The Big Kahuna

One of my goals for both the time here in Maui and before in Australia was to go surfing. Both areas are reknown for their surfing beaches. Sadly, I was not able to make it out surfing while in Australia, but that made me all the more insistant to try surfing while here in Maui.

I have been told by a few people that I am too tall to surf. Given that the surfboard is proportional to the surfer, there might be something to that theory, but I was determined to prove wrong all the naysayers. My theory was this: surfing is half standing up, and half falling down. I am exceptional at falling down, so I already had complete command of 50% of the skills needed for surfing. I figured standing up couldn't be that hard.

As it turns out, it wasn't. Thanks to a good instructor at the surf lessons I took, and a 12' long board. I was surfing, as the pictures can show.

Sadly, I was misinformed about the skills needed for surfing. There is a third skill required, and some might even go so far as to say it is the most critical skill. That skill would be paddling. I spent 90 minutes in the water, and probably 60 of them paddling against the waves, using only my arms, while lying on the surfboard. I am therefore exhausted in parts of my body that I had not been introduced to prior to this morning. So, having posted photographic proof of my success, and delivered a solid nose thumbing in the direction of my doubters, or at least a generally easterly direction, I now head to bed.