"Surfer Girl"

Yes, that's me. Teetering on her board. Apir!

It's a miracle there's even a remotely good shot of me upright on that board. I spent the majority of yesterday falling into the water screaming in terror.

A little background about yesterday. My boss took it upon his head to take us out surfing for the day. His way of convincing us to take up surfing so he can have more buddies who'll surf with him, or so my officemate theorize. I'm not arguing.

We went to CME and trained with the Philippine Surfing Academy. The dude showing off behind me is Ejay, one of our coaches. He did a handstand a few seconds later. The guy was trying to impress one of my officemates, Gia. He's such a big flirt.

Here's what we noticed after a while:

Every single person who managed to get upright and STAY upright on their boards were all SKINNY. Life. Is. Not. Fair.

Apparently, lighter people find it easier to push up from a prone position and jump to their feet on a 9-feet long piece of flotsam going 10mph on water. Sigh. It took me over 10 wipe outs before I finally nailed it to a T.

So yeah, I'd love to go back for more waves. I'll just have to lose weight first. With surfing it's mandatory to have good balance which means a strong core which translates to ripppped abs.

Ever wonder why surfers look totally hot? Surfing is a whole body workout and if you're a newbie it's going to hurt the day after. Owww.

We're all feeling the burn at the office today, especially me. We were divided into two batches to take turns with the waves but I was such a hotdog I went and joined the 2nd batch to practice more.

When I finally stood up for the very first time I was so disbelieving I started yelling, "Omigod! Omigod! Omeeegaaawd!! Paaaaooolo! How do I stoooop!?!?!"

Paolo is the senior coach and a total sweetie. When I got to surf properly he made me cut in front of the line and ride the waves over and over again until my muscles memorized the moves and took over from my terrified brain.

I'm giving myself 3 months to train on my own before attempting to surf again. I'm aiming for a size somewhere between my before and after pic:

The before pic was taken when I was 107lbs, tanned and in training with the swim varsity of UPD. (Fyi, being able to swim is not a requirement to surf.) The after pic was taken a couple of months earlier with me paler and 40lbs heavier. Yikes.

Dear god, I have so much work ahead of me. I'd really really like to surf again. Please let me not fail in this endeavor.