SURFING USA

If you were going to learn to surf, where would you do it?  Well, Hawaii, of course.  But where in Hawaii?  (Cue:  Hawaii 5-0 music) 

WAIKIKI!!

(This is on a waveless day.  See where the bay comes all the way in.  That's where I learned to surf.)



Our instructor, Jenny from Waikiki Surfing School, showed the children how to "pop"up from laying position to standing position and then she looked at me.

"I don't 'pop'."  I told her.

"No problem.  Let me show you the granny way."

Yes.  At 46, I am learning to do things "the granny way."  O Humility, thy name is Jan.

The "granny way" included lying on your stomach, getting to your knees.  If you feel good about things, then you put your feet where your knees are and, buttocks out, you stand.  It wasn't pretty, but I stood up on the board twice.  Of course, I rode on my knees many times, and even though it was the granny way, I felt pretty and graceful and ready for some Beach Blanket Bingo.


My favorite time was when I was just lying out there, waiting for my turn when a wave came up, grabbed me, and whisked me all the way to the shore.  The water was crowded so I had to "slalom" my way to the beach.  Totally thrilling!


 I also learned how to do the yoga position called The Cobra.  When you are paddling out and a wave is coming towards you, you grab the board at chest height and push your torso up.  This balances the board so you don't get creamed by the wave.  It totally works!  (Of course, my poor nearly atrophied granny muscles protested for the next several days, but it was completely worth it.) 

Another time, I was paddling back out when I saw this huge wave coming towards me.  It was enormous!  I remembered Jenny had said the waves were four feet, but this was no four foot wave.  Then I remembered the Hawaiians measure the back of the wave which is about half of the front face.  So this eight foot wave was coming towards me, beginning to crest a little at the top, I quickly "cobra'ed" and--swoosh!--I floated right over it!  Oh, the giddiness of it all!!

Okay, so maybe it wasn't the Eddie Aikau Competition with its 20 foot (read: 40 foot face) wave, but I still felt like a world-class champion.

 
(Not me, but how I felt.)