Surfing Waves

I thought the first tube ride was a good idea but disappointed no one wants to post there so I am starting another thread about if you remember your first wave. One that you stood up and rode for at least a few seconds. Or if you can't remember that would be interesting too. When I was a kid I used to go to work with my parents during the summer when I wasn't in school. My parents office was close to Kalapaki and the Kauai Surf hotel which is now the Westin. I used to go down there to take swimming lessons in the Yacht Club swimming pool. One of the beach boy down there was a real impressive waterman. He could swim, surf, paddle canoes and all the girls swooned over him. I liked him to. He was a friendly good natured guy. I knew he did surf lessons and asked him to teach me to surf. He kept telling me he was busy and maybe someday when he wasn't he would. His name was Percy Kinimaka and his family ran the beach boy business down there. Anyway one day I was at Wailua beach and I see him there with his surfboard so I go bug him to teach me how to surf and for a change he says yes he would. So he had a long board that I could stand on without it being on a wave because I was just a little kid. He pushes me into a couple waves and each time I stand and ride the wave to the shore then jump off on the beach. Then he goes surfing and leaves me there. I thought at the time "What's the big deal about surfing? It's so easy and boring. At least when you body surf there is the sensation of the water rushing over your body." I went back to body surfing and never thought about surfing again for at least a few years.

When I was a little kid, less than 10 years old, a friend of mine and his brothers were learning how to surf. They took me to the beach once, and their father pushed me through some whitewater waves with his longboard. I really enjoyed it, but I moved away from the beach a while later. Now I live about 100 miles from the beach, and took me a while to finally leave the distance appart and get myself a board. I've tryied once with a rented board, but I didnt know how to duck dive or paddle right, and couldnt get to the line up. So about 2 months ago I bought a second hand 6'1" shortboard and surfed everyday the beach wasnt flat, for at least 7 to 10 hours a day. In the 4th or 5th day I could properly drop in a wave, and after the first one it just came naturally. I can drop most waves I paddle to, and am now learning to ride along the line of the wave. My bottom turn is flowing nice, and I'm working on my top turns. Tomorrow I'm heading back to the beach for a few days, will try to enjoy some surfing before college starts again. Then I'll only be able to go to the beach a weekend per month maybe, but it's alright, gonna try to make the most of it. And who knows someday I might live by the beach again!

I can't remember

Before I started surfing regularly, I'd do a once a year trip down to Newquay in Cornwall. Anyone who's been to Newquay knows where this tends to lead... five days drinking and two hours surfing
So I don't remember my first actual wave, but it would have been on a foamie, at Fistral Beach, with a hangover, and smelling of Red Bull

An inauspicious start. After a couple of years of that, I realised it was time to stop going to Newquay and time to start camping near a beach with no pubs!

Dbbb!!! I know the feel, came to post my story and its actually like exactly the same hahaha, (actually a very gorgeous Canadian girl told me to lie on the board, so that I could just see the logo, paddle like crazy and then stand up!) Worked coz I stood on my third wave

Awesome thread!

Well, the first wave I ever caught and rode down the line (which is what really hooked me) was completely by mistake. I was just trying to go in after an hour of riding whitewater. It may have occurred because I had angled my board, but I certainly didn't intend to.

Anyway, I'll probably chase that feeling the rest of my life. I can honestly say I've never not enjoyed surfing, save one time when I had the flu. It wasn't the curative I hoped it would be.