Surfin' Bajan Style
For Christmas this year my family spent a week on the beautiful island of Barbados. Waking up on Christmas day and walking out to a beautiful beach with 85+ degree temperature is my idea of Christmas weather! While we had many adventures during our time on the island, one of my favorites was attempting to surf. Or I should say I attempted to surf, my brother, Jarad, was successful...on his first try! Little athletic guy! Well, he's actually 6'4", but he definitely won on this venture!
Our first day we rented a surf board for the week. I wanted to buy us surfing lessons as part of my Christmas gift to my brother, but he was adamant that he had watched several YouTube videos on surfing and could easily pick it up. And he did. After he spent an hour perfecting and learning what he was doing, I decided to give it a go! And while I had fun, I couldn't seem to be quick enough on the popping up part. Balancing on the board, paddling, even pushing up didn't give me trouble, I was just slow on bringing my feet up. I made several attempts and Jarad decided maybe I should practice on the beach....
After about 10 minutes practicing my quick pop up on land and many laughs along the way, we gave it another try. Jarad kept telling me, "It's a lot like knee or wake boarding at the lake." To which I replied, "You know I can water ski, but have never been able to do the other two!" I have to give Jarad credit though and say he was very patient and encouraging throughout this process! However, this trip wasn't my trip to learn to surf! But, I won't give up! We haven't decided where we're headed for our summer family vacation, but Hawaii is on the short list. Wherever we go, you can guarantee it will be a beach and I will attempt to surf again! Maybe a few more months of yoga and working on my core strength will help me with a quick pop-up!! As always, I loved trying something new and had several laughs in the process! Thanks Jarad for a great first lesson and we'll try again in a few months!