DAY 42: PUERTO ESCONDIDO
In the latest instalment of Andy and Rachael Do Adventurous Things, this morning we had our first surf class.
After some vigorous stretching (not quite vigorous enough if today’s sore bum is anything to go by), we spent the next half hour or so perfecting the perfect surfing stance and the manoeuvres required to get into it.
Essentially it’s like the burpees you do in the gym – from lying down to press up to squat to lunge. Except on a narrow board, on a wave. It actually wasn’t too difficult to master, but lest we forget this was on dry land…
After getting our stances sorted, we headed down to the beach to put the theory into practice. Getting up on the board in moving water wasn’t too bad, but that all went out of the window when we progressed from waves lapping at the shore to actual rolling ones – albeit much smaller than Zicatela’s recent nine-metre ones.
The great thing about our one-on-one class was that there’s absolutely no wimping out; when he yelled ‘stand up’, you stood up. Or at least tried. We saw lots of much bigger groups out in the water and, as well as spending just about five minutes demonstrating the stance on the beach, they didn’t seem to get much attention out in the water. We definitely chose well – Puerto Surf Lessons is the name.
Anyway, after a few face-first falls into the waves, we both managed to get to grips with surfing and not only caught waves but rode to the shore – standing up and everything. It was as exhilarating as you might imagine and even when everything started to ache we kept at it, seeking that thrill of doing it right again. They may have only been small waves, but I don’t think either of us expected to be standing and surfing properly after one morning.
Everything is quite painful today, but we will definitely be putting our skills to good use again – whether it’s here in Puerto or in Hawaii.
We spent the rest of the day being lazy by the pool/sea, reading and recovering those muscles which had been probably been used for the first time in their lives.
Dinner at Cafecito again before collapsing into bed for the kind of dead-weight sleep that can only be achieved by a day of hardcore exercise.
(PS no photos from the surfing, alas, because we didn’t take anything with us and also because no-one needs to see me in a rash-guard… The top pic is the beach where we surfed though!)