Aloha Fridays ~ Surf's Up!

Just before I turned 27, I visited the ocean for the first time. Lucky for me, it happened to be in my new home, Hawaii. I felt incredibly drawn to it. The ocean called to me, and in it, I felt home. A piece of my soul was found and I knew I never wanted to leave. 

On my second ever trip to the ocean, I braved surfing for the first time. I tried it without any knowledge and without a professional surfing lesson. Knowing nothing about the ocean, before learning the respect it deserves (and almost drowning months later), I failed at surfing miserably. I felt like such a wimp. I was saying to myself what I've heard over and over again from others, and that is, "I'm pretty athletic. It shouldn't be too hard." But surfing was different from anything I'd ever done before...even knee boarding. And after two kids and a few donuts later, I realized I'm not in the shape I used to be! Ha! ;)

Later, on one of my vision boards, I put a picture similar to the one you see below of a girl "duck diving" while surfing. When I pasted the picture onto the cardboard and looked at it in comparison to all of my other goals around it, I honestly thought it would be last on this particular board to achieve. Funny enough, this surfing goal of mine, which was to simply 'get up' on a wave, happened first! 

This past June, my Mother-in-Law was in town. I wanted to take my hubby down to Waikiki for Father's Day weekend and get him a surf lesson. To my surprise, he penciled me in to go with him. It was perfect having grandma there to watch the boys at the beach while we went surfing.

We had one surf instructor for the two of us at first. After he gave us instruction on the beach, we paddled out. It was nice to have someone able to immediately tell me I was laying on my board wrong. THAT'S why I can't get my balance! Anywho, I was soooo tired after paddling all the way out to the big enough waves. Surfing is the best workout ever! Our instructor turned us around and we were off.

Catching the first wave and standing up for the first time was such a rush. I got up so fast that I really thought I did something wrong. When I told the instructor that I was shocked I was strong enough to get up, he said it's my adrenaline kicking in. Five waves later and standing up on all of them, he was so right! Each time a wave came and I paddled for it, I could do anything. I popped up each time on top of my board with so much ease and strength. It was so fun and a little over an hour of surfing passed quickly.

When we were headed back to the beach I caught a good wave and didn't stand up. Instead I did kind of a little mermaid pose....you know...like this one below. Actually exactly like it...my face and everything! 

 And as I was riding in, a turtle popped its head out of the water right next to me to kind of say, "That was some wicked surfing!" Haha! I had seen another one earlier waiting for a wave, but this one was kind of special.

Everyone should try surfing. Especially if you visit Hawaii. Don't pass it up and definitely book your lessons early so you already have it on your to do list! Have a great Friday everyone!! :)