Catch a Wave!

I've had Beach Boys songs in my head for days...because I went surfing last weekend! They were offering group beginner classes at a beach near Raglan and I decided it would be an adventure worth having. Our instructors taught us the steps to standing up on a board and staying balanced, and we practiced on land for about a half hour before heading to the ocean. Once I figured out I wasn't going to die, it was a lot of fun! I'm sure it will surprise nobody that I'm not a natural surfer, but I managed to stand up on my board a couple of times, and one time I even rode the wave most of the way back to the beach before falling off. The class went for about three hours, and my muscles gave up before the instructors did. I had no idea how much strength it takes to push yourself up on a board--I was sore for days afterwards! After I got to the point where I couldn't push myself up on the board anymore, the surfboard turned into a boogie board and I just played in the waves.

Those clouds in the picture make it look like the day was overcast...which it wasn't. And I absentmindedly forgot to put on sunscreen. (Actually, I didn't forget. I was trying to do too many things at once, and I was thinking "sunscreen" as I was actually spraying on bug spray. You'll be glad to know that no mosquitoes bit me as I was in the ocean.) I ended up with one of those sunburns that everybody feels like they need to comment on for the next five days.



AND...I forgot to pack my swim suit when I was getting ready for my flight (it was sitting on my bed saying, "Bring me! Bring me!" but I didn't hear it) but I didn't want to give up my chance to go surfing, so I went in shorts and a T-shirt. Note: it's really hard to put a wet suit on over shorts, especially when the wet suit is already wet. I left my car keys in my shorts pocket, not even thinking that this might be a foolish thing to do. They got soaked (note: wet suits do not keep you dry), and so did the little electronic doohickey that turns off the car alarm. When I went back to my car after we were done surfing, the car alarm turner-offer on the keychain wouldn't work, and so I couldn't start the car because the car thought it was being stolen.

With some help from the surfing instructor and exactly no help at all from the rental car company (despite being on the phone for an hour--never rent cars from Thrifty) I got back to Raglan that night and walked back to the car park (about 10 km) the next day to see if the keychain thing would work once it dried out. It did, thank goodness.

It was a very absentminded weekend, but it was still fun.