[CKF Info] Surfing at the Aqua Adventures' Symposium

[P Martin]

Wow!  I think I may have had too much fun.  I've had this big grin stuck on my face since Friday's surfing class, and as Mark Sanders speculated, it may be a permanent feature.  And, as if the surfing wasn't enough, everything else I experienced at the Symposium just bonded the grin deeper into my psyche.   

So now I'm confused.  I started the week out  grumpy, stressed out, and weary of work.  This was a perspective that I had grown accustomed to.  I knew my roll, and although my cynicism may have been a little harsh at times, I was functional.

But now I'm not only happy, I think I may even be exuberant!  When I go to work tomorrow, people will not know how to relate to me and I won't know how to relate to them.  They will likely get suspicious when I don't scowl at them.  Being upbeat and optimistic may cause them to shy away from me.  Hmmm, on second though, I'm seeing an advantage to this; maybe I will have an opportunity to get caught up on my work if people try to avoid me for a while.

It all started with Friday's surfing class taught by two English men, Shawn Morley and Nigel Foster.  Right from the beginning I was a bit apprehensive about this class because my classmates included Mike Bode and Mark Sanders.  Mike and Mark are well known as excellent photographers and great story tellers.  I knew that if I screwed up they would be able to document every detail to such an extent that it would be useless to try to come up any lame excuses.

Then, they put me in this silly little boat that looked as if a shark had nipped of the front and back ends.  And as I tried to paddle what was left of this boat into the surf, I found that it wanted to go every direction but straight ahead.  With every stroke the boat tried to spin around and head back to shore.  Then it dawned on me, having had both it's ends bitten off by shark attacks, the poor little boat was afraid to go back into the surf; it just wanted to go someplace safe and hide.

I decided I needed to act like a "Boat Whisperer".  I told the little boat that it need not worry about being gobbled up by a shark because it was being paddled by an Old Fart.  To date, no Old Fart has ever been eaten by a shark because our scent tells the sharks that not only do we taste terrible, we are so putrid that a shark would get poisoned if it so much as tasted an Old Fart.  The pep talk convinced the little boat to cooperate with me and let me paddle it into the surf.

Before I knew it, I was in the surf with a squirrely little boat that wanted to spin in circles.  I soon found that this boat could run from the surf going frontward, sideways, or backwards.  There were times when the boat went in the direction that I wanted it to go.  And there were times when the boat went into auto pilot and took me where it wanted to go.  And just as I was beginning to appreciate the little surf boat's sense of humor, Dumpy showed up and decided to make things interesting.  I found myself being hoisted high into the air on a big green wave.  The wave was so steep that it scared my little boat which tried to duck and cover.  The nose of the little boat dove under water, and as I was being pitch-poled, the noise coming out of my mouth was the sound of Scrat meeting Dumpy, "WHAAAAAAA......"

Getting pummeled by Dumpy is definitely an E-Ticket ride.  Not only do you get bounded and spun all over the place, but Dumpy tries to rob you while he is bouncing you around like a basketball in a Harlem Globe Trotters game.  I found Dumpy trying to pull my helmet and goggles off my head.  Then he tried to pull me out of my boat so that he could pick my pocket.  Fortunately the little boat did not want to let go of me because it needed me for protection against sharks.  And with the little boat on my side, I discovered that my combat roll still worked.

That's when the fun really began with the little boat.  I caught some nice rides and surprised myself when I found I could actually maneuver the boat in a limited sort of way.  I've still got a long way to go before I can boast of any surfing proficiency, but I was off to a great start and having the time of my life.  All told, I had pulled off about 8 combat rolls while dueling with Dumpy.  I got knocked over so many times that I was actually starting to get relaxed while being under water.  Fortunately my roll and my timing worked so that I did not have to go swimming.

At the end of the day, I wasn't the only one with a case of happy face.  Mike and Mark were also sporting big grins.  It was a lot of fun to be out there in the surf with those guys and seeing them catching some great rides.  It was also an eye opener to watch Nigel Foster surfing; he was so graceful cutting back and forth on the front of a wave that he made it look easy.

My thanks to Nigel Foster and Shawn Morley for coaching us in the surfing class.  And I can not express enough appreciation for Jen Kleck, Jake Stachovak, and the Aqua Adventures crew for organizing and hosting such a fantastic Symposium.  

One special moment comes to mind, I was standing next Jen at the bonfire with a light rain falling.  I commented that the Symposium brought so many wonderful people together that I was torn between spending time with people that I didn't get to see very often vs. meeting new people.  Jen summed it up when she said the Symposium is like a big family reunion.

All the best,

Patrick Martin
  

  

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