Even before we got to Costa RIca, we have been anticipating going surfing. It was an exciting idea, and all the more reason to tell our friends about our trip. Although surfing was one of the main buzzes of Costa Rican waters, we couldn't think less about taking a couple of lessons as we settled in. A month went by, we still hadn't rented board nor had we taken a lesson.
While Mom was off doing something or rather, Erroll and I decided to pop into the Innocent Surf School just for a look around. There were two rooms, both covered in slick white tiles, the second room only the size of a small bathroom. The first thing that caught our eyes were the tiny kittens with long ears that must've been only weeks old. They might've been the seller, but of course you'll never know. Still grasping the petite cats in our hands, we took a gander at the methodically placed water proof(very important in a surf shop) information sheets around the room. We calculated the money that we had left, minus the money for the lessons, plus the money that Mom'll be spending on the first of our lessons and minus from my money what Erroll would be borrowing. It took us a long time to figure out if we had enough money, even for our mathematically inclined brains. In spite the fact that we only got an approximate number, we signed up for a lesson for the next day. We told Mom about our new expense, thinking that she would say something about how she had plans, but she was happy that we had taken the initiative. Once in a blue moon, eh?
We were scheduled to meet the instructors at the shop at 9:50, and already I was setting the alarms and butterflies were building up in my stomach. Luckily, we both woke up when we were supposed to. We ate, showered, dressed ourselves in our swim suits and a tight t-shirt(to keep off the sun), slathered our bodies in sunscreen and found each other waiting for a long time.
Erroll and I walked to the shop. It was no time to worry about kittens, we had to get down to work before the butterflies eat their way out of our stomachs. Our instructor's names were Ru and Gem. Both English, both very pretty people, both very funny(it could just be the accents), and both running the shop all by themselves. We signed a couple of very boring forms about our safety, they chose our boards for us, and we were off.
Gem stayed at the shop while Ru took us to the beach. Being the English gentleman that he is, he took my board for me. We reached the beach and, lesson #1, we walked quite a ways down the beach to keep from hitting other surfers or them hitting us. They set our boards down and Ru began to give us our 'morning lesson'. Mainly, it was about our safety and the proper way to lie down on the board. We we only lie down for now because we were beginners. I plunged into the ocean with my board. They are pretty heavy and too wide for my little arms, so i could not carry them properly. We were only catching broken waves on our bellies for today, but even a head height broken wave was more than slightly intimidating. Broken waves are easy to catch because you don't have to paddle as hard, but, like a spinning top, you have less control since you go slow. It was fun to do yet it is just as easy to say that it was only partially gratifying to call it surfing.
Ru called us back to the beach, to my delight we were going to learn how to stand up on our boards hopefully without falling off. It's a very complicated to do when you are just beginning; you have to have your feet exactly in the middle with your toes pointed in, your knees bent, your left arm behind you and your right arm in front of you, your head facing forward, and at the same time you have to be able to lean forward and backward to accelerate and decelerate. However, as a known rule in surfing, you will always forget everything that you just learned as soon as you stand up on your board. There were lots and lots of falling and plofs(perfect landing of face) but since Ru said that should happen, I felt that i had achieved a great deal today. More than once that day, I had surfed my way to the beach. I was pretty proud of myself.
We carried our boards back, or i should say Ru and Erroll carried our boards back, and we washed off.
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