I called Hawaiian Watersports, based in Kailua, about 20 minutes away by car, to sign up for my first group surfing lesson. They told me to meet the van at the Waikiki Library parking lot, a very short walk from my apartment, at 9:00AM on a Saturday. There I met my instructor, I forgot his name, and I found out that my group lesson has become a private lesson, lucky me (warning sign #1?). My instructor, I’ll call him Dave, kind of a pothead burnout, said that we’re going to drive a short distance to the breaks at the base of Diamond Head. During the trip over he surprised me with his interest in current events and politics, even if he was a bit of a conspiracy theorist. From where we parked the dilapidated van it was a short hike down a steep path to a patch of beach below one of the bridges, around on the Hawaii Kai side of Diamond Head (Kuilei Cliffs Beach Park). Dave’s instructional style was fun and relaxed, but, unfortunately, the conditions were not the best for a beginner – the wind was strong and from the south, creating a lot of chop which made paddling away from shore an even more onerous task than it already would have been, and knocking down the breakers into what Dave called “mashed potatoes.” I didn’t last much more than 30 minutes on the rough water before I was exhausted and called it quits. I had made a couple of attempts to catch a wave but I never got on my feet.
At least for beginners, surfing is 95% spent paddling on your stomach, working your way out a channel between wave breaks and then positioning yourself to catch a wave. If you haven’t done much swimming you might find this exhausting. In addition, my posture isn’t the best, and paddling requires you to keep your head up and arms churning – it became clear that surfing would give my upper body a workout that it had never before experienced. Also, you have to be able to push yourself off of the board and hop onto your feet quickly to get the most out of the wave. A little land-based training can help you with this, and you don’t need any special equipment – just practice pushing up off of the floor from a prone position and getting on your feet as quickly as possible, either by first kneeling and then standing, or hopping up with one motion. Make sure that your feet are positioned along the spine of your imaginary surfboard, otherwise you’ll have difficulty staying upright once you’re on the water. If you can make surfing a regular activity, your abs, back, neck and shoulders will be strengthened enormously while doing something enjoyable outdoors. These are the ideal workouts – when you’re having so much fun that you don’t even recognize it as a workout. I just needed to keep at it for a while to get past the steep part of the learning curve and get to the fun part.
The next time I went surfing occurred a month later when a buddy of mine from the East Coast came out for a visit and wanted to try surfing. I recommended that we go with a more mainstream outfit, so we signed up for a group lesson with a popular company 2 blocks from my apartment on the corner of Kalakaua and Kapahulu, Hans Hedemann Surf. OK, so they cater to tourists, mostly. It turned out to be a better overall experience, but that could have been more due to the superior weather conditions that day than the quality of instruction, which was actually pretty good. There were about a dozen of us, and they had us practice on a simulator indoors before donning a “rash guard” shirt and carrying our boards a short distance down Waikiki beach in the direction of Diamond Head. Due to the size of the group two or three assistants were also present to provide coaching and a little extra push on our boards from behind to help us drop into a wave. My friend Aaron who was visiting me was actually in Hawai’i to meet a group of his college buddies to swim from Lanai to Maui as a relay team – so he had good shoulder strength for the paddling. I had done some windsurfing on a lake in Maine so I had decent balance on the board once I actually caught a wave. We both had a couple of pretty good rides, and the surf school had a photographer on the shore to catch us when/if we caught a wave and successfully stood up. They coached us to pose and ham it up if we got on our feet, and I obliged them, never one to shy away from an opportunity to look stupid for the camera (an inclination which I’m trying to curb).
I had a golden opportunity to get better at surfing if I had only spent even just an hour or so after work a couple of times a week. I spent an entire year a mere 2 blocks from some of the best practice surf in the world! But I got caught up in other things, made different choices, and sometimes that’s the way it goes. I only went surfing twice after that group lesson with Aaron. The next time was probably 8 months later when I rented a board for an hour from a place on the beach near the police station, and returned after only 40 minutes without getting a good ride – I was way out of practice (ha! I was never “in practice!”). However, let me be clear – even when you’re not catching waves, you’re still on the warm water enjoying the sun with other beginner/intermediate surfers offshore of a tropical paradise – it is not time wasted!
My final experience surfing was only weeks from my departure from O’ahu. I was on the Fort DeRussy side of Waikiki and it was a very light surf day. There weren’t many surfers out there, and I headed out towards some waves where there was no one else. I had a waterproof case containing my hotel room key (I was in temporary lodging leading up to my relocation) and $20, and at some point, probably after a fall, it floated out of my swimsuit pocket which I had forgotten to zip up. I also stubbed my big toe on the coral and ended up with a nasty gash that I didn’t notice until I was out of the water and walking on it. However, this final surfing session ended with a good, solid ride, so those negatives were happily forgotten.
Surfing is a fun way to exercise and becomes increasingly enjoyable with practice. Give it a try if you're going to O'ahu or Maui, the two islands where you can consistently find the best conditions for beginners and pros alike.
Aloha
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