Day 3: Learning to Surf

I learned from Patricia yesterday that the best time to learn to surf is at low tide, which today is not until 3pm. So I spent the morning walking around the village and fund the Farmer's Market to the north of the main bridge, which only happens on Fridays.

In the afternoon I headed over to Patricia's Surf Shop and there was only two of us signed up, myself and a 16 year old girl from Vancouver. Patricia went over the basics on the beach of how to get up on a board. From laying on the board you have to jump into a surfers stance. For the older folks who don't jump up as easily I was shown how to get up in stages.

Then we carried our boards to the west end of the bay where the waves are smaller and we are not in the way of the serious surfers. Our instructor was a 16 year old boy who looked like he was born with a surfboard attached to his feet. He was patient and held the board pointed in the right direction and yelled when it was time to paddle. This way catching the wave was easy, but for me standing up was a challenge. Eventually I did manage to stand for a few seconds before falling off.

When he was finished helping us he said we could stay out and practice as long as we wanted. I was pretty exhausted and headed back for some beers and a bite to each on the beach, happy that I had managed to stand on board my first day.