Hang Ten with New Surfers! (By Lorelei)

Hey! This is Lorelei and I’m going to tell you about my first time surfing. At first, I was nervous because it was my first time, and trying to get a seven foot long hunk of fiberglass out into the ocean seemed a bit intimidating. Once I started though, it was really fun! 

My instructor was named Marco and he was really good at surfing, obviously. He said he had won the National competition in Costa Rica twice! He helped me to practice standing up on the board, and then we headed out into the water. Once we were past most of the waves, he told me to get on my board and paddle. Soon after, I caught my first wave! Of course, I fell off, but it was still fun! By the end of the lesson, I was consistently catching waves and riding them to shore. Marco made me do this weird trick where he would whistle, and I would have to switch feet on the board. Basically, if my right foot was in front, I would have to move it to the back and put my left one in front. 

 

After a few days it was time for the second lesson, and this is the one where I really got the hang of it. Marco still remembered me, which is surprising because I hadn’t seen him for two days. Anyway, his time he let me sift by myself for the most part, but occasionally telling me which waves to catch and when to paddle. The second lesson had much larger waves, ,and sometimes I would have to jump off my board and go under. That’s my favorite part of surfing, aside from when you actually ride a wave all the way to shore. Two times I pearled, which means the undertow of the wave makes you go face first into the sand and your surfboard hits the back of you head. One time it was on a huge wave, and I was spinning in the water for what seemed like thirty seconds. I couldn’t tell which way was up! Anyway, this time the waves I did catch felt really good, because I didn’t have much help from my instructor. All in all, surfing was by far the best thing we did in Costa Rica, and I hope I can continue at home!