Learning to surf has always been something that  I had wanted to do when I was younger and would get motivated seeing the latest Gidget movies always made surfing look easy.  But that enthusiasm to learning to surf disappeared and I had shelved the idea as the body is now a lot older but the mind is still young and eager I began to wonder could I still do this?

Learning to Surf – The First Steps

I plucked up the courage to go to the local surf shop and was met by the typical surfie type guy with sun bleach hair tanned and muscled and he thought that I probably was shopping for my son at first and then explained that  I needed a wet suit to fit me as I was learning to surf on the weekend and I needed the suit for protection when I get dumped.  He came back with a few sizes and ushered me to the fitting room.

I looked down at the figure in the dressing room trying on the first wet suit and as I gazed into the dressing room mirror you know the ones that show you from every angle as I tried to squeeze a now much older figure into the rubber suit and found that the curves I had in my twenties had given way to rolls of fat in my forties.  I put this down to too many wines and nibbles after work and no exercise.

I will put this down on the “to do list” after seeing the fat rolls being pushed upwards while I struggled to pull the suit on until I had enormous boobs that were the result of the fat rolls combined together and now completely encased in the rubber suit.  I thought no shark would attempt to eat me I was too big a meal for him I looked like a whale!

Regardless before the salesperson ripped the curtain back to ask “how I was doing in there are the sizes ok?”  I quickly peeled the suit off and paid for it and headed back to the car to drive to the surf school I found on the internet.

Learning to Surf- Surf School at Broulee:

 I found this learning to surf school at Broulee which is approximately 25 kms south of Bateman’s Bay this is about 3 hours south of Sydney.  The rates are reasonable 2 hour group lessons are $40 with 3 lessons $110 and five $165 also private lessons are available.

I met at the assigned time and met up with Tim who has crow’s feet and the washboard abs physique of a pro surfer.  He is also a qualified school teacher so I figured he must have loads of patience.

He first showed me on land:

•  how to wait for a wave

• then get onto your board and how to roll off the board before biting into the sand.

I have a little bit of experience with boogie board so I am not a complete novice I guess.

But things start to go from good to bad at the next stage of the lesson as I attempt to get to my knees while the board bucks beneath me as it hurtles towards the shore.

Gladly Tim has the patience of a saint and is unflappable and after every wave gives me another tip on feet placement and where my hands should be.  Getting a little more confidence I am soon on my feet in sort of a fashion.  I really thought that I would be crouching on the board like a ninja warrior but find my stance is nothing like that at all as I am tossed aside like a shirt in a spin cycle and washing up behind the surfboard.

There are 2 things that I have learnt quickly:

•  a surfboard is exceedingly unstable and isn’t designed for soft contact with a persons head.
• the years of neglect of my body are evident as I am now panting like a beached walrus.

Another thing that surfers always tell themselves that the next wave will be better and sometimes it is and sometimes it is not!

I manage a few exhilarating moments that  I can stand on my board and ride a wave.  But now I am tired and cold while the sun is sinking behind the sand dunes, but just like a little kid with pleading eyes and say “just one more ride?”

I totally loved learning to surf experience and wonder why I had left it this late in life to try to surf, now that I have the basics it is practice and more practice ahead of me.