My First Wave.

[Ron Croci]

It was 1962, I was 16 years old. My friends parents had a cottage in Carmel California. He asked me, do you want to go to the Montery Jazz Festival, and stay at my folks house? Yes I said. I love Jazz, and all types of music, from Balinese to Orchestrated.

I knew nothing about surfing. In fact almost nobody surfed in Half Moon Bay, back then. We are in Carmel and my friend Lynn Yapel says lets go surfing! What?! Ok, so he lines me up with a long board and we head over to a popular surf spot near the golf course. The surf was pretty big for a beginner, almost 6 feet. He shows me how to paddle and we go out together. I don't even have a push through. I am completely disoriented, don't know where I am, or what I am doing. After a while of this confusion, Lynn comes over to me, turns me in the right direction, tells me to paddle, and pushes me into a cleanup set. I am laying on the back of the board, like kooks do, when the wave lifts me up, and I start screaming down the face. I CANT BELIEVE THE SPEED! I don't wipe out, and ride all the way to the beach. After this I sit down on the sand and watch. I know I was lucky and wanted that experience to sink in. Then and there was my first self aware, arch of character. A real epiphany.

I have surfed continually for the next 48 years.

[ArtByDaina]

After Reading Ron's wonderful first experience, I felt excited to share mine. It was end of last summer at the ripe young age of 34...

Since I moved to Nova Scotia’s eastern shore over a decade ago I've been an avid couch surfer. Not the couchsurfer.com type, but the wannabe type who loves to watch surf movies and documentaries, go to the beach and watch the local surfers floating and waiting and catching waves, all the while imagining what it must be like and wishing I could enjoy that pleasure and passion first-hand.

I don't really know what I was afraid of, why I was holding back. The cold? The dark water? Sharks? The right wetsuit keeps you warm, we have the best surf in Atlantic Canada, and while we do have sharks, there has never been a reported attack on a surfer in Nova Scotia.

So last August I finally snapped out of it. I decided to commit to learning what my husband Stefan considers to be "the most difficult and fulfilling sport he's ever done". I ordered a wetsuit through a distributor friend and I booked a 3-hour lesson with a local surf school for the following weekend.

But the anticipation and desire to get out in the water was building to a point I could no longer ignore. At a small local surf spot when my friend Peta offered to lend me her wetsuit, and Stefan offered to lend me his 7'6" board while he borrowed Peta's short board, I jumped for the opportunity. A traveler I met on the beach encouraged me to go out, saying "Just imagine, your first time surfing will be on the eve of Hurricane Bill."

Minutes later, I found myself awkwardly launching into the ocean, following my husband's lead, with not a thought in my mind. Just pure adrenaline and focus and fluid sensation. I paddled out to join the line-up, learned to balance on what would soon be my first board, and sat floating among a dozen other surfers looking out for swell on the horizon. What I had feared would be intimidating was actually welcoming, feeling safe in the company of good friends. The dark water on which I was floating was soothing, calming. The ocean air was thick with fog, and seemed to engulf us in a beautiful peaceful cocoon.

Even though I was really just observing and becoming familiar with the sport, the feeling on that Saturday evening was more than I had ever hoped my first time surfing would be. I didn't catch my first wave, on my feet that is. I struggled to find my balance and rhythm paddling. I got pummeled by whitewater and even got whacked by a rogue board. I had no concept of time nor of my spent muscles.

Later, when we were driving home, I finally became aware of how heavy I felt. I was experiencing the full-body buzz of pure exhaustion that comes after a surf session...and my face told the story with an ear-to-ear silly giddy grin of pure bliss. Even that night when I laid down to sleep, my body still felt like it was floating and rocking with the waves, the waves rocking me to sleep. I was hooked!