Surfing Round 3

Jeff goes surfing with friends...or, more accurately, Jeff spends four hours nearly drowning.

It was a bit murky

This most recent surf trip to Pacifica makes my third ever attempt at learning to surf...and if I base the experience off of just one criteria, lets say, "Do Not Die", then it was a resounding success and a wonderful time. If, however, we judge this by my ability to catch a wave and actually stand up on a surfboard, then the result is less impressive.

I have now equipped myself with a full two-piece wetsuit, booties and a cheapo surfboard and the desire to inflict grievous bodily harm upon myself, which means I have everything I need for surfing.

On my first trip I tried a board that was the equivalent of a small beach-landing craft, which made it relatively easy to stand up...On my next trip, I used a 10' longboard, which is basically like surfing on a Buick, and I found it too big for me physically handle (and impossible to carry with my small T-rex arms). So finally, I found a short board that is an inch or two taller than me and is basically a small surfboard made our of boogie board materials. It has the benefit of being surprisingly affordable and more or less indestructible.

My new board

This type of board is known as a fun board, rather than a skill board, which I am clearly not ready for. But fun I can handle. The bigger boards are much easier to control in the water, although nearly impossible for me to carry out of the water, but the fun boards give you more control in the water, although they require larger waves and the ability to remain standing for longer than one full second, neither of which were present that day.

Still not dead

But to give it a fair assessment, I did catch several waves and manage to stand shakily for about a second (this feels like a full minute of wave-riding, mind you) before plunging face-first into the brisk 55-degree water. All-in-all it was a great way to spend the day and I still consider it a major accomplishment...mostly because I didn't perish, although my dignity took quite the beating, but that's nothing new...