Surfing Waves: A beginning

If a book had been written about the ‘how to of surfing waves for beginners' I would have been the first one to read it; but back then I couldn't read, didn’t understand waves or surfing, and rather enjoyed playing half naked in my cloth diapers in the white wash that climbed the sandy beach. I was young but even at that age I loved the taste of the salty water. It became like an elixir calling me back to the ocean day after day. For the majority of my young life I frolicked like a sea nymph, swimming and diving, and occasionally 'boogie boarding' on the shore breaking waves, but surfing waves? actually standing and gliding on the face of the wave was incomprehensible. I didn’t think that I could do something like that so I didn’t even try. And though the waves continued to roll to the shore in my backyard, and surfers continued to play in the surf, all I could do was watch. I didn’t know one surfer-and the ocean was a big place for a little ‘ole nobody like me.

I wish someone invited me to the party earlier though. I wish someone would’ve said 'hey let's go surf some waves', 'let's go get high...from surfing 'stoke'', 'let's leave all the worries on the beach, and just have fun' but no, no one came knocking on my door. I had to turn 17 before being invited to join this group of surfers-a group that extended across the world, young and old, man and woman, bums and business people, all of whom loved surfing waves, big ones, and small ones and everything in-between.

At first I beat myself up for not taking the initiative to learn to surf earlier but starting then was better than later. I struggled through a whole year of learning to surf, it was the best and most memorable years of surfing, not because I 'ripped it up' but because it took a lot of effort and a lot of 'worthy' pain to actually catch and ride my first waves. Surfing was hard for me at the beginning, and sadly many of the friends I tried recruiting, quit after the first attempt. I don't blame them, there were a lot of scars, almost drowning’s, animal encounters, and missed hours of school and work; but there were also a lot of sweet waves and surfing euphoria. I know that if I had had a ‘how to of surfing waves for beginners’ of some sort I would’ve been surfing the good waves sooner instead of paddling to them and watching them crash in front of me while I floated like a log beside it. Why didn't I stop, paddle out of the surf and dump my surfboard on the sand after breaking it in half? It was because I had felt the excitement of catching a wave, which in time every beginner will experience-the glue that will permanently bind you to surfing. Another one of the great things about surfing are the skills learned, like watching the tides and the currents, listening and feeling for the directions of the winds, learning to respect the ocean, and ultimately knowing where to catch the best waves. Surfing like anything else has a beginning, a place to start, the greatest surfers started at that point, why not you? The 'how to of surfing waves for beginners' will get you into the water with the knowledge necessary to enjoy the beauty of surfing waves, not void of pain and full of orgasmic energy.