Hanging Ten

Thanks to Rachel, Andres, Hartmut and Jennifer for making total shredders out of us. Holy mackeral, did we have fun! We had a 1-1/2 hour lesson during which we learned how to paddle and get up on the board and ride the wave into shore. It was amazing, actually, how quickly they were able to get us up on the surfboard and during the lesson, we got quite a few runs in. After the lesson, we rented the boards for another 1-1/2 hours and tried catching a few waves on our own and that was infinitely more challenging. For a start, you have to figure out what wave is even worth going for, and then you have to time the paddling just right and keep the board straight and hop on in exactly the right position before you can even think about standing up. Surprisingly, we were both able to get up a few times and make some pretty good rides into shore so we considered it a big success.
We’re paying the price today. As it happens, football doesn’t require a lot of upper body fitness the way surfing does and my arms are on fire today. Nevertheless, we’re hoping to rent a couple boards again tomorrow and have another go at it.
Neither of us wanted to get out of the water long enough to take action shots so all you get is this picture of us posing with our boards.