surf's up

there are many things you might want to hear when you arrive at your first surf lesson. "you look like you're going to be a natural" or "has anyone ever told you that you are breathtaking in this light?" would be nice. right?

"it's going to be really tough going out there today. just so you know."

that's what i got. followed immediately by being asked to sign a waiver wherein i waived all basic legal, human, and civil rights. comforting, to say the least. but i was there and i was surfing come hell or high water. and believe me when i say that there certainly was high water.

australia is a nation that surfs. children in canada are strapped on to cheese-cutters and dragged onto ice rinks, cushions strapped to bums, chairs gripped desperately in front of them. it's part of the national identity. here the midwife cuts the cord, announces the sex of the baby and then the wee thing is plopped on a surfboard and sent out into the briny drink. i'm convinced that most australians have learned how to surf before they know how to print their own name and certainly before they can understand that having one ten dollar bill is actually more than having six pennies. in short, they surf. all of them. the country is ideally located for it and the climate means that you can grab your board and hang ten for twelve months a year. so there's no reason why they shouldn't surf. and so they do. and so, i decided, would i.

i don't know why i waited so long to force my limbs into a damp wetsuit and try my luck at riding the waves. i think mainly i wanted someone i knew really well to do it with, but chris and i never got around to it and i didn't want to wait until my dad showed up. so i decided to bravely soldier forth alone.

i woke up two tuesdays ago to a stormy sky and a pissing drizzle. i didn't remember the weather being quite like this for paul walker and jessica alba's blue bikini in 'into the blue.' but what do i know?- i never saw the movie. i had the day off and had booked a lesson and i promised myself that i wouldn't back down. "tomorrow i could lose my legs in a horrible wiffle-ball accident and then i would really regret not going surfing today," i thought, and who wants to regret anything? so i scurried out into the rain to catch the bus to manly beach. i'm not kidding- it poured rain for the entire bus ride to the beach. cats and dogs rain. end of a romantic comedy rain. blame it on the rain rain.

but then- somehow, for some reason- i stepped off the bus at the manly corso and the skies began to clear. blue showed up on the horizon and the world looked impossibly more cheerful. and i was feeling quite confident. and then i saw the ocean.

a southern front had blown in the day before and brought with it a relentless and unforgiving surf that made me stop in my tracks. these waves were big. no messing around here. and then i arrived at the surf school to be greeted by shawn, the instructor, with his confidence-inspiring welcome. to be fair, he was only being honest and wanted us to have a realistic idea of what we were in for. we would have to paddle hard to get out, he told me and the one other dedicated (read: stupid) guy in the lesson, and we would be facing bigger waves than normal. but we were going.

surfing lessons are a funny thing because there really can't be too much of a beginner's level. there is no such thing as a bunny ocean. no rope tow to get you out there. no training wheels, no safety net. no cheese-cutters. you practice on the beach and get the pleasure of looking quite ridiculous for those around you, paddling through sand and repeatedly trying to drop your hips and slide your feet up just so. but beach practice can only teach you so much. like fish tanks and waterslides, surfing is something you just need h2o to do right. and so out into the sea we went, turning our faces against the onslaught of the pounding rollers, pressing our bodies up and our weight down to keep our boards on their course out to- hopefully- catch our very first wave.

imagine my great excitement when i popped up onto my board, found my footing, and coasted all the way into the shore on my very first wave. now i'm not bragging- well wait, i think i might be bragging. but deal with it. award me this moment of self-satisfaction. i got up. i got up on a difficult day on my very first try. i was happy- goofy grin happy, sally field's 'places in the heart' oscar speech happy. and more than happy- i was hooked.

i spent the rest of the lesson figuring out how to finesse the waves a bit more, how to steer with my eyes, my arms, and my feet all at the same time, how to ride the rip out to make the paddling easier. i realized why all the surfers have unbelievably ripped bodies- because it is genuinely exhausting work and requires a lot of core strength to keep your balance and a fair bit of upper body work as well. i used to scoff when cameron diaz would chalk her lean physique up to surfing. yeah right, i would think, i bet you're chew-and-spitting your food. but no, surfing will work wonders. cameron wasn't lying.

i have been back since and hope to go again before i head to brisbane to meet my dad on wednesday. and when we get to brisbane, do you know what the first thing i want to do is? i'll give you one guess.

(not me- yet)