Land Down Under: Check surfing off my bucket list

Learning

Words cannot describe how amazing this experience was for me. Ever since I can remember I have ALWAYS wanted to learn to surf, to have that California girl lifestyle that you see on tv, shopping at PacSun and pretending I need board shorts. When the tv show MADE was on MTV I always dreamed of writing in to become a surfer (then one girl actually did and boy was she terrible). The last two times I was in Australia I really regretting never having an opportunity to learn. This time was different because we were in Surfer's Paradise, the mecca of surfing!

The company where we had the lesson was actually started up by a world champion surfer named Cheyne Horan. I got to meet him before my lesson so I guess now I can say I met someone famous! Anyways, they drove us out to this one location that was pretty private and had lots of waves. The 2 hour lesson FLEW by and I was so sad when it was time to come back in. I know surfing looks hard and all but let me just tell you that its EVEN harder than it looks. The next day I could hardly move my body hurt so much, and that was only from a couple of hours.

I was so happy when one of the teachers pulled me aside to really help me (I was basically freaking out the first half and kept saying "we don't have waves like this in Chicago" therefore my nickname become Chicago). With his help I was able to stand up! It really is a confidence issue and for most of the time I was just scared to actually try and stand, I would make it to my knees and get too nervous. But I am proud to say I got up and even have pictures to prove it (courtesy of the company. of course it costs extra but totally worth it. and how cool do we look in our gear?) It was everything I could have dreamed of and more. As soon as the lesson was over I wanted to go right back out there and keep trying. Hopefully I can go out surfing again someday in the near future.