Life List #66: Surfing anywhere in the world, so long as I don’t drown.

Tagged and bagged.  I spent a week in Hawaii, February 21st-March 1st, 2010.

Hawaii was a ridiculous place.  I fell madly in love the moment I stepped off the plane and realized the beautiful pictures they show you to lure you in are ALL TRUE.  The turquoise water showcasing the reefs, the palm trees  blowing in the balmy breeze.  All those alliterative, delicious things – that’s Hawaii.  Also, there’s horrible traffic, really expensive prices and lots of tourists.  But overall, the good outweighs the bad.

I had a really wonderful time hanging out with Marnie, Dave, Zae and Ava, we stayed in a sweet little bungalow on Ewa Beach.  I had come to Hawaii with a plan – Surfing and Cliff Jumping, as mentioned on my Life List – and I was definitely going to accomplish one of them!

On the fourth day, I was starting to get a little antsy, I was only supposed to be on the island for a week, and it was half over!  I checked out craigslist and did some web searching – there were so many choices for surfing, from the beach boys on Waikiki to for-real serious surf pros who charged a fortune for an hour of one-on-one time.

I saw a posting on Craigslist that said something like ‘Hey, I’ve been surfing for 20+ years, check out my website, but don’t freak at the prices, give me a call, we can work something out.”

Following a gut feeling, I checked out the website and mildly freaked over the prices, but figured I could at least ask what ‘work out a deal’ meant.  I called the number.  I got voicemail, but I chickened out.  Maybe it was too expensive?  What if he (Ivan) was busy?  I didn’t leave a message.  I sat out by the ocean wondering what to do with my plans for surf lessons, since I didn’t have any idea what to do next.  Try the random surf stands in the tourist areas?  Ugh.  Seemed like a lot of effort.

All of a sudden, my phone rang.  The number was calling me back!  I chatted with Ivan for a bit, and we set a rate we could both work with for the lesson and then made plans to meet in Waikiki to check out the waves.  I took public transportation!  I got all intrepid and threw myself on a bus and headed to downtown Honolulu.  First, I stopped by the mall to pick up some new bikini bottoms (mine were so big they were falling off my hips, not good for surfing) then met up with Ivan at 1:00.  We checked out the waves at Waikiki, but they were pretty sucky.  Then we went to look at the area near Diamondhead, the volcano at the southeastern tip of Oahu.  Perfection!

After running through the basics (and a whole lot of practice jumping up into position) on dry land, we picked up our boards (mine was quite long, as I”m 5’11 and a NOOB) and headed through the (really effing expensive) neighbourhood and out onto a tiny little private beach.

It was me, Ivan, some really hot chick in a Brazilian-style bikini (yes, it was distracting to watch her surf)(I have no idea if it was more distracting for me or Ivan)(I put money on Ivan, though) and some random dude in a mini-kayak. Usually, there would be something like 20 people out there, but I must just be lucky.

I didn’t bring my camera out in the water (for obvious reasons), so I don’t have any action shots.  Next time, baby.  I’m proud of the surfing I *did* accomplish, though!  The first five waves, I beefed.  Totally chickened out on standing up; fell off, fell forward, fell backward…every way I could mess it up, I did.

Then I found my zone.  Thanked Mama Deva for taking care of me and not letting me drown in her beautiful blue waters.  Shook off the failures.  Eyes on the far-off beach.  Wave is incoming.  Ivan tells me to paddle hard, forward.  I do.  I feel the drag when the wave catches my board just right.  In my peripheral vision, I see the foaming of the tip of the wave around my chest, I reach down and clutch the board.  I pop.  My feet are nearly perfect.  My balance is dead center.  I’m breathing in through my nose, out through my mouth.  I am so in the zone.  I let go and straighten up.  I ride that beautiful, perfect wave until it petered out close to shore.

Then I forgot how to ‘dismount’.  So I just flopped over into the water to signal that I was done with that ride.

Graceful, no.  But I was so unbelievably stoked about ACTUALLY SURFING it didn’t even matter.  I climbed back on my board (excitedly and painfully kicking the sharp reef in the process) and paddled back out to where Ivan was cheering for me!

Honestly, my favourite part of the entire day was when the hot surfer chick asked how long I’d been learning to surf.  “About an hour now!” was my immediate reply.  “You’re doing really well, that was a great ride!” she said.

Yay me!

I can’t wait to do it again, sometime soon.

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