Catch a Wave

I finally got in the water this weekend. The possibility of surfing becoming a new regular hobby was one of the major lures of California, but I've been nervous to just run out and jump in without knowing what I'm doing outside of a few goofy attempts in Costa Rica. Fortunately, one of my coworkers surfs every weekend and invited me to meet him yesterday at Manhattan Beach, a pretty chill spot with moderate waves and no territorial locals.

After a quick 15-20 minute drive from our apartment, I rented a board and wetsuit and spent about four hours going at it. The water was about 62 degrees, but the wetsuit really does its job and the cold never bothered me much. My rental board was kind of a boat, but it made it easy to catch waves, sometimes unintentionally — there were several occassions when my board decided we were taking this wave, and I had little choice in the matter.

Today I'm sore in places I never knew existed, but the net result would have been fairly easy to predict — I'm hooked. Time to start shopping for a board.