A good mate of mine, Scott, is a mad keen surfer. Every week he is off somewhere searching out one wave or another, so yesterday I thought I would invite myself along. Surfing - how hard could that be? I've even seen dogs doing it on TV so had high hopes of 'hanging 10', getting a tube and generally busting some phat surfing mooves.... As with most of my best plans it didn't quite work out like that!
Garry asked me a while back if Nelson had any surf and the answer is yes. There are a couple of spots right next to town that, I've been told, are well worth a visit if the swell/weather is right. Part of the reason for these spots being here is the 13 km long boulder bank that was formed naturally over a few millennia (click here for a bit more detail - its a pretty cool thing).
Anyway - the weather was right yesterday (off shore wind and a bit stormy) so Scott borrowed me a very nice board, a wetsuit and some booties and we were off. We had to do a bit of walking across a deserted beach, swim across a tidal inlet, walk round a really lovely bay, but when we got there there seemd to me to be some pretty big waves, and plenty of them. There were about 6 guys there already so it was fun to watch them doing their thing and getting all inspired. After 5 mins of that we were in and I was trying, rather spectacularly unsuccessfully, to remeber how to duck dive whilst these big frothing rollers gave me a pummelling. Luckily for me there was a bit of an outward tide at the far end so you could just paddel to that and get sucked out to sea before cutting back across and lining up a good looking wave to get on - COWABUNG DUDE!!
To be honest I can't recall much about the next 3hrs we spent in the water - here though are my blurry observations:
- It was fun but bloody hard work. Even sitting on the thing was like riding a mechanical bull with a belly full of larger. I can confirm I got smashed up a lot.
- I managed to get onto 2 or maybe 3 waves properly - by this I mean that a big wave came, I turned and paddled like hell, then just as I thought it was going to pass me by I got picked up a blasted forward. At no point was standing up an option! I barely managed to get on my knees and waved my arms like I was having some kind of attack. Having said that it was really fun - I got carried for maybe 5-7 seconds and felt maybe 20% of what it must feel like to be a bona-fide surfer.
- Most of the time I spent getting pummeled in the surfy/white water bit. And I mean getting pummeled. I was thrown around, bashed down, winded, dunked, rolled and generally beat upon by nature. I even got sea sick at one point. It was actually pretty good fun but I must have looked like a total tourist. Who cares - it was a good laugh.
The waves actually broke on a sand bank made up of tiny pebbles (not sand) so, even though a bashing was had, there was no coral or sharp stuff to cut you. I do have a bruised nose and tired arms this morning but other than that I am ready for another go.
The other guys that were there must have thought that Scott was taking part in a 'care in the community' challenge as they were all friendly, supportive and willing to shout tips to me when my head was momenterily above water. I had heard that surfing can be a bit agro, especially if your splashing around on the best waves of the day, but I didn't get any of that which was nice.
So thats it - despite by mental anticiptaion, I was not a Kelly Slater waiting to be discoverd. I wasn't as one with the water (though I did do a no.1 in the water which cheered me up for 5 seconds) and I wont be getting a call from Quicksilver any time soon (more like TV's funniest moments!) but I will definately be heading out again and, if nothing else, trying to get myself stood up for a few seconds. I'll let you know how I get on.
For those of you who are into surfing, and fancy coming over here and doing some, then check out this website - its goy some pics and info on the Nelson surfing scene (click here)
Sweet as brah
