We’re visiting friends in Maine where there are big waves kicked up by a hurricane out somewhere. Two of these friends—Chris and Randy—know how to surf a bit so we rented boards and wetsuits and went out this morning.
Oh my.
I’ve never worn a wetsuit or tried to surf before.
I’m not sure that I kept it simple to start. I picked out a stand-up paddle board and carbon paddle. These boards are huge. The paddle is longer than the one I made for my local rivers and lakes. I told the friendly lady that I’ve never tried anything like this on waves but she didn’t warn me or anything.
Well, I got good and laundered. I never made it out past the break. I tried for a half hour to do whatever—it was confusing. Then my pals told me to switch the big tanker in for a regular surfboard and I did and went out again. That went a lot better.
An old surfer dude on the beach said, “Dude, it’s way too big out there today for paddling. I love it but you’ll get trapped on the inside.” Fer shur! Now he tells me.
Man, that surfing is fun. I would lay on my belly on the board and zoom down the foamy waves. That was a gas. You go really fast and bank back and forth. It was also easy to get up on my hands and knees. The board seemed stable when it was moving fast. I even tried to get up on my feet and could do so for a couple seconds. But the thing is to get on your feet right away, not in stages as doing more occurs to you, which is what I was doing. It was so intense that I wouldn’t ever think to jump up until after I’d rode a ways on my belly. But then it was too late and stability quickly faded away. Also, ya gotta be pretty nimble to jump up from your belly to your feet in a smooth instant!
The water was pretty cold—60 deg F—so the wetsuits were great to have.
There were lots of people and kids out on the waves. Everyone was friendly. My one pal said the locals were excited because it was the best surfing ever. The waves really were big and coming every 10 seconds it seemed. It was neat seeing the really good surfers way up high on the tops of the solid waves out beyond where I could get. I also noticed that lots of ladies were surfing. Some were really good. And they were very friendly. It was all quite inspiring, in short, provoking me to not want to quit.
My pals are beginners but they’ve done it a few years and were actually getting up and standing on the waves–in the white part, though—they say the solid water is far more intense. But they’re trying to do it.
Waves are enchanting. They just keep coming and you have to either avoid them by ducking under (while managing the leash of your board) or turn around and catch a ride. So I seemed to be very busy. I was constantly either ducking or trying to catch waves. Not much time to rest and lots of energetic action. It was a case of overload for me in several ways. You can’t really study a wave or think about what you’re going to do—a second wave has already tumbled you by then.
Also, one of my shoulders has a torn tendon and one of my feet is sprained—so there was also this weird nagging sense of not wanting to get hurt worse and also of not really being able to move around nicely.
After a couple hours we called it a session and went to the beach and dried off.
Then a new phase set in. I had no idea what to do—I was too tired to stand but couldn’t sit down. It was sunny and hot out but I was chattering my teeth. My mind was frozen. I was sore and beat up everywhere, but actually fine except for some stiffness and lack of motion here and there and bruises. We got home and I took a nap. It was like my first day of snowboarding, after I fell 100 times. Except now I’m old. It’s hours later and I’m still not over it. I’m trying to drink water.
What fun! …There does seem to be something to it. But there’s also this sense of “it keeps coming at you.” Still, I’m sure that if you learn to relax and get a feel for things that it eases up.
