Normally I go windsurfing. Years ago I got my license for it. So you are standing on the board, holding the sail, and let the wind push you over the water. All you need is balance, power and basic knowledge of sailing. That helps a lot.
On one event I met Angela. After the usual business chat I told her of my hobby geocaching and she told me about hers: surfing. We decided to meet and share our experiences with each other. We started with the surfing. At 6am I got up, and drove to Angela’s place.
As usual the numbers on where nowhere to be seen, I still think it is kind of luxury to have a good seeable number on houses so that everybody could find things easier. I am getting used to call the people and let them come out to get me. Even the navigation system was failing: “You have arrived at your destination!” Whatthe…. A crossroad?!?
So I called her twice. Then she was running out of the street to get me.
We pa
cked her things into the car: board, wetsuit, towel. Then we drove to Santa Clara. Foggy, rainy, cloudy road and many people with boards were driving in the same direction as we did.
We stopped at a place where I could hire a board and a wet suit, 35 $ daily. I remembered when I was stuffing myself into it how hard it was to get in it at least. And this was a complete suit, long sleeves and legs. Breathing is luxury, you are looking like a sausage and also feeling like one. They gave me a beginners board, actually it was to big and heavy for me, next time I will pick a lighter and smaller version.
We stuffed everything in the car, luckily there is an option to open the glass of the back, my board was ways to long. I drove bare feet to the cliff. A few more instructions later, I had my board over my head and was carefully stepping down the stairs.
You need to put a wire around one ankle which is connected with the board, so it can’t swim away when you fall off. It can be a kind of strangulation when you are using the wrong ankle or fall to many times on the wrong side of the board.
I asked for more instructions while we were stepping into the water. I was told what I have to do when I need to pee and was laughing like hell, same what windsurfers and everybody is doing. (No – we are not running to the next public toilet)
The wet suit was making me very happy: The Pacific at my bare feet and hands was horribly cold, even when the water was running into the wet suit through the zipper I got goose bumps.
While we paddled out we saw a very cute sea otter. It is incredibly allot of wild life out here! Things I normally only see in zoos are running around me, so close that I could touch them!
We stayed out there for two hours, sadly she didn’t have more time and it was very crowded too. Cause of the huge amount of surfers it was not that easy for me to focus alone on my tasks but also keep looking out for other people who were definitely in my way. In the end I figured out how to surf.
I am really looking forward to do this again!
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