Surfing USA!

  So about a month ago, I had my first and hopefully not my last surfing lesson. My sweet friend Jessica use to be a surf instructor in Hawaii and she was willing to try and teach me here in San Diego. 

  I usually take to new sports really well, I am not an instant pro but I can at least get the basics down pretty quickly. Surfing on the other hand was a lot harder than it looks. I had a lot of factors keeping me from feeling very confident. First my biggest fear is to drown. Second I hate to be cold. Third I am kind of afraid to go very far out in the ocean. The closer I drove to the beach the more anxiety I felt.  

  The lesson began with practicing position, paddling and foot placement in the sand. Ok that was easy. Next we moved to the water, ummm yeah my foot hit the water and immediately I wanted to turn around and say forget it. That water was freezing!!!! I didn't quit and we paddled out. My first try was actually a success!!! Jess was watching the waves, turned me around, pushed me off, told me to paddle, then yelled at me to STAND UP!!!! Guess what I was SURFING!!! It wasn't a huge wave, more like a little baby one but I did it!!! Turns out it was beginners luck. I wiped out every time after that. I swallowed so much salt water that eventually my dinner became fish food. I took a break after that to recompose myself. It was getting dark and almost time to pack up and go so I decided to try one more time. Couldn't have my last attempt be awful. My last ride was awesome!!! I was so confident and so excited....until I didn't realize how close to the shore I was and the board bottomed out on the sand and my face ate the ground. It hurt like crazy!!! I was kind of out of it  so I ended up being tossed around the a few incoming waves. I looked like a beached whale being rolled in by the tide. The pictures are worth way more than the words I wrote. I hope you get a good laugh even if its at my expense.

   To my kids: Just try. It may be scary, it may be hard, it may take a few tries, but don't give up.