On the Boards Is the Man They Call the Mario
So Liz and I graduated from South shore beginner surf to North shore proper surf. We went yesterday to a beach caled Ho'okipa.
As we got ready to enter the water a kind gentleman by the name of Mario offered assistance. He was surfing with a group of kids. It looked like maybe a couple of his own and a few of their friends. You know- 10 year olds and maybe 12 year olds.
So we all start into the water. The wind is howling, the waves are way bigger than anything I'd ever touched, water is spraying all around like a sizeable windy downpour- except that it was sunny out. I get a little disoriented and paddle about twice as far out as everybody else. I look back, and there in the midst of what to me appears to be a maelstrom, is Liz waiting for me. I'd seen her get a bit unnerved in the larger beginner surf on the South side but here when keeping together was a bit more important she was a calm and collected leader (of lost sheep like me). So I start back in toward her. Together we get blown across past the surfer surf into the giant white wash piles near where the sailboarders are doing their thing. We paddle and paddle and eventually get back to where we should have stayed. Liz is calm and smiling and checking on me the whole time. When it mattered she got down to business.
So anyway we are back in the surfer surf and the kids are all smiles and comfort and fun. I didn't notice gills, but I didn't notice Pennsylvania license plates on their boards either. Mario paddles over to me and directs me to follow him out and then into what he calls the Power Zone. To me it looked like an ideal place for one of those harness-natural-energy generators. Well he gets me out into that stuff and soon I am riding a couple footbal fields distance back to shore. And then back out to the power zone and some flips and cartwheels and breath holding and a few more sweet rides as well. None nearly as adroit as the kids, but then I'm a beginner.
Calm and collected Liz- she didn't quite get standing rides but she got to her feet a number of times. She got spun and thrown and cartwheeled and generally over her fear of smaller surf. She did great.
As for me, after a bit of a breather I went back out. Mario had to get the kids back home so I was solo. I now knew how to paddle out and where to paddle out to. I get back out to the Power Zone and there must have been three dozen adolescents paddling out and riding in and generally looking about the same as they might at any other after school get-together - laughing and smiling and living it up.
So there I was struggling some and feeling courageous some. And there were the polite young surfer girls saying "Hi, did you catch any yet?" and the adventurous surfer boys screaming past me speedily as I missed break after break, and the fun loving surfer kids in general who simply dove down a bit as I eventually did catch more waves and tentatively moved toward them- always to pop back up on my other side with a beaming smile.
We made it to the North Shore.
Today it is the tourist excursion to Hana and its lush surroundings.
As we got ready to enter the water a kind gentleman by the name of Mario offered assistance. He was surfing with a group of kids. It looked like maybe a couple of his own and a few of their friends. You know- 10 year olds and maybe 12 year olds.
So we all start into the water. The wind is howling, the waves are way bigger than anything I'd ever touched, water is spraying all around like a sizeable windy downpour- except that it was sunny out. I get a little disoriented and paddle about twice as far out as everybody else. I look back, and there in the midst of what to me appears to be a maelstrom, is Liz waiting for me. I'd seen her get a bit unnerved in the larger beginner surf on the South side but here when keeping together was a bit more important she was a calm and collected leader (of lost sheep like me). So I start back in toward her. Together we get blown across past the surfer surf into the giant white wash piles near where the sailboarders are doing their thing. We paddle and paddle and eventually get back to where we should have stayed. Liz is calm and smiling and checking on me the whole time. When it mattered she got down to business.
So anyway we are back in the surfer surf and the kids are all smiles and comfort and fun. I didn't notice gills, but I didn't notice Pennsylvania license plates on their boards either. Mario paddles over to me and directs me to follow him out and then into what he calls the Power Zone. To me it looked like an ideal place for one of those harness-natural-energy generators. Well he gets me out into that stuff and soon I am riding a couple footbal fields distance back to shore. And then back out to the power zone and some flips and cartwheels and breath holding and a few more sweet rides as well. None nearly as adroit as the kids, but then I'm a beginner.
Calm and collected Liz- she didn't quite get standing rides but she got to her feet a number of times. She got spun and thrown and cartwheeled and generally over her fear of smaller surf. She did great.
As for me, after a bit of a breather I went back out. Mario had to get the kids back home so I was solo. I now knew how to paddle out and where to paddle out to. I get back out to the Power Zone and there must have been three dozen adolescents paddling out and riding in and generally looking about the same as they might at any other after school get-together - laughing and smiling and living it up.
So there I was struggling some and feeling courageous some. And there were the polite young surfer girls saying "Hi, did you catch any yet?" and the adventurous surfer boys screaming past me speedily as I missed break after break, and the fun loving surfer kids in general who simply dove down a bit as I eventually did catch more waves and tentatively moved toward them- always to pop back up on my other side with a beaming smile.
We made it to the North Shore.
Today it is the tourist excursion to Hana and its lush surroundings.
posted by Sean at 4:36 PM
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