Surfing Nosara

The swells were huge once again so I went out later in the morning so I wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the high tide. At first, I tried going as far out as possible but found it impossible to focus on the techniques that Ru had taught me because I was using all my energy paddling so I went closer to the shore.

Immediately, I was able to employ some of the things Ru taught me. For example, when I was trying to catch the whitewater, I found that if the wave was a little more powerful, I could sit back in my board to gain control and vice versa. Knowing this helped me catch more waves more consistently. The rest of the morning was the usual trial and error that has been characterizing my learning process. Yet, all of it was still so much fun. I can’t remember being this perpetually happy in a really long time. If I didn’t have errands to run, I don’t know when I would have gotten out of the water!

In the afternoon, I met with Erik, the owner of surfingnosara.com, and his beautiful wife Sarah. We went over my writing this blog for their website. We were able to brainstorm a whole bunch of ideas and I could tell this couple was really passionate about Nosara. Oh, how I can relate! I’m really happy to be collaborating with them.

At 3PM, I had my second lesson with Ru. Two things about this guy: 1) he makes these cute cartoon-like illustrations in the sand when we go over the day’s lesson and 2) he is endowed with an inordinate amount of patience. We started the lesson by going over my stance after I had already stood up. By shifting my weight using my hips, I can control my board in the ocean. At first, I wasn’t getting any waves which apparently was more frustrating for me than it was for him because he still kept smiling and kept encouraging me. After a while, he called me closer to shore and held the board still in the water so I could get a better feel for what it felt like to stand up on the board correctly. I noticed that I had to over-exaggerate pointing my toes in to get it right and that I couldn’t crouch low enough. When I got a feel for it, I felt a world of difference. It got me so stoked! I ended up staying in the water for an hour and a half after my lesson. My friend Jess told me that I looked completely different after this lesson. And I even had a man on the shore asked me where I was taking lessons because he had been watching me and noticed a huge improvement as well!

I went to bed embarrassingly early with a huge-ass grin on my face. I love my life so much right now…