Surfing

Going into 2023, I had 3 surf lessons under my belt. I surfed for the first time in June, 2021, in Rincon, Puerto Rico. I surfed again in July, 2022 in Montauk. I celebrated Christmas Eve, 2022 with a surf lesson on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. I sound like a surfer girl who goes around the globe, but these were the only 3 times I surfed at all! With 6 hours of surf experiences, I was no Kate Bosworth in Blue Crush.

Heading into 2023, I wanted to surf more than once in a condensed period of time. After booking an Airbnb in East Hampton, I found an instructor who I could surf with 3 times in 1 week. I wanted to make mistakes on the waves, learn from those mistakes, and apply my learning within a few days instead of waiting for my next trip. 

After introducing myself to Austin, my instructor, and doing a 10-minute land refresher, we hit the waves. When the first good wave hit, he pushed me into it. I popped up and rode the wave for about30 seconds, almost twice as long as any wave I had ever caught. Austin was as shocked as I was that I rode for so long! 

Riding a wave for 30 seconds felt like a huge accomplishment, a true progression in my surfing journey. The actual 30 seconds I rode was one of the best feelings of the year, one I can’t replicate. To successfully ride a wave, you have to pop-up, but not stand-up, and you have to relax. As someone who is always alert and very hyperactive, it takes effort for me to relax. Once I was up on that wave, I kept my knees bent, my eyes forward, and my smile wide. Surfing challenges my whole existence, which is why I keep working at it. 

As Matt Wilpers, the Peloton instructor says, “it’s fun to be a beginner again.” I am a beginner at surfing. I fall a lot, miss waves, and look crazy trying to walk over the rocks to get out to the waves. But it is an important reminder that there is still so much I don’t know how to do, and still time to learn new things.