Noon at the beach is for the tourists.  People taking a respite from chilly office cubes or school sports practice or days at home with three kids under six.  Mornings and evenings are for the locals.  People flying out the doors of their jobs, into their jeeps, one foot in and one foot out of their swim suits.  Guys pedaling beach cruisers, holding the handle bars with one hand and a surf board under the other arm.  In the evening, the sun sets over the marshes, but not before the surfers catch some waves.

Flat and Wide

That’s how Nancy described the surfboard she brought for me to try today.   The object of this board was to keep me from tipping over as much, hopefully.  She said that the flatness was in exchange for ability to turn.  That is not going to be a problem for me today, as my goal is to stay ON the board, heading in the direction of the beach, until the wave dies.  Oh yeah, and try to get up.  The board is also well-waxed in the center 2/3 where I put my hands and feet.  That helps me grip (read: stay on).  The waves are calmer in the sense that they come in wider intervals.  They are still large.  I look out further into the water, and see people who actually know how to surf catching the waves just as they begin to break, and riding them  into where I am just starting.  I want to be out there.  But first. . .

I Need to Learn How to Hold the Leash

If you surf at most public beaches in North Carolina, you are required to have a surfboard leash.  That is a cord that goes from the back of the board to a Velcro strap that goes around your leg just below the knee, or around your ankle.  This leash keeps the board from separating from the surfer and inadvertently injuring a hapless swimmer fifty yards away.  The leash does nothing to keep the surfer from being injured, and frequently impersonates a jellyfish when it brushes up against your leg.

During my first lesson, Nancy told me that it was a GOOD IDEA to grab the leash way down where it attached to the surfboard, or to let the board float behind me while I swim.  If I held the leash halfway up, I was likely to get cut when a wave ripped the leash from my hand.  I can now tell you with all certainty that NANCY WAS NOT KIDDING.  The waves, while more manageable, were still fierce today, and I now have a nice chunk missing from the middle finger on my left hand.

Safety First

No problem.  I suck on my wound and prepare to head back out.  Another little detail we went over was how to fall correctly.  I am to fall backwards, and before I move in ANY DIRECTION, I’m to put one arm over my head and push up with my other hand.  This is in case the surfboard is directly over my head when I am ready to surface.  In addition to other small victories today, I had some EXEMPLARY falls!  Nancy said so.  Good thing, too, because more than once I did push the surfboard off of me with my hand.  That would have been my head if I were not paying attention.

Shark Week

Before going to my lesson, no fewer than five people reminded me that this is SHARK WEEK on the Discovery Channel.  One person went so far as to say “I watched it last night and I’m NEVER going into the water again.”  I had well kept this out of my mind until I was walking out with the board, and felt a CHOMP on my right foot.  “AAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE!!!!!”  I screamed like a girl.  And started swimming.  I was not at all interested in touching the bottom after THAT.  It felt like a crab.  I’m sure I interrupted its leisurely dismemberment of some unsuspecting shell dweller, but it was freaky.  Luckily, I’m a good swimmer, so I swam back over to Nancy.

“AAAAAACCCCKKKK  SOMETHING bit me!” says Nancy.  “I can’t believe I just screamed like a girl,” she said.  At that point, I got on the surfboard and said “YOU can stay in the water.  YOU are the teacher!”  Of course, I could only clutch the board like a kid in tadpole swimming class for so long.  Eventually, I had to put my feet down.  And, every time the leash touched my leg, or I stepped on something, a little part of me thought I’d be leaving the water with fewer toes than I entered it.

Stop Thinking Start Surfing

In between things chomping and waves breaking and feeling water pour out of my nose, mouth, eyes and ears, I had to try to actually stand up on the surfboard!  I feel that I must be a “special student” because I don’t know if anyone else has had three lessons without fully standing up.  I’m happy to say that by the end of my lesson, I got my right foot MOSTLY forward and MORE OR LESS up.  That is good progress!

While driving home, I thought about why I maybe am slower with this crucial step of moving from the cobra position to actually standing.  Well, my first thought was “I have, like TWENTY SECONDS to go from staying on the board, to paddling, to cobra, to getting up to riding the wave before it is all over.”  If the whole enterprise was five minutes, I’m sure I could manage. I also thought “I’m about as flexible as a graham cracker.”

Then, I thought, I need to STOP THINKING so much.  I need to feel the wave and then just try to get up.  It’s like a golf swing:  If you really try to break down each individual part of the swing, you will never hit the ball more than two feet.  You have to let the movement take over. If I stopped thinking about things chomping me, I would have been more comfortable, too!  Toward the end, I sort of stopped thinking so much.  In part, to try to get up.  In part, because I was tired. That is when I managed to put my right foot approximately where it should be, for about five seconds, before falling off the board.

Chicks on Sticks

I don’t think I saw any other girls out there tonight.  I said thank you and goodbye to Nancy on the beach.  She said she was going to catch a few waves before going back home to be a “Mom.”  I walked up the stairs and stood on the platform, watching her head out into the water.  The waves rolled in, and she cut across them,  watching for one to ride in.  From far away, it all looked so easy.  She caught a good one and came in almost to the beach, her arm raised in victory.  I think I heard some onlookers cheer.  I’m sure some of them were thinking “who is that girl on the surfboard?”  I was thinking, “I want to be that girl on the surfboard.”  With little time for waves before the sun set, Nancy paddled back out.

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Katie Elzer-Peters is a freelance writer living in Wilmington, NC. Her writing and PR business, The Garden of Words, L.L.C. serves clients all over the world. She’s learning to surf this summer, and blogging about her experiences for Chicks on Sticks.