New board day

The new board has been christened.

For the first hour and fifty-eight minutes, all I could tell was that the board paddles well and feels right. There were long waits between waves and I didn't catch many. On our first wave, the board and I parted company instantaneously. On another, I pearled. I did stand up on one wave and it didn't feel like I was using my knees but honestly, I have no way of knowing. And as soon as I stood I fell. On another, I felt as if I had the popup right but had to pull back because the guy next to me was on the same wave.

I got smacked around quite a bit, once on a wave I should have turtled but didn't. I was underwater noticeably longer than I'm comfortable with.

None of this, you might imagine, was any fun at all. There have been times I've had days like this and considered them fun, because it was warm and sunny; but not on a grey and cold day in April.

I tried to remember that this "surfing" is supposed to be fun. Well, if it's not fun at least it's supposed to be contributing to the learning process so that one day in the future will be fun. But I've rethought the whole "learning" surfing thing. There is no such thing. Sometimes you accidentally get it right. You try to give yourself the best chance to accidentally get it right. But it is nothing like the cumulative, empowering, confidence-building process we call learning.

Think about it. The people I know, who surf well, never learned. They tell stories like, "I went my first day in eight foot waves, not knowing what I was doing, and I just got a wave and surfed it." The same thing, to some extent, happened in surf camp. There was no instruction, there was no learning. The people who got it, got it in a day or so with no help other than being pushed on waves.

As I was getting colder waiting for waves, I realized that a new board is not going to be enough to get me out of this surf slump I'm in. I don't know what is. I had just about decided to call the guy in Long Beach (not the best surf instructor in the world, but not the worst either) and pay him $100 to watch me from the beach and tell me what I'm doing. I didn't know what else to try. I'd just start from scratch, an absolute beginner.

Then, just as I was getting too cold to stay out any longer, I got a wave and a ride. For no reason at all, by sheer accident, I was able to stay up long enough to remember to do three things: put my arms out to balance, lean forward, and bend my knees. It worked. It was my one ride of the day after two hours, and then I went in.