During my trip, I wanted to take the chance to try a sport that so many people rave about: Surfing. Now the time has come and I have chosen a great accommodation for it - the Rapture Surfcamp in Padang. Here you are accommodated in a beautiful facility and can do yoga every day and of course surfing. Most of the guests here are solo travelers who come from different (mostly European) countries and have very different surfing experiences.
After the 1st night in the camp it was time - at 05:30 in the morning we started towards Dreamland Beach. After a short car ride everyone took his assigned surfboard and we walked down to the beach for a few minutes. The beach was still deserted except for a few surfers. We walked to the middle of the beach, placed our surf boards next to each other and got a general briefing. We talked about what kind of waves we would find on this beach and the best place to paddle out.
Then we were divided into small groups depending on the level. I was together with a German traveler only two in a group and our surf coach Nick showed us the absolute basics on the beach. Here we learned how to lie on the surf board, how to paddle and how to stand up. We practiced this sequence of movements countless times. It was already super strenuous for me, especially in the lower back area, because you always have to have your upper body somewhat erect while paddling.
When Nick found that we had internalized the movement sequence quite well, we went into the water. Already the start was very exciting - we were only knee high in the water with our boards under our arms when quite high waves came crashing down on us. Nick gave us instructions and we moved a few steps forward or backward depending on the swell. After a few minutes, there was a chance to finally paddle out - we jumped on the boards and started paddling the way we had learned on the beach. The salt water splashed in my face, but I tried not to get distracted and followed Nick as best I could. Once we paddled out a bit, Nick briefed us - one person was to wait in that spot while the other person came along with him and made the first attempts to get a wave and stand up.
I came right along with him and we paddled back towards the beach a bit, to a height where it was apparently optimal to get waves. Nick held my surfboard and instructed me - when he said "paddle" I should paddle with all the power I had, and when he then shouted "up" I should try to stand up. When the first appropriate wave came and he let go of my board, I paddled off. I was so overwhelmed by the power of the wave that I didn't even get to stand up - after paddling, the wave immediately took me and I was submerged and spun around before I could think a clear thought. I didn't know where up and down was, and only by the strong pull of the "leash" on my ankle did I know that my board must still be somewhere nearby.
When I surfaced I just felt completely overwhelmed. I got back on my surfboard and tried to paddle to the side like Nick told us to. While trying to paddle to the side to stay out of the way of the other surfers, I got caught by more waves and was thrown off the board again. Somehow I made it back to the starting point and was glad to be able to wait and regain some strength. But I was happy too early - since I was still at the open sea, waves came up to me while I was waiting and since it was my 1st time on the surfboard at all I had no plan how to deal with these waves. I was constantly whirled from the board and tried between the waves to get back on the board. It cost me a lot of strength and I tried to breathe deeply, so as not to despair completely.
After about two hours we went back to the beach and just getting out of the sea was super exciting. Nick pushed my board so that I came as close as possible to the shore. There were rocks and coral in the shallow water on this beach, so it wasn't a good place to stand in the water and go out on my own. Just before I reached the shore with my board, another wave caught me and I was thrown off my board again in this shallow water with a rocky bottom. Due to the stripe on the stony ground I had some abrasions on my legs. I tried to get up as quickly as possible, took my board and walked the last bit to the beach before the next wave came.
I went back to our starting point completely exhausted, put down my surfboard, sat on it and took a few breaths. The adrenaline wore off, I was shaking with fear all over my body, and I was in tears from being so overwhelmed. I just thought to myself, "Why did I want to try surfing so badly?"
Talking to the other surfers, I then got the info that today's conditions were very bad for absolute beginners and that the days before were much easier with much smaller waves and also the beaches they practiced on were much more suitable because absolute sandy beaches and therefore the risk of injury was not as high as on this beach. I was also the only one in the group for which it was really the very first surf day ever - so very difficult starting conditions.
During the break on the beach I thought about whether I should really dare to go into the water again for the second session. I was physically exhausted and extremely afraid of hurting myself or possibly hurting others because I had absolutely no control over my board. Then I gave myself a jolt - I didn't want to end my surfing attempt with this feeling - and decided to join in on the 2nd session as well.
Before we went back into the water, I asked Nick to explain to me how to deal with the waves while I waited at the open sea. He explained the options depending on the type of wave and I told myself that I was now better prepared and tried to go into this second session with a little more confidence.
The second session was a little better than the first session. Another surfer with more experience helped me deal with the waves and in the end on the last try I was even able to stand the wave before I was whirled around in the water again.
Overall, this day was extremely challenging for me both physically and emotionally. This is not how I had imagined my first attempt at surfing. But I'm proud that after the first session I managed to keep going and the feeling of success at the end of a wave was admittedly very good.
If you have any experience, how was your first surf attempt? 😊
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