surf camp, day 1

Not to brag, but I totally kicked ass today. They had us do some exercises in the pool to see where we were with our skills and I already knew what they were teaching so I got my own personal instructor. The guy put me through the paces but I learned how to paddle correctly, improved my pop up, and my longest ride was around 10 seconds (that's good for surfing). I even learned to turn (though I have more work to do on that tomorrow). I am riding a much smaller board than I did in Mexico (by 3 feet - it's considered an experienced surfer's board) and I'm pretty happy I was able to get up on it the second try. I surfed for 2 hours and caught more waves than I did the entire time I was surfing in Mexico. It was like ride to the shore, sprint back out, and catch another wave.

The conditions here are a little crazy at the moment according to the instructors. Today the waves were very fast and it was hard to stay outside them so instead I would just paddle out as far as I could, turn my board around, and catch a wave even if it had already broken. Surfing white water is fun but I hope to be catching bigger waves by the end of the week.

I found it funny that the two guys on the trip were like "someone obviously has some experience surfing" like I was trying to show them up or something. Also, I almost ran over a family. They were standing right in the surf zone and I hadn't learned to turn the board yet. I was yelling at them "cuidado!" which means "danger" but they just stood there and smiled and waved at me. Finally I jumped off my board and it shot out and almost hit a woman in the face. They clapped for me and I have no idea what they said after but it sounded complimentary. So when I got back out I told my instructor, Roberto, "I need to learn how to turn" and he said "and you also need to stop looking at things you don't want to run into". Everyone on the beach was laughing at my almost disaster accident. I hope they got it on film (or, no, I hope they didn't).

So our group ended up being two women in their 20s, both single, A family (husband, wife, and young son), a married guy in his 60s and his friend, who is married, and I would guess in his 30s. Everyone is really nice. I was kind of shocked last night at dinner though when I was asked to sit at the head of the table because I was the oldest person at the table (how did that happen??????????). I would mention the guy in his 60s hadn't shown up yet. So he'll probably be at the other end of the table tonight.

This place is beautiful and I'm having fun and learning a lot, but not sure I would come to this camp again. But I do think by the time I leave here I will feel very confident renting a board to surf on vacation.

I tried to upload some photos of this place but the internet is crap (even the power goes out sporadically). Well, I can always upload them when I get home.

Off to pilates, then post surfing analysis meeting, then dinner.