I stood in the chest-deep, frothy warm water off Bondi
Beach and scouted the horizon behind me. As low tide began to give way
to high tide, the waves were breaking unusually high and strong for
Bondi. It was a struggle just to make it through the strong riptides
and breaking waves to get to the sand bar I was semi-standing
on about 75 feet off the beach. My muscles screamed from the effort it
took just to stay in one place so I could keep my eye on the breaking
waves behind me.
Finally, I picked
out a good looking wave, watched it break, and kept my eye trained on
the rush of whitewater streaming toward me in the aftermath of the
wave’s collapse. About 10 feet before it hit, I turned toward the shore,
laid down on my board and began to paddle my heart out. Turning my head
back, I saw the bulge of water just about to hit my feet and paddled
even harder. Suddenly, the wave picked up my board and me with it,
sending us both flying toward the shore. I grabbed both sides of the
board just to try to hang on and dismissed any thought of attempting to
stand up. Then, I inexplicably decided to give it a go anyway. But, my
clumsy attempt to climb on top of the board instead sent it flying in
one direction and me in the other. It also sent about five gallons of
salt water directly into my lungs, a taste that wouldn’t leave me for
the rest of the day.
So began my
first foray into surfing. I have no explanation for why I waited until
my last full day of a two month stint in Australia to finally take a lesson. But, the wait
was worth it as the perfect blue, cloudless sky and unusually big waves
proved out. Of course, the excellent weekend weather also brought a
bigger crowd to the beach than normal, which was a more than
intimidating environment in which to try to surf for the first time. If
my ill-fitting wet suit wasn’t a dead giveaway that I was a novice,
then my steady stream of blooper-reel quality wipeouts gave the
onlookers the best clue for who to watch for some free amusement. The
fact that my instructor had to repeatedly point out that there would be
no sand to support the foot I kept placing on the beach when we were
practicing standing up on the board onshore was probably another good
indicator that things weren't going to go smoothly.
But, once I was out in
the water with the dozen others in my class, the waves were the only
focus of my attention. Obviously, we weren’t learning on the big, or even medium, waves that experienced surfers ride. Instead, we waited until
the waves broke then rode the foamy surge that continues after the waves
collapse. In the high surf and strong waves, those were still a sizable
mounds of water with more than enough force to send me flying
uncontrollably toward the shore each time. My goal was to stand up at
least once in the two hour session and I’d managed to figure out how to
catch the wave and ride it out - laying down, of course - fairly quickly.
But, standing up was a completely different issue and I failed to come
remotely close to standing atop the somewhat unwieldy piece of foam.
About
an hour and a half into the lesson, the stars and waves aligned. I
found a broken wave with my name on it, jumped onto my surfboard and
paddled furiously. The wave caught the board and pushed me swiftly
toward the beach. I brought up my back foot, steadied myself and then
brought my front foot forward managing to stay on the board. I pushed
myself up and threw out my arms to balance myself as I stood awkwardly
crouched on top of the board - but standing no less. For five seconds I
got a taste of the exhilarating sensation of riding a wave, small as it
might have been. Much like hitting that one good stroke in an otherwise
miserable round of golf, it was all I needed to get hooked.
I
didn’t manage to stand up again for the rest of the session despite my
best efforts at a repeat. But, the one time was all I needed to leave
the beach fully satisfied and hungry for more. Leaving Australia now for
Thailand, I’m more eager than ever to get back to the beach. I’ll no
longer be satisfied to just stand on the sand and admire the crashing
waves. Now, I’ve got a new obsession which will hopefully soon
than later find me watching the beach again from atop a crashing wave as it heads
toward shore.
