A Return to Surfing
When I was in grad school and before Sam was born, I spent some time surfing in California. I remember it being fun, but also exceedingly difficult. I recall a constant battle to paddle out while being battered by big, unrelenting rollers. When I finally did manage to get to the lineup, I caught one wave, instantly wiped out and was carried right back to the beach by the boiling, white fury. I didn’t have much spare money, so I bought a board that was too small, which made it harder to paddle and to catch waves. The easy breaks in Santa Cruz are very crowded, so I often went to Half Moon Bay and Pacifica, which offer much more room, but are (surprise) harder to surf, violent even - I was once tossed off the top of a 10 foot, snap breaking wave and broke my board when I hit the bottom.
In the now, Sam has been obsessed with surfing for a few years. He loves the ocean; body surfing, boogie boarding, snorkeling. Surfing seems like a great extension and a new way to be in the ocean and enjoy it, but because of my experience I’ve been warning him that it might be…disappointing. However, you can only put off his youthful enthusiasm for so long and so when we arrived in Cape Town, Sam did all the research and coordination to find a surf instructor and into the ocean we went.
I’m happy to report that I was wrong about the difficulty. The beach break at Muizenberg is super mellow - the waves are tame and the paddle out is no big deal. Sam was great, Joe was great. Both managed in the surf well and easily caught waves. After the lesson, we rented boards and suits a dozen more times. I think they’re hooked.
After almost 3 weeks of surfing by ourselves, Sam decided to request a second lesson with the goal of improving skills like paddling out and catching more green waves. Bennett (our instructor) picked a perfect day with moderate waves and helped us all improve. Mostly he was behind the kids to give them a shove on their takeoff, so he didn’t really get any shots of them riding, but we had several takeoffs together, so you get to see me surf instead of Sam.
