Surfing is fun!

Despite my fear of sharks I braved the waters of Westport Washington on Sunday and had a blast. Turns out surfing is actually very fun. I went with Scott and Shannon and Scott's brother Bryan. Things I was surprised by, in no particular order:

Most of my time was not spent surfing - it was spent trying to get myself and my board far enough out there where the waves were breaking. Most everyone else seemed to be in a similar situation, so I guess this is normal.

I stood up and rode a wave once for about 3-4 seconds before falling over. Shannon saw me, so I have proof. Yay!

The Pacific Ocean at Westport in September is actually pretty comfy with a wetsuit on.

When you're having fun you hardly ever think about shark attacks, even while doing your best impression of a wounded seal.

Westport has smaller waves than most of the surfing beaches in California and Hawaii, but the currents are more difficult to deal with. According to Scott and Bryan, "Big Al" Perlee (the owner of the Westport Surf Shop) says that if you can surf here you can surf anywhere.

I never once heard the phrase 'take it easy brah' or the words stoked, gnarly, or radical.

If you have a big enough board (I didn't at first until I traded) it's not incredibly hard to catch a wave.

Getting saltwater up your nose/ear/throat/left lung is very unpleasant but happens with some frequency.

It's very different from wakeboarding, mainly because of the way you get up and because the currents are very unpredictable when you don't know how to read the waves.

Even though the water was very crowded and I didn't know the proper etiquette I never had anyone call me a 'yuppie tourist' or scream at me to get off his wave.

When you surf 50 yards away from a jetty the current will gradually pull you closer to the rocks, making it so that you can't swim away and have to make landfall, thereby scratching up your feet pretty bad.

It really sucks to scramble 100 yards to shore over the rocks on a jetty with bleeding feet while carrying a surfboard.

Once you get back in the water the saltwater cleans your wounds and it's not a big deal.