I Tried Surfing With A Pro And Here’s How It Went…

Surfing early on a winter morning has never been particularly high on my list of things to do. It could be the dark, or maybe the cool air, but my body doesn’t move too quickly at that time of day. But once you have the sand between your toes and the wind in your hair watching the sunrise, the early start seems much more bearable. Our warm up had me puffing pretty quickly – running on sand is hard! Sally was encouraging, making jokes and even likened an arm stretch to putting on deodorant (at least this was one move I knew how to do!). After contorting myself into a wet suit (everyone else makes it look so easy!), and a lesson on the best ways to avoid being killed by a board, we hit the water. (Rexona research found that we are more likely to work out when we have a friend to do it with – so make sure you hit the water with a buddy or two in tow!)

My board felt like a giant paddle pop stick at the whim of the ocean. I was continually apologising for drifting into someone or losing the board on a wave. Don’t even get me started on how it became a wind sail every time I tried to carry it. If you had asked me in the water, I would have sworn the waves were metres high. Back on land it was clear I was in capable hands and on the baby waves. There was also so much to think about. Am I in the right spot? Is this a good wave? What’s that shadow? (Sharks did cross my mind – it didn’t help that my board had a suspiciously bite-shaped repair.)

Once I finally made it out past the break, I could have floated the day away in the sunny, quiet, rocking water. I imagine this is what people are referring to when they call surfing ‘peaceful’ and ‘serene’. They couldn’t be referring to the battle of getting out there. Could they? After a little dodging, and a lot of floundering, I did catch a couple of waves (with some help). And by that I mean I was attached to my board as it rode the wave in. I would like to say that I stood up, even once. But, that would be a lie. I consider the moment I got both feet flat on the board one of my greatest achievements – even if I did immediately keel over into the shallows. If you want toned arms, just squeeze in a few surfing sessions. All the paddling and battling to get past the break gave my upper arms such a good workout that I had noodle arms for the rest of the day. Yes I was exhausted, but I was also exhilarated. And I would do it all again tomorrow!

We went surfing courtesy of Rexona and their Everyday Athletes campaign, encouraging Australians to move more every day. All images supplied by Rexona.