Update on the surfing side quest

I am primarily in Rio for music, but I also have a "side quest" or two, as video-gamers would call it. My major side quest is the laughable, naive dream of becoming a longboarder at the age of 42. Let us all commence laughing! Ha ha ha! Because I'm not what you'd call coordinated, and never surfed before being dragged to a beginner lesson by my Hawaiian friend Robyn, in Rio a few years ago at the age of 40. Surfing is only for the young and nimble and fearless, right?

And I can only go surfing 1 day per year, which isn't what you'd call the best fitness plan for surfing, which is a whole-body "ya gotta do it every day" sport if there ever was one.

So like I said, a pretty laughable side quest.

So I went on one lesson earlier this week and had my usual experience, which is: Had 2 good rides early on, almost a 3rd. Those 2 rides were great but then somehow I could never stand up again. I'd think "UP!" and nothing would happen - always stalling and falling off to the side. "Kathleen, what's up, looks like your knees are dragging?" called out Katrina across the waves. My knees sure WERE dragging, so much so that I scraped them both raw on the board. It was still fun (it's always fun) but it was an exact repeat of my last day surfing last year: 2 good rides early on, almost a 3rd, and then could never really get up again.

Thought about it a while. Problem 1, I had the couple good rides early on, then couldn't get up again. Then my knees started dragging. OK, that actually sounds like arms tiring out. They didn't FEEL tired but they also seemed to not be responding when I said "UP" to them. And they were sore as hell the next morning. So yeah, they must have tired out.

So I should take 1 day off. Here's Biology Kathleen kicking in (in my other life I teach human physiology, university level): muscles need 1 day off to strengthen.

So I took a day off. And spent it wave-hopping by the surfers. Watching the waves and how they broke, and what happened to surfers who were at different places on the wave - either trying to get past it, headed out, or trying to catch it, headed in. Just spent a TOTALLY FUN day getting to know the waves.

Rediscovered how much I love the ocean.

Problem 2, the jump-up still felt clumsy. I'm not that flexible and not that good at push-ups anyway. So I spent a while crouched in 2-foot-deep water trying the jump-up move over and over in slow motion, trying to get it embedded into muscle memory. Doing it in the water took the burden off my arms - and also made me improve my balance since the waves kept tossing me around - and I could just try the move with no strain. Like learning a dance, over and over. Here you are lying on an imaginary board. Back foot comes forward... push UP... and JUMP...

That night I fell into one of those odd dreamy dozes filled with half-dreams, fleeting images, just when you're nodding off to sleep. So: you're lying in your bed at the hostel and then, suddenly, you're lying on a surfboard, a wave is pushing the board along, your hands go back, into push-up position but back by your ribs; you pull one foot forward, like a lizard crawling; and you push UP, up into that passing split second when you're in a tripod position (both hands and the side of one foot), your other leg whips FORWARD under your chest planting THERE, CENTER, suddenly you're standing, knees bent, looking forward, the wave is roaring, you're flying along, you're UP.....

Over and over again... the hallucinatory images floating in front of me as I was drifting off to sleep.

(Biology Kathleen again: This is how your brain learns muscle memory. It rehearses during sleep. We experience it as those fleeting images when drifting off to sleep. It usually results in marked improvement by the next morning. It happens with music learning too, and even with language learning.)

Next day I went surfing again. I thought, "If only I can get THREE good rides, REAL rides, I'll feel like I'm improving, like it's worth continuing at this." Could I hope for four? Well, four would be nice but I'll aim for three. Three and I will continue with surfing. Two and maybe I will just pack it in.

Mauro took us to Prainha, my favorite beach in Rio - incredibly beautiful (it's got a nature reserve right behind it - lush emerald forests cascading down hillsides right to the beach). Water the PERFECT temperature (warmer than Ipanema). Friendly little wave after friendly little wave. No rocks, no reefs to run into, just soft sand. Shallow, too, so if you got frazzled you could just hop off your board and find you were standing in chest-deep water. You could just WALK out, hanging onto your surfboard with one hand, hop on it in chest-deep water, and ride a wave back in. Hardly seems fair - aren't you supposed to get exhausted paddling through waves on the way out?

