When Panda and I vacationed in Hawaii this summer, I was determined to finally get around to surfing. I found a great instructor via Yelp and lucked out with my timing by being able to join two sisters of similar physical abilities and experience, so our skill levels were basically the same. That allowed us to progress at about the same pace, with nobody holding the others back. Perfect!
Meet Erik the surf instructor with his dog Malu (who used to surf with him but is a bit old now) and Ray the photographer!
The day started with an intro lesson at Erik’s surf shop, and then we were off, carrying our surfboards to the beach!
Apparently there had been jellyfish spotted earlier in the morning, so there was a warning sign up.
Erik showed us the jellyfish that had been caught and was being kept in a cup at the lifeguard station until it could be released back to the ocean.
We then got into the water and started to paddle out towards the waves.
Before I knew it, I was catching my first wave! I lost my balance pretty early on but got much better after a few tries.
Out in the water, Ray accompanied us so we could get some awesome close-up shots on his pro camera. As you can see my first try was just me trying not to fall off.
By the second or third wave, I had figured out how to squat a bit for better control.
After catching a few waves, Ray had us pause for some pics on the water. That’s him on the left with the camera, one of the girls in the lesson getting her pics taken, and me sitting around waiting my turn.
Then it was time for me to get a posed shot on the surfboard out in the gorgeous ocean waters.
Feeling in the surfer spirit, I threw up a “hang loose” sign for Ray.
By the end of the lesson, I was pretty confident on the kind Waikiki waves and even had people watching me! The wave looks bigger than it felt.
Next time I’ve got to convince Panda to join me in a lesson too.
