Surfin'

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Elizabeth surfs, and her boyfriend Yoyi is an amazing surfer who also gives surf lessons. Yoyi has told me from the beginning of the year that he would give me a lesson whenever I wanted to try surfing. I’ve been pretty content to hang out on the beach watching. The idea of surfing seemed intimidating especially since I’d never even watched anyone surf before. Plus my sources told me surfing takes a significant amount of upper body strength, and I don’t have that. But after spending time on the tranquil Caribbean, watching Elizabeth surf and listening to her talk about surfing, I decided to go for it.

Our co-worker Diana and her friend wanted to learn to surf, so we all went to the beach together a few weeks ago. The sun was out, a great day to surf, although it was windy so the waves were a little rough. Yoyi had me practice standing up on the beach first and then we went out into the water. I attempted to stand up once, and didn’t make it. Not a big deal. As I went to pull the surf board back to me, a wave came and the surf board popped up and hit me on the nose! It hurt, but I was ready to try again. Or at least I thought I was, until Yoyi told me that I was bleeding. Apparently quite a bit! Later he told me that I had a bigote de sangre. So, my surfing attempt that day ended with me sitting on the beach holding ice cubes on my nose.

Another day with much smaller waves, another attempt…. Or rather many attempts…

Me, getting a lesson from Yoyi's friend Alex.

This involved a lot of me falling off...

Yeah, my knee shouldn't be on the surf board.

Well, if I can't stand, maybe I can kneel....

Success!!!