I'd always been into body surfing as a kid during many summers spent in Queenscliff, Victoria. Dad got me excited with his tales of body surfing the crystal clear breaks in Perth when he was a boy. I didn't believe it was possible to surf without a board of some description, but at eight years of age I was hooked from the moment my first wave picked me up & threw me towards the beach with its effortless surge of seemingly preternatural power. I also learned my first lesson in respect for Mother Nature when I had my first dumping, as a wave caught me & tried to snap me in half, backwards, one sunny day. Thank heavens for the limberness & flexibility of being a child. A healthy dose of respect can make you enjoy the ocean all the more I think.
My first adventure with surfing was many years ago at age 21. A group of us went to Torquay one August to do a few days surfing & partying. Turned out to be one day surfing due to poor weather. We went out in a hail storm, coming back in after an hour with our battle scared, pock marked faces, boasting about how "Gnarly" it had been out there. "Fake it til you make it", was the theme for the day. Didn't catch more than one wave & vowed never to surf in winter again. Suffice to say, this first experience didn't do much for my enthusiasm for wave riding.
It would be many years later before I ever attempted to surf again. Not much body fat, no money & laziness combined to see to it that I always had a feeble excuse for not venturing into the cold waters of the surf coast.
I found an abandoned board in my work building a couple of years ago. It sat as decoration for the longest time in my studio, but something made me throw it in the car one day just after new years 2010 & go have another try at the iconic past time of the coastal dwellers of Australia.
No rashy, no wetty, no clue!!! I just strode in, bold as brass & had a go. It was an eye opener to say the least. The board, I discovered, was a 6'1" thruster, thrown out due to having some major damage to its deck. I suspected this already but my "Glass half full" optimism chose to ignore it. The ocean & waves did not ignore this vital piece of information & I was struggling from the time I took my first paddle. Without good floatation I was dead in the water. I'd always been a good competitive swimmer & average triathlete in my youth, not to mention trying & tiring of every sport known to man including, gymnastics, martial arts & rock climbing, so I thought I was perfectly preordained to be a good surfer, if I gave it a serious go....how naive!
Surfing is surfing & not many activities outside it can prepare you for the very specific physical requirements it demands of you. My running & martial arts fitness only helped for a little while, as once my arms tired, my lung capacity seemed to mean nothing! If you can't catch the wave, you can't ride the wave. Simple! My chest was raw, my nipples were on the verge of bleeding & I could barely stay afloat. After 30 minutes & a few mouthfuls of salt water, I decided to call it quits.
I enjoyed the experience nonetheless, as even a shocking round of golf does not get me down as long as I had a day on the links in the sunshine. But I knew that if I wanted to seriously give surfing a go, then a bigger board, the right gear & some lessons were going to be necessary.
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