TravelingWebGuy

Raglan Beach

And the bad part about it was that the battery for my camera was almost dead so I didn’t get any good pictures! I did mange to snap off a few hoping they would come out and by the looks of my camera, two of them came out from the beach. But what was cool about this place was that it had big cool ass beach that apparently was ‘the’ surf spot in New Zealand. I remember hearing that two big time circuit surfers own houses in this area which to the local Kiwis meant it was a hot spot for surfing.

I must admit, the beach that was in front of my was long and looked like it had some definite surf potential. So while I was standing at the top looking down, I decided.. “You know what Tim, you’re from California, you snowboard, wakeboard, play hockey, softball, all that good stuff… But the one thing you don’t do is SURF!” So right then at the moment I decided to take a surf lesson and try this thing out! I found a local place that did lessons, signed myself up, and was soon headed to a back room where all the pre-training goes on. As I walked back here there were some foam boards stretched across the floor and a big painting of the beach on the wall in front of us. I sat on the couch opposite the painting and the instructor introduced himself, had me say a few things about me and asked about my vast surfing experience… which to this point was 1 attempt in Lompoc, California where a friend Craig Degarmo,  a few others. and myself all decided it would be a cool thing to surf here as we heard it was a great spot. Point of the story, when we got to the  beach, the waves were MUCH bigger than they had looked from up top and as I tried to catch the first wave, I got it late, was thrown down with the force of the wave, knocked my dome on the sand and came up with an impressive headache. Needless to say, that was my last time I surfed!

So after revealing that story and my successful bailout on my first surfing attempt, he went into his routine of letting me know how waves work, how the beaches, tides, rip currents, and direction of the waves all play a role in surfing. After that lesson I learned the 4 steps it would take to get up on the board once I catch a wave. The first was a half-push up, the second was bringing out knees to my chest but still keeping my weight proportional, the third was placing my feet in the proper position, and the fourth was standing up. So I did this a few times slowly to get it into memory, then I practiced doing it all in 1 fluid motion. Again, I practiced this a few times for consistency purposes. Once he was satisfied, he gave me a quick run down on how to turn and feel the wave as I ride it and then it was off to put on the wet suits.

I was given my wetty, some footies and threw those into the back of the truck. Piled in and we were off. It’s about a 5 min drive from the surf school to the beach. Once we got there we hoped out, put on our suits, footies, and were waking down to the beach. We got down to the beach, picked our reference point and then were on our way into the water.The waves looked a little bigger from the sea level than they did a few hundred feet up, but he told me we would start off in the smaller breaks and work our way up.

Got out to the where the water was waist high and the waves were breaking gently, he told me to go ahead and hop on my board and to get ready. A wave comes and he tells me to paddle, I do, then I feel the water pick up my board and take it, then I head “GO” which meant it was time for me to get up! I do my 1 through 4 count and as I stand up I push the board to my side and SPLASH I fell backwards into the sea. I paddle back to the instructor and he said “nice try mate” and tells me to hop back on my board. Another wave is on it’s way and I again start to paddle, I feel the water pick me up and then I hear the “GO” again! I start my 4 count and stand up… but this time I stay up and surfed the wave for about 20 seconds before it died and I jumped off. W00T!! Second time and I was up! Now I’m starting to feel pretty confident!

We spend a half hour doing more of the same. Catching and falling off small waves, just learning how to get the feel of it

What a nice Sunset!

all. After the half hour he has me try some bigger waves and I fall on more of these than I catch, but I did catch a few good ones. We spent the next hour and a half working on those waves and it was a good time.

After about 2 hours in the water the time was up and the sun was setting. So I grabbed my board and we headed back to the truck to get rid of our wet gear.  As I was walking up I turned to check out the beach again and saw the sun setting over the South-East horizon and I pulled out my camera hoping it had enough juice for one more shot! It did and I think it came out pretty well!

Now that I had that done, I was a bit cold but not a cold as I thought I would be, it was time to head off back to the Hostel to jump in a hot shower or take some time to sit in the Sauna they had for the people staying there. I actually got back and took a shower first because I was pretty cold and wanted to wash all the sand and sea water off me.

Can’t believe I had to go to New Zealand to learn how to surf when I’ve been in California most of my life! But not a bad place to learn anyways!