Fast forward.... I had one, two, three, four, five, six, SEVEN PERFECT RIDES!!

SEVEN PERFECT RIDES!!

Looooong, beautiful rides, magnificently balanced, the kind of ride where you know nothing can go wrong, where you jump UP and it's PERFECT and you are master of the universe soaring above the entire beach like an eagle. (It's funny, once you stand you're only a few feet higher than you were before, but you feel like you can see for miles.)

All the way to the beach, so perfectly balanced that you're still standing even when the wave completely fades and the board starts wobbling under you. And you leisurely choose when to hop off the board at the end.

And in your heart you thank the ocean, and the wave, the irreplacable unique miracle wave that came thousands of miles across the Atlantic just for YOU, to pick you up and carry you all the way to the beach.

And a dozen other pretty good rides, several of which would have been great if I hadn't had to jump off for fear of running down various swimmers, surfers, families and small dogs that kept appearing in my way.

I was unstoppable! I was brilliant! It was for real this time.

The jump-up seemed freakishly easy. A surfer who was watching everybody during the lesson said "You've surfed before, right? Your jump is really good." Yay for brain re-wiring during sleep, and yay for that slo-mo practice in the shallow water!

So now I know I really can be a longboarder if I wanted. Even at age 42. I don't have any grand ambitions - I sure don't need a short board, I don't want to do anything acrobatic, and I don't like big waves (I don't like getting tumbled, and I really don't like getting drowned). Those little three-foot waves are just perfect, thank you.

But that easy grace of stepping up on a big ol' longboard, one of those great big boards that practically catches the wave all by itself, hitting that beautiful balance point, and just sailing along, like a bird.... yeah, I could get into that.

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If you want to do this:

Surfing is part of Rio culture and part of the Rio experience. I think it's something everybody should do once while in Rio, like going to see a soccer game at Maracana. And trust me, if I can do it, anyone can! The great thing is, virtually anyone can stand up at least once on the first day, and even if you mostly fall off, even if you never stand up at all, it's still huge fun anyway.

Do NOT try learning to surf at Copacabana or Ipanema - the surf is terrible for learning there. It's actually pretty violent there (the waves break suddenly and sharply, and tumble people a lot). The word "Ipanema" actually means "rough water" in the local Indian language. In fact one of the girls on the surf tour today said that last Saturday at Copacabana beach, she got tumbled in a series of waves, was knocked unconscious and nearly drowned! (She was pulled out and given mouth-to-mouth by a lifeguard.) She was worried about getting in the water again, understandably, but was much, much happier with the beach at Prainha, which is pretty mellow in the Brazilian summer. And she ended up taking to surfing like a duck to water, delighted with it, a real natural, and went out the next day too. But at Prainha, not Copacabana!

So my favorite surf lesson folks are Rio Surf Tour, who I have been to enough times now that they've become good friends. Katrina & Mauro. www.riosurftour.com. I've recommended them before. They'll come pick you up & take you surfing all day and drop you back off again at your hostel. It's pretty mellow and you can just chill on the beach, or just use them for transport to Prainha and not surf at all, if that's what you want; or surf all day with them if that's what you want. (Everybody should see Prainha anyway - it's just so gorgeous there.) They're pretty genius at matching people up with the right board and the right wave so that everybody has a positive experience and has fun, no matter what their level.

They've also got their own hostel in Recreio if you want to just chill by a beautiful beach for a few days in a mellow, safe beach town. (Plus free wireless! And a really nice outdoor bar/patio.) Some of the world's best surfers live right on the same street, including "the second best girl in the world", says Katrina, which I assume meant the second best girl SURFER in the world. :) When Katrina & Mauro have a lot of people signed up for the tour, they'll call up their surfer friends to come help out, so you might end up getting coached by one of the top pro surfers in the world.

I'm back in Ipanema now, sunburned, exhausted, dehydrated, my knees bruised and scraped raw, bruises all over my ribs, and a very peculiar sunburn pattern from the way the rash shirt kept pulling halfway up my back. But I already miss the surfing and that beautiful beach and my beautiful, big, nine-foot board.