Surfing….and my thoughts on snowboarding

So to make my west coast trip part vacation, I decided to take surfing lessons. Somewhere in my head, west coast=surfing. Little did I know when I started this idea that the water in the Pacific (59°F) doesn’t warm up like the Atlantic (71°F)

I went with Santa Cruz Surf School and went for 2 lessons. The first was a bad low tide only beach breaks lesson and the second was at 6AM out on Cowells Beach. Despite the fact, maybe in spite of the fact that I’m a swimmer, paddling was not so easy. First of all, it’s quite unnatural to swim with your legs and chest up so that your core is pressing against the board. Secondly and more importantly, swimmers don’t breathe when their arms are rotating. I made it out half way to the rendezvous point before my teacher asked if I was breathing with each stroke. And of course I wasn’t so I was already exhausted since I had just deprived my body of oxygen unnecessarily.

Once we started catching waves, I had a blast. Whether I was sticking the landing or not, I was having so much fun being out in the ocean. It wasn’t all that cold. I did both lessons without the booties cuz I liked feeling the board with my toes. Muscle memory is this odd thing. Think too much about what you’re doing and your timing is off. Don’t think at all and your form is all off. Practice a bunch and don’t think too hard, your muscles remember what to do…crazy!

As the sun was rising over the fog in Santa Cruz, I realized that I had to sell the snowboard. I realized that everything about snowboarding was based on fear for me. Linking turns better means going on blues and going faster. The boys I go with go on moguls and board in the Nintendo park for jumps. Now fear on it’s own is not a reason to stop but fear that does not get washed away by exhilaration when accomplishing the next hurdle is. Now that doesn’t mean I’m going to go out and swap the snowboard for surfboard but I am going to figure out how to incorporate more surfing into my life! So if anyone is in the market for a Cadence Arbor board, Flow boots and bindings let me know

I also spent the better part of Sunday taking some pictures of at Steamers Lane where some guys were practicing.

I got there on a cute little bike that Kieth at Electric Sierra Cycles let me take out on the house after I snapped some photos of all these great bikes lined up on Pacific Avenue. Thanks Keith!