Walking on Water
Like many people, I’ve watched my fair share of surfing flicks. From Endless Summer to Riding the Giants. Each time thinking, “Damn, that looks like fun.”
Guess what. It is.
I had my chance to catch my first wave yesterday. On a day set aside to honor the sacrifice of soldiers who have paid the ultimate price for our freedom, I got to experience one of the best examples of freedom. I got to ride nature’s energy.
After a three hour lesson, I only made it up to standing twice. And only one of those two attempts to rise netted a real ride. But man, what a ride.
More importantly, however, since I spent most of my time trying to catch a wave and about 5 seconds actually riding one, the experience of being in the water was what made the whole thing so extraordinary. Being in Westport, of course, I was in a wetsuit. Amazingly toasty warm the whole time. What a workout fighting against the crashing waves to get out to chest-deep water. And then trying to read the waves. And then trying to climb up on top of one.
Fortunately, I had a fantastic instructor who spent the better part of three hours teaching me the fundamentals. Molly got me from practicing on the sand to riding the waves in less than an hour. She’d start out holding my board, so I could learn how to get on and find my balance. Then she’d tell me when a good wave was coming and tell me when to start paddling. And then I was off. By the end of the lesson, I was on my own and loving it.
She also taught be some etiquette and safety rules. Evidently, I needed to learn some of those the hard way. Well, one in particular. That was the “starfish rule.” See, when you fall off the board, you want to fall like a starfish. That’s why the wipeouts always look so ungraceful. It’s purposeful ugliness.
Basically the idea is to spread out your body mass and essentially belly-flop into the water. After all, you don’t know how shallow the water is below you and you don’t want to find out with your head.
I forgot the starfish rule.
Result? I jammed my hand straight into the hard sand with all my weight and a wave of energy supplying the force. My right hand is toast today. Even after icing and elevating it all yesterday afternoon, I can’t really bend my fingers. I think it’s just ligament damage but will be hitting the doctor’s office today to get a “just in case” x-ray.
One thing is for certain, as soon as it’s healed I’m going right back out there. There is little in life as joyous and freeing as playing in the ocean. And on the rare occasion, harnessing the energy of the sea to walk on water.
[...] lifestyle is still so new and different. And we are learning new skills. Like crabbing. And like surfing. But while there has been no shortage of things to write about, I have struggled to decide what to [...]