I have wanted to learn to surf for a really long time. I know I should have done it in North Carolina, but I didn’t want to do it by myself and Toby was deployed most of the summers. So when we were planning our vacation, I said it had to be somewhere we could take surf lessons. Toby thought California would be too cold (the water there is kind of ridiculous). And that’s why we decided on Hawaii.

That’s Toby and I with our instructor, Patrick.

Anyway, I was concerned about getting and staying up. But it turns out that is the (relatively) easy part. Paddling is the hard part. And there is a LOT of paddling involved.

Toby got up on his first wave, and I got about halfway up before falling off the board. Then I had to paddle back. OMG. Paddling out there originally was a challenge, but paddling back after that first wave was really bad. I accidentally got back on the board backwards, and didn’t notice until I had accidentally caught a wave backwards. So that was awesome. Then I got back on the board the correct way and started paddling out AGAIN, but before I got all the way out there, I accidentally caught ANOTHER wave. But that time, I was able to stand up and not fall off. Victory.

The girl on the right and I ran into each other once we were both up on our boards. I won’t show you any of the photos of me standing up — I am pretty sure I was the palest person in Hawaii, and you don’t need to be subjected to that. But here’s the aftermath:

Those are her feet, not mine.

Regardless, we had a really amazing time and I really want to go again soon — even though my arms and back were sore for at least three days afterward. I think that just means I need to start doing the rowing machine again. Every day. And swimming a lot more, too.

Then maybe I can paddle out with these guys…