Surfs Up!

So, yesterday Valerie and I rented a surf board from Ocean Isle (one island north of us). We decided to get it for 24 hours since it seemed like the best waves are in the late afternoon/early evening and we could practice A LOT. So we got an 8ft soft board and the guy gave us one piece of advice "Stand up as fast as possible." Excellent. Now, Val has never surfed, I have once, maybe twice, so we were sure that by the end of the day we were going to be pros. I mean if not maybe at least look good laying next to the board on the beach...

"The sea was angry that days my friends... like an old man trying to send soup back in a deli (Seinfield)" There were white caps as far out as the eye could see. Luckily for us this provided ample waves.... sadly it also pumelled us nearly to death. So my little sister stood on the shore laughing and taking pictures so I could PROVE that we are surfing goddesses. Behold the skill:

That is the board... and my head is under the water... I like to ride upside down swallowing as much of the ocean as possible. Never heard of this technique? It is a special Swedish technique... Val said she may have swallowed half the ocean in the past two days! But we decided to try it regular American style also:
Val got up all the way a few times! She was really good! I got really good at riding my knees... but sorta got up for a few seconds or part of a second a few times... it was so much fun and so exhausting. Then we decided to play some beer pong with the family. My mom said it was an educational experiance. Mostly it was hilarous and Val and I are the reigning champiOOOns! haha, maybe we have just had the most practice.

So, we woke up super early (8 am) this mornig to try again when the sea wasn't so wildly intense. Sadly, we didn't get any pictures but we weren't as good today either. We tried surfing for a while then determined we had gotten our money's worth of oceanic abuse. Val has some bruises and I have some skinned knees, elbows and stomach. Also, may have gotten a wee sting from a jelly fish yesterday b/c my foot hurt and then tingled and then I had red marks and a weird spot where it all orginated from... tres odd. We are nursing out wounds now with much needed indoor time.

We just returned the board to the surf shop where the idiots had lost my paper work and were not very nice to us at all. You would think they would be more willing to be nice because 1. I am paying them money 2. There was a hurricane! OK not really but it was crazy wind and rain, and 3. because they work in a retail store... you have to be nice to do that! It was such an absurd storm that all of the roads were flooded, which I guess happens a lot when everything is like 1 foot above sea level and the rain was coming down sideways! But we braved it and I ran across the parking lot carrying the surfboard all by myself over my head like I was a surfing pro. I may not be able to stand on a surf board for longer then .5 seconds but I can carry one like it is my job!

Tomorrow we leave Sunset Beach, which is sad. And Sunday I will go to Boone, well Banner Elk, to visit the boyfriend, which is nice. It will be quite a difference since that has a 4,000 feet above sea level elevation!