Surf's Up aka Shark Week

Now that I’m back on track with crossing things off the list I thought I’d tackle one of the bigger challenges. Surfing. Funny that I should pick this task to complete on the very day Shark Week started but I’ll get to that later on. This past weekend I, along with a few friends including my friend James, who is a surfing instructor extraordinaire, caravanned out to Cocoa Beach. The whole week had been so dreary with rain that we were all worried the weather was going to ruin our day. Fortunately, Saturday turned out to be a gorgeous day for the beach and the conditions were great for catching some waves.

Cocoa Beach is about two hours away from Tampa and we left around 8:00 a.m. and arrived a little after 10:30a.m. Our first stop, after the mandatory breakfast at Chick fil A of course, was the surf shop down by the beach so we could rent some boards. The guys at the surf shop were super cool and let my friend Julie and I borrow rash guards so we wouldn’t get burned. We didn’t have our own to bring and probably would have completely fried without them so they were a total godsend. Out of the whole group of seven there were four of us who hadn’t surfed before so James got us set up with boards that were nine feet long. Apparently the longer the board the easier it is to learn on.

After getting the boards loaded up into the car which was a lot more difficult that one would think we finally got out to the beach. If you think surfing might be hard let me tell you it wasn’t nearly as tricky as getting all your beach stuff and the board out onto the beach! I’m about 5’3 on a good day so trying to balance the nine feet long surfboard on my head along with carrying my beach bag, cooler, and chair was slightly problematic. Thank goodness for boys because after seeing the trouble I was having my friend Tommy swapped boards with me since his was a lot smaller and less awkward to carry. Eventually my sweaty self made it out to the beach and unloaded all my baggage. Being a total girl I had to take a few pictures before getting in the water and taking on the look of a drowned rat. Check us out…..

Julie, Loren, and Me

The crew

catching a wave

 

Onto the exciting part. James gives us a few tips while on dry land before we hit the waves and then we were off to the ocean. I’ve been a Florida girl my whole life but most of my beach trips are to the Gulf of Mexico. I don’t think I’ve ever actually swam in the Atlantic Ocean. It’s a lot colder than the Gulf that’s for sure but by the time we sting ray shuffled into the water it felt fantastic. Once we got out far enough we jumped on our boards so that we were lying down and started paddling out further into the water. Once we got out past where the waves were breaking we were able to sit up on our boards and get used to the feeling. I could have stayed that way forever. It was so peaceful just sitting there on our boards in the water watching the waves roll in but that’s not why we came out there. We came out to surf and that’s what we were going to do! Well, we were at least going to try. Haha! We had to paddle up closer to the beach in order to “catch a wave” so that’s what we did. Once we saw a wave coming in we had to paddle as fast as we could in order to “catch” it and ride it into shore. After a few failed attempts to catch a wave I finally got one and was able to ride it in while lying on the board. I could believe how fast I was going! It probably wasn’t all that fast but it sure felt like it. I tried it a couple of more times while lying down and then finally got up the courage to try making it to my knees. I was able to ride a couple of waves in on my knees and it was the coolest thing!

By this time we had been out in the water for a couple of hours so we decided it was time for a little break and we headed up to the beach. I don’t know what exactly is in the sand over in Cocoa Beach but holy guacamole it was hot. I’ve scampered over some pretty hot sand but this was ridiculous. The skin was melting off my feet it was so hot. I think I screamed and threw down my board to make a run for my towel. After a short break it was time to head out again but by the time we got in the water we heard the lifeguards aka Baywatch whistling for everyone to come to shore. Now I’ll explain the Shark Week reference. Apparently there had been a shark attack pretty close to where we had been surfing. The beach was closed down for about 30 minutes while everything got back under control. As crazy as it sounds we could not wait to get back in the water even with the shark sighting. I guess it’s the out of sight out of mind mentality because you know they’re out there swimming all around you but if you don’t see them it’s like they aren’t there. Later we found out that a little girl had been attacked while wading in the water with her parents. The shark got her on her leg and she was taken to the hospital. While we were waiting to get the green light to go back in the water we did get to scope out the Baywatch guys strutting their stuff along the beach! Ha!

Once we got the ok to head back out it was later in the afternoon so the waves were picking up a lot more than they were in the morning. Altogether James says we were in about two to four foot waves that day. It doesn’t sound like a lot but think of something that high over your head coming straight at you and it seems like more of a big deal. Since I’m so short I kept having a problem getting back out past where the waves were breaking and kept getting swept back to shore. That was the most frustrating part of the day though. James took pity on me and helped me get further out in the water so I could keep trying to surf. At the end of the day though I managed to stand up on my board once. Only for a second or two but for me that was a huge accomplishment!

I’m so glad I was able to cross surfing off my list and even more glad that I had such a great teacher to help me out! James was awesome and so patient with all of us newbies. It definitely wasn’t my athletic ability that kept me out there all day more likely it was my stubbornness and determination not to quit and be the only one who didn’t make it her feet. I would totally go again and actually can’t wait for another weekend to head out to catch some waves!