When I found out, I was going to Spain for Erasmus, I instantly knew I had to try something new. Surfing was actually on my bucket list for a long time. I first heard about it from my boss at work. She goes surfing every summer and talks about how fun it is. That made me curious, so I started looking online to see what surfing really looks like.
One day, while we were talking about what to do in our free time, I suggested surfing. Živa looked at me with big eyes, and in that moment, I knew she was in. So we booked a surfing lesson, which was not too expensive.
On the day of the lesson, I was starting to get nervous, about 15 minutes before it began. It was my first time and to be honest, I am a little bit scared of the sea, but i still wanted to try.
When the lesson started, the first thing we did was to get dressed in wetsuits and had a 15 minute lesson on the beach. The instructor showed us how to stand up, how to paddle and which position is right on the board. He was amazing, full of energy and he also remembered all our names, which made everything more relaxed and like we knew him already. Then we went into the water. He showed us, where is our territory to surf. When it was time to try surfing, I was chosen as an example. I felt nervous, because people were watching me and I didn’t have a clue what to do. Surprisingly my first attempt was not that bad as I expected. Still, the waves were not on my side. I tried soo many times to stand up, but my strength just couldn’t keep up. At one point, I honestly felt like I’m going to die. I got swallowed by waves and not once, but twice. To make things worse, I got injured, which made it even hard to continue. It was exhausting and little bit scary. The lesson lasted about two hours. By the end my arms were burning and I was completely drained. I think I managed to catch around five waves, but standing up become almost impossible, because of the pain.
Even though it was hard, I was actually really proud of myself. The instructor told me that I have good balance. He also mentioned that the waves were not that good that day, because the sea is getting warmer. I’m not exactly sure what that means, but I decided to take it as a compliment. This experience taught me, that surfing is not as easy as it looks. You need patience, strength and a lot of will power. But at the sam time, it also taught me not to give up so quickly. Even when I was scared I kept trying.
Looking back, I didn’t become a surfer in two hours and I didn’t expect to. What really matters more is that I tried something that scared me and pushed me out of my comfort zone. I would definitely try surfing again. Now I know the basics, so maybe next time will be easier.
