Surfing into Bravery

Personal| Real is Better Than Perfect Series

Last week I talked about our families summer bucket list and one of the big ticket items on there for Linc this summer was to surf a big wave! It’s something he has been wanting to do since he decided one random day that he actually DID in fact, like the ocean! This is just a whole different story in itself, one for another time but trust me… my fearless wonder over here did not always like the ocean. This summer however, he is crazy in love with it and scary good at swimming in the roughest of waters and waves.

As soon as Linc told us he wanted to learn how to surf, we signed him up for surf camp! He was stoked about it and couldn’t wait for July to come but in all honesty Tuck and I were a little nervous. This new found love of the ocean that Linc has is great and he has boogie boarded and body surfed in waves but surfing waves is a total different story all together. Plus Linc is a bit of a perfectionist, if he doesn’t get something easily or right off the bat he tends to get frustrated and needs his space. Surf camp isn’t the kind of place where you can you just say I’m done for the day guys and throw your hands in the air. Surfing requires patience, a sense of fun and grace with yourself and most of all the ability to laugh when you wipe out time and time again!

So we headed down to the beach in hopes that Linc would just love it or find some great friends in the process!

Long story short: What ended up happening is a little bit of what we expected and a little bit of the unexpected! The whole week gave us the best waves so far of the summer! The first day was perfect for new riders but the rest of the week, the surf was pretty big and rough. Linc was on top of it the first day. He was the first one to carry his board to the ocean and the first one paddling out. He was also the first to try and catch a wave and the first one to wipe out pretty hard! It was as we feared as well. That was it for him. He was DONE! It scared him and he wanted no part of it after that. Thankfully the surf instructors were amazing and after a good long break and some coaxing from our friend Eliza he bravely and nervously went back out and caught a few more waves that day. More than a few, he caught quite a bit more.

It was the same for the rest of the days that week. He was scared of the waves when he was on that board. They were rough and when you paddled out, you had to be prepared to get tossed around a bit! Funny thing is, he wasn’t scared when he was off the board. He would charge in and swim out pretty deep to encourage his friends who were trying to surf! When it was his turn to get on that board though, he would get nervous but he would muster up the courage to get “two waves and then one more wave… two more waves… three more waves?!”