Project Runaway

When I was in high school I dated a boy who was so enthralled with all things Californian that he bought a surfboard and carried it around school. The catch was we lived in a small hamlet approximately a 16 hour drive from any waves. I am sharing this embarrassing tidbit to demonstrate that young boys and men have always been fascinated with the idea of being a cool pro surfer. Even if they do a dorky thing like a carry a board around a prairie town.

Dwayne,  Luc, and I decided we want  to take some lessons while here in Bali and the best waves for beginners are at Kuta beach. Originally we had planned to stay as far away from Kuta as we could. It is a major tourist destination, especially for Australians. There are plenty of hotels, bar, and Aussie tourists in Bintang tank tops and Bo Derek braids. We had been warned it was going to be busy and not very ‘Bali-ish’. But after months of traveling in busy Asian countries, and coming from Hanoi, we found Kuta to be perfectly manageable.

We found a reputable surf shop for lessons, girded our loins, and signed up for some classes. The lessons involved some class time where we learned about onshore wind, offshore wind, tides, swells, breaks, reefs, types of boards, stances, and turns. Then we were off to the ocean. The waves comes fairly regular here and there is no reef but a sandy bottom. You can start waist to mid chest high and catch decent waves. By the end of the first lesson we were all standing and cruising to shore. The youngest of our group did this almost immediately and the eldest, well, he took a bit a longer. Not mentioning any names. No matter if we were getting up every time, we were having a blast trying. We could have stayed out there all day. I wished I could hire someone to just paddle out drinks and more sunscreen to me. Maybe a foot-long sub sandwich too.

By the 2nd lesson we were catching waves more regularly, especially Luc. He was also starting to turn on purpose, whereas I was turning but really was trying to go straight. The next set of lessons the old farts bowed out as the young man moved on to intermediate levels along with our new Swiss friends, Xavier and Daniela. Watching Luc learning and improving and seeing his board go from large foam to smaller fibreglass made me a proud mama on the sidelines. Is surfing something Luc could become passionate about, I wondered?

Luc catching the surf

Over the last 286 days, we have hiked, biked, canyoned, rode horses, snorkeled, dived, and now we can add surfed. We are officially cool. We could carry surf boards around town and be legit, because a) we can surf!, b) we have awesome surfer tans and shaggy beach hair , and c) we actually live near the ocean not a 7-11, dude.