Big Waves

This weekend will be "Jane and Jill's Big Adventure" as we road trip down to Portland for the Alpenrose Challenge. Elite chickees from around the country and even from around the world (Guatemala? Trinidad?? Tobago???) will be there, too. Why, you may ask, am I showing up? Well yes I'd be asking the same thing if I sat where you are. How does anyone get roped into something way over their head?

1) They've been talked into it by someone else who makes it sound like SO MUCH FUN
2) Sheer ignorance/naiveté
3) Both

The same could be said when my grad school roommate and I went to Puerto Rico for a week of surfing a number of years ago. Everyone from our little town had been there and told us we HAD to go because it's warm water and so beautiful and that, oh sure - there are plenty of easy waves for you to ride.

LIARS.

When Meghan and I got there we did find a sweet little longboard cove on our first day with no one else around, but out of no where, like a switch had just been turned on, the waves suddenly got really Really REALLY big and we found ourselves completely out of our element, pitifully trying to paddle back into shore while not getting our brains bashed into the coral.

But we survived. And we challenged ourselves every day and got a little bit better. Our timing became more in tune to the faster, bigger waves that rose up out of the deep. We learned how to wait just a few seconds longer and throw our weight back on the steeper face and to pop up faster than we ever thought our tired legs could. And the people we met in the line-up coaxed us along and laughed even when we got pummeled, but really cheered when we got that one good ride-of-the-day that left smiles a mile wide.

Yeah, that's how I'm looking at this weekend. I'll get pummeled, but I'll get back up and keep paddling knowing that I've taken myself up a notch afterwards and that I can bump it up even more the next time I'm in the water.