I float out in the ocean beyond the break with my surfing instructor and 2 of my best friends. I lay flat on my board and begin to baby paddle into position. Here comes one. My instructor holds on to the back of my board until she begins to instruct. "Paddle. Paddle, paddle. Paddle, paddle, paddle, paddlepaddlepaddlepaddlePADDLEPADDLEGETUP! UP!" My arms ache, I paddle as fast as I can, feel the water pick me up, try to pop onto my board like I was taught, instead of looking like Kelly Slater I think I may resemble Donkey Kong, but I´m up! And half a second to 2 seconds later I fall. And what do I shout out to my instructor?
"I´m very happy with that!"
Because I am! It´s not a mantra, though it sounds like one. I explained to Jenny, our lead instructor, that I achieved far more than I ever expected given my background. I don´t like deep water. I´m a little terrified of the ocean. Oh, and? I´m not a terribly strong swimmer. Why, oh why, did I ever even consider surf camp, then? It sounded like so much fun, I forgot I was scared.
Day 4 was the day. I had a great day -
though I did rip up my foot really early in the class on my fin. We had so much fun, Stella, Leslie and I went back out that afternoon to surf more. There was lightening over the water and a storm was rolling in, so we didn´t stay out too long.
Day 5 was our last official lesson and more of the same. I think I got up a couple of times, but never for more than a few seconds, but- I´m very happy with that!
Stella left on Day 6 which sucked. Leslie and I missed her madly! The three of us went out and surfed one last time together at 630a that morning. Our consolation though, was our instructors let us ride along on that day´s lesson. We still had our boards, and the ride, but no instruction. Almost my entire class did the ride-along. I had an okay day, but the surf was really choppy and tough to take. Leslie, Stephanie (natural surfer so I was inclined to be jealous of her, but she was too nice and I ended up liking her and her husband Andres a lot), and I got out of the water for a while and then decided to surf the white water on the inside. Our time was almost up on the beach when Leslie called out to me. I looked back at her and...didn´t get it. Her hand was on her left cheek. She moved her hand. Bright, crazy, horror movie blood was running down her face! I could tell she was dazed and in shock. I yelled at her to take off her leash, I would get her board, she had to get out of the water. While I tried to reign in both her board and mine (um, other surfers on the beach did NOTHING to help me. BOOO.), Les ran back to the van for the towel. By the time I got back to the van, Stephanie and Andres were back from the water and helping. Leslie had seen the gash in the reflection of the van window, so we couldn´t pretend it wasn´t bad. It was bad. The gash was on her left cheekbone and extremely deep. Andres hijacked the surf van and drove us back to town. He dropped us off at what we thought was the doctor´s office. Turns out it was a block or so down, so Les and I walked. The only doctor in town had a patient already, so she and I had to wait. I was terrified. I knew Leslie was hanging on to consciousness by sheer force and all I could think to do was quiz her on different mixed drinks because she used to be a bartender. Not too much later the doctor saw us and 30 minutes later Leslie had 7 stitches on her cheekbone. She was so brave - I was the one who kept almost crying.
Know what else? We still had a full day. Steph and Andres met us at the Doctor´s office (I TOLD you they were so nice!) and after regrouping at the hotel, we had a late lunch. Then Les and I souvenir shopped and caught the most beautiful sunset! We just walked around and hung out with our new friend Dupree (more on him later) until bed.
Leslie left this morning to go back to the states. It´s awfully wierd to be alone again after such a fun week. I decided to stay in Dominical and keep surfing for another few days. I had an awful dilemma trying to figure out where the hell to spend the last 5 days of my trip. Originally I had wanted to go to Montezuma, but apparently I wasn´t really looking at a map when I had that plan. The amount of travel isn´t worth the time I would have once I got there. So Dominical it is - I´m riding along everyday until I leave and I´ve downgraded to another hotel. It´s still got air-conditioning and it´s still on the beach. A girl´s got to have her priorities.
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