Surf's Up

Hey everyone, Kyle here. As you know, Erin and I just got back from our vacation in Myrtle Beach. Inspired by the criminally underappreciated John From Cincinnati (seriously, check it out), I tried surfing for the first time.  The place we stayed offered lessons, and I decided to sign up. Going into the lessons, I was not optimistic that I had any chance of surfing success, but I knew I should give it a shot.

That's me in the middle.

So there I was, on the beach bright and early, with three high school-age girls and a thirteen year old boy.  Our instructor gave us a couple of safety tips, had us practice hopping up on the board on dry land, and then sent us out into the waves. For the first few tries, the instructor (who called me "Karl" for two days - but I just went with it) held on to our board and gave us a push when a wave came by.  On the first day, I actually caught a few waves and stood up on the board a few times.  A couple of times I actually stood on the board and rode a wave for four or five seconds, which was more than I ever expected to accomplish.

I'm pretty sure I'm holding the board upside down.

The second day, we were basically on our own.  I wiped out several times, but I caught two or three waves all by myself and again stayed on the board for four or five seconds each time.  It is a pretty cool feeling.  Surfing is great exercise (there is a lot of paddling involved - I definitely felt it for the next couple of days) and I had an absolute blast.  Any time we're near some more waves, I definitely plan on trying it out again.