 |
I was a teenage surfing doofus. I grew up in a Southern California beach town with celebrated shore breaks. But when the hip high school crowd hit the waves, I withdrew to my natural environment: Math Club.
This failure nagged at me for years--which is why I'm now paddling frantically alongside Rick Walker of Corky Carroll's Surf School in Huntington Beach. "You're a mature guy," Walker shouts above my gurgling. "My object is for you to expend as little energy as possible."
Mature? I bristle. Still, it's true that we mature types have better-than-ever opportunities to learn surfing, thanks to a proliferation of surf schools and camps designed for aspiring youths and full-fledged grown-ups. Walker has taught students of varying ages, including a cadre of Orange County 30-somethings who call themselves the Surfer Moms. That doesn't mean the sport's easy. I bodysurf, I run. But propelling the board over the cresting waves leaves me gasping.
Toward lesson's end, Walker shows me the tai chi–like moves that in theory will take me from prone to standing on the board. I try. I fall. Another wave, another fall--but, no, this time, I am upright for, oh, a nanosecond. Observing my form, Walker suggests a chiropractor might remove the toxins from my mature vertebrae. I don't care. However briefly, I've kissed surf doofus–dom good-bye.
Copyright 1998 Sunset Publishing Corporation
Surf School | Surfing School | Surf Lessons | Surfing Lessons | Costa Rica Surf Lesson | Costa Rica Surf School