First time surfing

I finally got to realise a life-long dream of mine!

Having been born in and spending my life in the city, the prospect of surfing was not always attainable with the nearest surfable beach from KL a 3-hour drive away. Not only that, if you do want to surf, you can only go during the monsoon season (October to March) for the good waves. But just last week I got to cross “go surfing” off my bucket list as I rode the waves at Middleton Beach.

Two days after my last paper of the semester, my friend and I packed our beach towels and bathers and headed down south to Victor Harbour. We went on a cruise and did the touristy things but the highlight of our trip was surfing. I’ve always wanted to try surfing at least once while I’m in Australia and finally, I was able to turn my dream into reality!

We had our surfing lesson on a Tuesday morning with a company called Kombi Surf. It was very gloomy, grey and cold which to a non-surfer like me, seems like we’ve picked the worst possible day to surf. To our surprise, we were told by our coach that we were lucky because it was a good surfing condition – something about the wind and all that. He wasn’t lying because tons of surfers came out to catch the waves that day. Plus, we didn’t have to worry about getting sunburnt which is always a bonus.

We got into our wetsuits and had a safety talk. We were told what to look out for (thankfully no sharks), how to assess the waves and how to stand up on the board. Not long after that, we took our boards and headed towards the water.

I didn’t even realise how cold (or maybe it wasn’t?) the water was because there were a billion things going on in my head. The waves started to look taller and taller as we went further into the water. The only reason I was not full-on hyperventilating was because our coach was in the water with us the whole time. 

I was the first to go and managed to stand up on my first attempt! It was such an exciting feeling gliding through the water like I’m Frozone from The Incredibles. From that moment on, I became obsessed. I rode more waves and fell a lot more, all in the name of fun and creating memorable experiences. I think we were in the water for an hour and a half. My mouth was dry from the salty water but I was having too much fun to care!

One thing I’ve learned about surfing is how tiring it can be. The surfers on TV always make it look so easy and effortless when in reality, my arms were trembling every time I tried to push myself up to stand up. Not to mention I could barely raise my arms to tie my hair the next morning because of how sore they were! It's just like any other sport - you need a lot of discipline and practice to master it.

But is that going to stop me from surfing? No. I think I’ve fallen in love with the sport and will probably be hyper-fixating on it this summer. Have you tried surfing?