Similarly to skimboarding, another summertime activity I miss is surfing.  Now, I am by no means a skilled surfer, but every year at the beach I enjoy the challenge of trying to stand up on a floating wobbly piece of plastic propelled by a surge of water toward the shoreline.

My family has a tradition of going to the beach in Ventnor City, New Jersey for a week every summer.  Ever since I was little I’ve been going to the beach and enjoying the ocean.  My siblings and cousins and I would spend the majority of the day in the freezing cold Jersey water having the time of our lives on boogie boards.  The rush of catching waves made up for the lack of circulation to my toes.

Years of boogie boarding taught us pretty well how to time the waves, and it eventually became so simple some of the fun was lost.  Problem solving led us to the solution that to make wave riding interesting again, we should add a new challenge.  We decided to try standing up.  As a family we took some surf lessons, and I remember the first lesson we ever had and how satisfying standing up successfully felt.

First ever lesson

Since that first year of surfing, we’ve taken group lessons here and there, purchased two surf boards, and made just a little progress in skills overall.  Nevertheless, I always am keen to give it another try any time I’m near an ocean.  The euphoria of the one or two successful waves is enough to keep me engaged and wanting more.  One day I would love to live near the beach and finally get good at surfing.  Though I have not improved much since those first few lessons, the fun challenge of surfing keeps me coming back every summer wanting more.

My brother and me at a lesson a few years ago