Not Quite A Surf Pro

The waves were small and the water, somewhat, calm tonight so Elliot, 'Palm Beach Surf God' 2004-2011 (I made that up, but he's that good),  took me out to surf.
Now, I've surfed once before in the cold, COLD, waters of Tofino, Vancouver Island, Canada. I got up on an outrageously large surf board then, I figured I could get up on the medium sized board today.
Let me just state this right now. Surfing is hard!

First of all ocean water never stops moving. Fact. Trying to balance on a board while paddling out into surf is not an easy feat. I admit, trying to sit up on the surf board to look as casual as Elliot while we searched for the perfect wave, I may have fell off a few times. Sucking in enough salty sea, making me Gold Coast belching champion for the next 25 minutes. There were actually dolphins in the water a few meters from us. I didn't see them because I was too busy trying to balance on my flotation device/surf board. I bet they were laughing at me.

In addition to balance issues (Elliot assured me the balance eventually comes), my lower ribs were killing me. I am told that everyone's ribs and chest gets chaffed as it presses into the board. Once again, I was assured my body would get used to this. So far, surfing rated a three out of ten on the fun scale.

Knowing that I lacked the spotting and paddling skills to catch the perfect wave, Elliot basically pushed me into the wave, screaming out "paddle, paddle". The first wave caught me by surprise. It seemed to go on forever. Luckily, so did my effort to get up to my feet. Unfortunately I only got to my knees before the ride ended.  But, surfing (or whatever I was doing) just moved up to a strong six on the fun scale.
The next wave was mine. I popped up to me feet and actually rode the wave. There was no carving, flips, or showboating. And, although I looked like this:

I felt like this:

 (special thanks to Stuey 'Bloody Elbows' Spence for capturing a few less than flattering photos of my adventure)


I managed to get up a couple more times. But as the daylight dimmed, and a menacing storm moved in from the south, surfing started losing it's appeal. And I started thinking of things like shark attacks (more attacks happen when it gets dark) and lighting and high winds zapping me and blowing out to sea.

We walked out of the water just in time. The wind picked up, catching the board I was holding, forcing me to walk in a sideways/forward motion toward home. 
The storm actually missed the Gold Coast, but the Sunshine Coast got whipped with wind, tearing off roofs and sent people running for cover.

As a victory, or perhaps a survival, celebration, Elliot bought us pizza and even let me watch a full episode of The Big Bang Theory, which he thinks is the worst show on TV (Enter your votes now).

Lessons learned from today you ask?

1) Surfing is damn hard to learn (at least my tail bone isn't killing me like when I learned to snowboard)
2) Elliot is a good friend and a patient instructor. (I'll get you a good price on lessons in you're ever in the Gold Coast area)
3) Dragon's Breath Pizza gives me tremendous gas, and may be the reason Elliot left his place a half hour ago, without notice, to go visit his brother in the apartment below.
Pictured below is Elliot's brother Xavier (or Xav or X - I'm actually not sure what his given name is).

                                            In this photo I'd like to refer to him as 'Surf Jesus'

Jimmy