For the Spring/April break that we had last month, I went down to Weligama with two of my friends. It was around a 4 hour drive with traffic and all. It was a great car ride there as I rode with my friends. My friends dog, Coco, had also come with us and it was a wonderful experience. We stayed at “The August House”, which is an amazing private house which has direct access to the Weligama beach. The duration of this trip for me was arriving at around 2pm on Tuesday, April 13th, and I had left alone with a driver on Friday, April 16th at around 12pm.
For the activities I did during this trip, I had swam a lot in both the ocean and the pool at the house, but the main attention would be learning how to surf. This trip was the first opportunity I had gotten on surfing and originally I was not planning on trying it out however after pondering on the fact that this is a vacation and that I should be making new memories and experiencing new things, I decided to try it out. On day 1, I learned how to position myself on the board, and the process I should taken when getting up onto the board to ride the wave. From what I remember the steps were as follows:
- Paddle
- Place arms at waist level
- Push upper body up
- Move dominant leg up right underneath the center of the board
- Simultaneously push yourself up and move the non dominant leg to the top of the board in order to maintain balance
- Lower stance and have a strong center of gravity
- Cross feet inwards
- Shoulders should pop out in order to ride the waves properly
These steps were what I followed in order to learn how to surf. On day 1 and 2, the instructor has kept me steady and pushed me when the wave was coming and instructed me on when to get up to ride the wave properly. However on the third day, Thursday, I rode the waves alone with my friends. It was quite difficult as the new year had just passed hence the waves were a lot stronger. However I managed to ride at least 4 waves pretty well.
Overall I was quite happy with my progress as I rode waves alone and with the instructor well. Something I did not enjoy was the sea water as its always so salty, however you get quite used to it after surfing for an hour or so. The one thing I did not enjoy out of all this was the burns I got on my hands. As I was using a very large softboard (not a hardboard), it was made out of Styrofoam. Due to this, every time I would go against a wave to go further into the sea, the board would scrape against my hands. This also happened when sliding my hands up to reposition myself on the board. This took around 4-5 weeks to heal completely. However the experience was worth it.
Learning Outcomes Achieved:
LO2 – I took on the challenge of surfing and developed a lot of new skills in my journey of learning how to surf
LO4 – I could have quit after day 1 with the injuries I received however I wanted to persevere and really learn how to surf.
