Those of you that know me know that I really enjoy body boarding (We shall refer to it as surfing throughout this post), so recently when a friend of mine told me he wants to learn to surf (stand up) I offered to teach him the basics and get him started.
When you learn to surf however, you traditionally go to Muizenberg, or if you are afrikaans, Blouberg.... These spots provide you with safe oceans with little rips or back wash, have extremely small and slow waves, and you are surrounded by many like wise learning individuals. The problem with these places for people who surf quite often though is that it's, in lack of a better word, shit. This is the reason when this newbie to the sport friend of mine wanted to go for the first time, I took him with me and my mates to one of our local spots, Llundadno.
Cruising down mid afternoon on a beaut of a Cape Town day, I knew the surf was cranking, and a mate of mine who was just ahead of us had texted me that Llundadno in fact couldn't handle the swell. This meant one thing, a sneaky little trip down the little bush path around the corner to Sandy Bay. Sandies is known to handle bigger swell better than Llundadno, and is a fast, hollow, barrelling wave. Upon arrival Nic (The newbie) got into a spare suit, grabbed his board and off we went.... Coming over the dune before Sandies you could see the waves were rolling through, and I will be honest, I had a little chuckle at what Nic was unknowingly in for...
After about 5minutes of him trying to figure out how to put on the remaining part of the wetsuit, we were off. Luckily with Sandies the paddle to the back is super easy, and you can almost walk there between sets (Meaning it breaks extremely shallow). After catching up with a mate at the back I quickly looked for Nic, who at that time was 25metres further out to sea than anyone else and had to perform a mini emergency paddle to not join the tankers out in the deep blue... Floating around for 30 minutes watching people catch waves, Nic then decided it was his turn. On one of the biggest waves of the day, a 4 ft mini Sandies stinker, Nic goes paddling in.... Clyde has been quoted as saying he will never forget this sight in his life, and I for one am not sure how he is still alive.... Falling down the face of the wave, head first parallel to his bored, Nic performed one of the little Asian peoples Olympic diving manoeuvres, followed by a wave on top of his head!! A little concerned, we waited to see if he was alright, but sure enough, the trooper he is, Nic popped out the water with the biggest smile on his face with a "Can I have another one" grin on his face!
With an EPIC introduction to surfing, Nic is more keen than ever to get this whole surfing thing aced! So the motto of the story: Don't be scared of the unknown....But take a big breath the first time ;)
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