Surfing
Costa Rica Day 5

ayy,

Yoda is currently going off on the cat food i just bought for him from the Super Compro (super market) next door and i'm laying on the hammock writing today's note. not too shabby.

 

i'm exhausted and so keeping today's brief or rather less lengthy than some others so far. today was my first surfing lesson at 2p with Eric, the instructor that Villas Macondo recommends, and he is awesome. it's about a ten or so min walk up the main road from me, just past Agua Salada where I had NYE dinner with derek, abby, jake and vivian. his store is called 'Salty Sols'. it was freaking hautttt walking up the road at that time of day and forgot my surfrider hat so my scalp was a burnin. anyways get there and these kids who were walking just ahead of me also stop there and turns out we're all in the same class. the girl who booked it def asked Eric a question after i checked in with him and she did not seem super pumped to be having me in their lesson, as i caught the end of her saying 'i didn't ask i just assumed' to one of her friends. same, sister. i was just siked to get a lesson as quickly as i did! didn't even think of whether solo or group. 

so we do a little practice before we're in the water and might i say it was very not like P. Rudd's character in Forgetting Sarah Marshall - 'do less, do less.. do less.. okay you gotta do more than that' BUT he's got the hat like him and a face covered with sunscreen so of course i think of this. His buddy Nick is instructing our group today as well as there's 6 of us total - me, three girls and two guys. They go to Virginia Tech (back when i asked at Eric's store 'what year are you all in school' after learning they go to VT together i got a very stiff 'we range from all years, freshman to senior'. so on the walk down to the beach with our boards i'm tbh totally fine being quiet and listening to them chat it up with Eric esp because i only got like 5-6 hours sleep last night). 

okay so we're in the water now. reminder to self that i've only surfed three times before in my life: once with jackie and my dad when she was studying abroad in Australia, once with jackie july 2021 in leucadia (SoCal) when she straight up gave me a lesson (you were awesome) and then right after that when i was on Oahu visiting my friend Liz from high school who lives there. so i was very much thinking i'm straight up beginner as i've not taken a real lesson // do this often. WELL we had quite the afternoon!!! got up on my first wave (Eric and Nick were giving us big pushes and telling us when to paddle and when to stand but you usually couldn't hear that last part over the waves) and it was sweeeeet. we went at 2p based on the tides (Derek had told me that mid-tide is usually best) and Eric warned us that it'll be pretty shallow once you get in, so to be careful when you get off (fall off) your board. what a time to be alive let me tell ya. some of the waves were pretty big! i didn't ride those but was turtle rolling to protect myself (thank you jackie for already teaching me that!) and with the help from Eric on pushing my body a little further back on the board, chest up, paddle slow vs paddle hard - i was getting up each wave he set me on! it was awesome. i could actually steer myself which direction and figured out when to use front foot and when to use back foot in terms of staying on the wave/ leaning into it compared to waiting for it/ leaning back on back (right) foot - and all of this to avoid people/ kids on the way in as there were definitely going to be some collisions if i didn't figure that out. it's crowded between neighboring surf lessons on either side of us in the water, plus some kids swimming and then parents with young kids in the shallows. i don't know how the other kids in our lesson did it with it being their first time! note to self that i'm on a board board and i think they're all on foamies and that's also what i was on when i first rented in Australia for a couple hours. that was back in fall 2014 and i just remember my arms and body being absolutely toasted after only 45 minutes in the water 'surfing' and was surprised that i got nowhere close to the 2-hour rental time. Cut to 2023 in Tamarindo and it is a very different experience!! Eric was pumped about the first wave i caught and everything from there was great as well. i did hit my head on my board a couple times under the water when i turtle rolled to avoid those bigger waves and lost the board from my grip one of those times but nobody got hit and it kept me lookin alive out there! waves are powerful. I worked more with Eric or on my own to catch waves with Eric hollering over to me to take it and start paddling, and less so with Nick. i was out further than the group for a bunch of the lesson unintentionally as the current was ripping and so i was constantly paddling north-bound to get closer back to the crew. but i did like being further out in the water as it helped me better avoid the crash zone of those bigger waves that i ended up hitting my head on the board in the lesson. the middle area is the hardest spot to be in in my opinion. you have to work so much harder than if you just went out a bit further. and for someone smaller and in no way got in shape for this trip, saving my energy for when i need it and enjoying the waves is just better. anyways the foamie was maybe harder for those guys but i have no idea. with one wave i took with Nick, i saw the tip of my board dip under the water and knew that was a goner. obligatory fall!! nick said it was a 'double wave' and yeah neither of us were expecting that (esp not me as he set me up and i wasn't even looking back ).

so yeah super fun time out there and it was cool to see some of the girls get up for their first time surfing, too. they were better than the guys and tbh one of the guys was too close to me when we were in proximity to each other and then the other guy was one time paddling INto where i was bout to take the wave which was just silly and dangerous. hence i do not catch that wave. eric tells us at the beginning of the lesson 3 guidelines let's see if i can remember them but i definitely remember one bc this kid just didn't follow it then: one- try not to be 'behind' someone else (as you're in the way if they take that wave and you gonna get hit), two- never look away from the water and three- i can't remember, maybe spread out?? i don't know. that may not have been one of the three instructions but he definitely told us that before we all got in the water. 

Alyssa - the one who seemed slightly miffed i was crashing their lesson at the beginning - was so excited for me saying how well i was doing on the waves! not in those words obvi but she genuinely was showing so much enthusiasm and support seeing me surf and it was cool to see her completely shift gears. surfing brings ppl together 

Maria who seemed sweet from the getgo (but again please know that none of them seemed particularly siked to be surfing with me at the store) was so funny congratulating me on the surfing one time when we were both in the shallows after riding in and heading back out at the same time and she then was like 'I felt like I was watching Soulsurfer'  it was great for a laugh. i tell her we're actually somehow distantly related to her no idea how and she's excitedly like ' do you know her?!' and i'm like yeah no lol and it's by marriage not by blood relation. anyways that was fun and again, just cool to see people so supportive of other people learning something new. 

Crystal towards the end - prob right as i had called it quits and was just hanging in the shallows before hopping out (i'd had enough of getting beaten by the waves in the mid-wave region and didn't feel like getting hurt) - was saying i did great too right after i'd said nice one that she came in on. let's hear it for the girls!!!!!

 

okay wow way longer than i thought i'd actually write but hey as i start writing i guess i forget how tired/ hungry/ what have you i was before i start typing, so yeah everything they do here is through WhatsApp i found out yesterday when working with Sebastian on trying to coordinate this lesson - and so Eric gets my number for WhatsApp and that we'll coordinate through there. Samantha caught me in the ktichen when grabbing something from the fridge on her way out for the day just after 7p and i was boiling pasta for dinner and she lets me know that Eric messaged me about surfing tomorrow with another girl who has a little surfing experience too so to check it and let him know as soon as i can so he can make a plan. check messages and yup he (FIRST) sends a super friendly and surfer-y kudos on my surfing today (!! i mean how do i save this audio message forever) and goes on to share that yeah basically what samantha already let me know and the new info is that it's at 12;30p.

 

We're going surfing people!

 

9:15p, 5 Jan 2023

 

no pics right now i'm too tired