#413 Surfing

     Stef and I are currently a week into a ten day vacation in beautiful Sayulita, Mexico. The food is unbelievable, the weather is gorgeous, and the tequila flows freely, which all makes for a much needed brake from the school, work, and wisdom teeth that preoccupied most of my time recently. Sayulita is a beach bungalow known for it's waves and I had my heart set on trying it months ago.

Not a farmer's tan, it's a white "rash-guard"

      I did attempt to stand on a surfboard once about six years ago in Oceanside, California, but wouldn't go so far as to say I got anywhere near surfing. I demonstrated my dog paddle, got swallowed whole by a single wave, and spent the rest of the afternoon nursing my chest that had gotten torn up by the sand on the surfboard.

     Today, I didn't want my efforts to be wasted away in vain. We got a hook-up from our friend Chris (a.k.a. Jessica) and her husband Rob who live here for some surf lessons from Rob's nephew (who is also named Rob). I scurried into my rash guard and tried my absolute best to pay attention to everything Rob was saying to me while we were still on the beach. I have this tendency to zone out at the exact moment when someone is giving me actual useful information. A lot like how I indulged in daydreaming for the entirety of the safety protocol spiel when I went indoor-skydiving and proceeded to flail around the turbine for my turn. I did not want surfing to end up like that.

     After trying to absorb everything Rob said to me, it was time to hit the waves, and to my surprise, I was holding my own out there! In fact, the first wave I tried I ended up riding back to the shore. Granted, the waves were lil babies, and Rob did give me a much needed push. But as I got the hang of it, we wondered out further and Rob pointed me to some bigger breaks. After a few awkward attempts I was catching my own waves and having an absolute ball.

     Update- I wandered back down to the beach today to see if my luck would hold up for one more session on the waves. If it weren't for the tequila breakfast, I would've been discouraged by giant waves pounding the shoreline as I arrived without Rob the instructor. I wish I had photos of todays waves, they were so massive that I couldn't even paddle out past them, I kept getting swallowed up whole by the ocean and spat out like a piece of stale chewing gum. The first ten tries were laughable. Not only could I not stand up on the board, but I couldn't even begin the process of standing up. It was like as soon as a massive wave would come by I would forget everything that I had learned the day before and swallow several gulps of ocean water instead.
     But, I did not go home defeated. I paid for an hour rental and goddamnit was I gonna get my money's worth. So I swallowed my embarrassment (along with some more saltwater) and tried again...and again...and agin. In my hour long stint in the water, I was able to ride four of them. I was visibly pumped after each victorious attempt, and it has so far been my highlight of the entire trip. I successfully surfed some real waves (not like the baby one in the photo above) by myself!

Siesta on la playa