to take what he taught me and to fend for myself. Sometimes i would be too far back on the board and the front would pop out of the water and I'd fall backward into the ocean. Other times i would be too on top of the wave and the front tip would dive as i went down the wave and it would go under the water like a submarine and I'd go barrelling forward over the board.

And of course every now and then i would do everything just right and ride it until the end. I imagine my smile was ear to ear in those moments. Spent a few hours afterwards over a few beers thinking about every attempt and what i did wrong, what i did right and what the result was. Like golf, you need to be doing 20 different things correctly at once. I can't wait to try again. Is it tomorrow yet?Read more