#29- My first time surfing!

A few months ago I found out that they offer surfing lessons through the NC Aquarium Outdoor programs for only $25!  I thought this was an awesome deal so I convinced my friend Steph to sign up to go with me when we went to down to my family's timeshare at the beach in August.

Yesterday was D-day.  I had tried not to think about it too much up to this point because I knew I would freak myself out.  I am not a huge fan of being IN the ocean.  I have this huge irrational fear of jellyfish.  I can barely be in the ocean for an extended period of time without freaking out because of this fear. 

Also, this week is Shark Week in case you didn't know.  The night before, Steph left the TV on to fall asleep to and she left it on the Shark Week channel.  So I had fallen asleep to stories and images of huge, fierce Great White Sharks.  Perfect.  Now I had images of getting eaten by a shark floating through my head as well.

So by the morning of I was really freaking out.  Was I going to even be able to get up?  What was this lesson going to be like?  What if I got attacked by a shark or jellyfish?

Oh and we were running late (as usual for me).  Would we even make it on time?

We get there it is 4 kids (with their parents) and us- the old people.  At this point it almost becomes comical to us.  There are 2 young guys giving us the safety talk and then they call us out because we are not wearing rash guards.  Wonderful.  Now I am embarrassed as well as scared.

At this point I really don't want to do this.  Really. do. not. want. to. do. this.

But we suck it up and carry our surfboards down to the beach.

Then they show us how to pop ourselves up.  Basically you lay on the board and using only your arms push yourself up and quickly put your feet firmly on the board underneath you.  Go try this.  Only use your arms.  Do not use your feet to push up at all.  Just lay on the floor and then pop yourself up and get your feet underneath you.  It isn't easy.  Unless you are a kid apparently...the 12 year olds didn't seem to have a huge problem with it.

Then we get out in the water and the 2 guys offer to help push us in to the waves to get started.  One guy comes over to help me and Steph and the other one stays with the kids.

The guy is hot.  With beautiful blue eyes.

Honestly I had more fun laying on the board, flirting with surfer hottie while he waited for the perfect wave to push me in to.  He was so nice and funny.  Trying to freak me out about sharks in the water among other things.  He even dove under my board and tried to grab my feet to make me think it was a shark.  I'm a sucker for pretty eyes. 

Too bad he was only 20.  Yes 20.  Made me feel old as crap and I wished I could just go back to 20 and relive the last 10 years of my life.  Oh well.  He was still nice to look at!

Steph was more fearless than me and managed to get up 5 times in our first 2 hours. 

I however was too chicken to stand all the way up.  I also kept having this weird thing happen where the tip of the board would briefly dip under the water and splash me in the face making it impossible for me to stand up in time.

McHottie would not stop picking on me about how Steph was "winning" and I wasn't!  But it didn't bother me really.  For some reason my competitiveness just didn't kick in.

I did manage to stand up for a brief second on one wave towards the end.  Success!

We talked all day about how we wish we would have taken a pic, but unfortunately we didn't manage to get one because we were too busy trying to catch some waves!

So all in all I think I at least had a better first time surfing experience than this guy (hilarious!):



It was fun.  I think next time we take a beach trip we are going to rent a board for the day to practice our skills.  I'm going to have to do some major chest and arm workouts before then so I can perfect the pop-up maneuver.

It also really made me want to see the movie Soul Surfer because I really want to see how she got back into surfing after that shark attack and how in the world she pops herself up with just one arm!

Have you ever tried surfing?  What was your first time experience like?