Tamarindo Beach

So it turns out that surfing isn't as tough as I always thought it was. After using the morning to sleep in, get breakfast, write in my journal, and e-mail home, I grabbed a board and headed out to the ocean. I got out to the coast at about one o'clock and ran into the water with my board, excited to try my luck at surfing again. The first few times I tried to catch a wave I was about as successful as yesterday, but after a few sets I started to catch on. It helped a lot that I was in shallower waters. Yesterday I thought I had to be really far out into the ocean and wait for the perfect wave to come and catch it at just the right time. Today I went for just about any wave that came my way. Some waves had already broken before I even hopped on my board and others I had no chance of catching but tried anyway. It also helped that the surf was a lot better today. Wave after wave after wave came and all I had to do was keep trying to catch them.

Originally I considered paying for a class on surfing, but I ended up getting more than enough tips just by listening in on surf instructors who were teaching other people (I listened from a distance, of course). The best tip I got the whole day was to remember to keep my head up. In the past my main problem with surfing was that I could never really catch a wave in the first place. I'd always paddle with a wave but then the tip of my board would dip underwater. The whole thing would get pulled under and I'd always get smacked around underwater until the wave finally passed. After I heard that tip to keep my head up I caught almost every wave for the rest of the day. It felt so good to paddle along with a wave, feel my board start to catch, and then actually be riding the thing because I had kept my weight off the front of the board and avoided going under. Another useful tip I got was to push my arms up, pull my knees under my chest, and stand up all in one motion. Just those two tips was enough to get to the point where I had caught the wave and was standing up. All I had to do after that was learn how to balance.

Every so often I'll meet someone on a ski lift who tells me that what you learn snowboarding really helps out when you learn to surf. I never used to believe those people because I snowboarded a lot but still was still such a crappy surfer. Now I realize those guys knew what they were talking about. My problem was that I couldn't catch a wave in the first place so I never got to the point where my snowboarding experience could help out. Once I figured out how to catch a wave and stand up today, the rest came pretty naturally. For the first couple of hours after I figured out how to stand up I wiped out just about every time because I didn't know where to put my feet on the board to balance correctly. Once it clicked though it became automatic, just like learning how to ride a bike. By the end of the day I was catching every wave, popping up to my feet, and riding almost every one to the shore.

There's something captivating about surfing. It's one of those things where after every wave you want to run right back out there again to see if you can do it better the next time. For me there is a moment each time I catch a wave where everything clicks and it just feels so good to know I've caught the thing. I love feeling the board catch behind me, watching out of the corner of my eye as the tip of the board skims against the surface of the water, pushing up with my arms, and feeling myself stand up on another wave. The whole thing is so captivating but it's also so relaxing. Between sets I love laying on the board, feeling the sun and water on my body, and staring out into the ocean.

Even though I was so exhausted I still wanted to ride every last wave I could before I called it a day and my trip was over. Many surfers came and left during the time I was out there and when I finally grabbed my board and headed in there were only two or three people left in the water. As I walked along the beach back to my hotel I stared at the horizon, where the sun had gone down just minutes before. I reflected on how amazing the past three weeks has been, looked forward to future trips, and wondered if I'll be able to surf in Zanzibar during my visit to Africa this summer.