Essay Number 2 - Wave Rider

I watched the surfers for many years; ever since I was in elementary school. At first the
thought of surfing frightened me. I never thought I’d ever be to go out into the ocean and have to
control myself along with a board. It all seemed inevitable.
So years went by, and summers came and went. I wanted more and more to learn how to
stand on a board and let a wave carry me across the ocean. More than that, I wanted to see and
feel what was so amazing about this sport I had so longed to try. It wasn’t until five years later
that I befriended a girl whom would later give me an opportunity to surf with her. I seized this
opportunity instantly.
At age twelve there wasn’t much I was interested beside my beloved sport, soccer.
Whenever I met someone new we would always end up indulging in a conversation involving
sports. The girl I met, Brooke, surprised me when I asked her what sport is her favorite was. She
replied coolly, “I surf.” A couple weeks later I found myself on the way to the beach with
Brooke’s boards strapped to the roof of her van.
I can still remember the excitement and rush of adrenaline that soared through my body
like an electric shock when we reached the beach. As we waxed up the boards, I could feel the
anxiety building up inside my system. I just wanted to get out there and try it. I was beyond
excited. Brooke handed me a board and told me that whenever I feel a wave coming to paddle
like crazy. And that’s exactly what I did.
I have now been surfing for roughly three years, and have loved every second of my time
out there on the waves. If I’ve learned anything from surfing I would have to say patience and
courage. Learning to be more patient has helped me in many scenarios. There were incidents
when I was having an off day, and I just wanted to stop, but I managed to gather enough patience
and catch some pretty spectacular waves.
Courage is a must when surfing. I get scarred every time I feel a wave on my tail. To
cope with getting scarred, I find that paddling like crazy, and anticipating a wave bigger than the
one that’s about to hit me helps extremely. Surfing can get pretty dangerous, so you have to have
courage when you’re playing with something as big as the ocean. An instant when I needed to
find a lot of courage is when two of my sisters and I went surfing off Sun Set Cliffs, during high
tide. Many times, we almost smashed into the cliffs but we assembled enough courage for about
an hours worth of surfing.
It occurs to me that when one is surfing, they tend to find their balance and lose their
stress and tension that comes with the everyday situations that we have to deal with. Before,
when I was younger, I never thought I’d actually get the chance to surf. Now I surf as much as
possible; I would never give it up willingly.

-R