How to Look Like a Clumsy Idiot

Step 1 - Take surfing lessons.

Congratulations, you now look like a clumsy idiot.

On the weekends, most volunteers here head to Huanchaco, a fishing village turned beach town eight miles from our apartment in Trujillo.  The beach is popular with local families and foreign backpackers, many of whom come here to surf.  I did not find this beach all that attractive, as it was not particularly clean and smelled a little like diapers, but it was still refreshing to get out of the city.  The water was extremely cold, contradicting our less-than-reliable guide book, which stated that the water temperature is fine for swimming from December to April.

Magge and I had heard that Huanchaco is a good place to learn how to surf due to its relatively mild surf breaks and abundance of surfing shops, and we were looking forward to taking lessons all last week.  Even better than the accommodating waves is the fact that it only costs thirty-five soles (about $12) for a two hour lesson, including the board and wetsuit.  We signed up for lessons as soon as we hit town, and soon were in our rancid wetsuits (I don't want to think of how often they are washed, if ever) and on the beach.

Our pre-surfing portion of the lesson consisted of our instructor showing us once how to stand up on the board and then telling us to practice while he put on his wetsuit.  Magge and I jumped up and down on our surfboard a few dozen times, with no feedback from the instructor except the perfunctory, "Is this really your first time?"  Once he finished putting on his gear, he just said, "Let's go surfing" and into the frigid waters we waded.

We took our boards about seventy yards offshore and our instructor kept us anchored while waiting for waves.  As a good break approached, he would yell, "Paddle! Paddle! Paddle! Stand!"  The first two times I attempted to stand up I immediately pitched forward and faceplanted into the water, but on the third wave I stood up and rode the wave nearly all the way to shore.  I felt pretty cool, but I'm glad there aren't pictures because I'm sure I didn't look cool.  Magge stood up for her first time shortly thereafter.

After each wave, the instructor would yell at us to hurry up, so we would rush back to him to catch the next swell and hear "Paddle! Paddle! Paddle! Stand!"  It did not take long before we were both exhausted.  I never thought surfing would be easy, but I had no clue that it would be this tiring.  My shoulders were burning intensely from paddling, and I felt so weak that I didn't even know if I was propelling myself anymore.  I was also out of breath from hurrying from the shore back to the instructor, and my legs were shaking from all my attempts to stand up on the board, most of them unsuccessful.   I decided to rest for a few minutes, and while I was sitting on the beach catching my breath, Magge caught her best break of the day and decided to end it on a good note, even though we had forty-five minutes left in the lesson.  I didn't think I had too many paddle-paddle-paddle-stands left in me either, so I agreed to call it a day.

As you can tell, our instructor did not offer much in the way instruction, but we were both able to stand up, so I suppose we can't complain.  Further along in our trip, we'll be hitting some of the world's greatest surf spots in Australia and South Africa, so I doubt our Huanchaco surf experience will be our last.  Hopefully we'll look better next time, but we probably won't.