Back from the beach!

I had a great time this weekend in Folly Beach. We got back on Sunday evening around 10:30. It took us about 6 hours to get home. The trip included a stop for some late-night breakfast at the Cracker Barrel which probably cost us an hour. I would recommend the vintage little beach town to anyone. Not a great place if you want to do some clubbing (although Charleston is only about 10 minutes away, not sure about the club scene there!), but for a relaxing weekend in a small town atmosphere it is a great place.

Everything there is within walking distance. We arrived on Friday about 3:00, parked the car, and didn't get back into a vehicle until it was time to leave. I ate, shopped, walked on the pier and went to the beach without one time cranking up the car. I honestly don't think I have been that relaxed and calm in a long time. I am starting to really miss it now that I am back home and bills and the yard are screaming at me. Sometimes it is the small things (or seem small) that you need to get away from like driving or having a computer handy all the time.

I had so much fun and finally got to do (or attempt) one thing that I have been wanting to do for a long, long time. Evelyn and I went into a surf shop on Saturday morning after breakfast. We were looking at some of the surfboards and admiring their artwork and ignoring their price tags when I looked up and saw a sign that said "Surfboard Rentals". The first thing that went through my mind was the jet ski prices that were $45 for 30 minutes. I walked over to the sign that was sort of obscured by some surfboards and saw that you could rent one for $5 an hour or $25 dollars a day (24 hours). I told Evelyn that you could rent them for $25 dollars a day. After some discussion in the store we left without getting one saying that if the weather was good tomorrow we would come get one.

I am not really big on making a public fool of myself and neither is Evelyn, but she was definitely more receptive to going back right away and getting one. The more I looked at the crowd of people on the beach the larger the knot became in my stomach about getting the surfboard. Not to mention that the night before we were on the pier and saw a kid catch a 3 or 4 foot shark (no lie!) and lose it when the shark wrapped itself around one of the pilings and snapped the line. So with the shark fear and the public humiliation fear in the forefront of my mind I said, "Let's go get the board and we will do it later tonight once the crowd dies down then we can get up in the morning and try it again."

After 30 minutes, we were walking back to the condo with a surfboard on my back and carpal tunnel syndrome in Evelyn's wrist from signing her life away and promising to pay $470 if the board broke. We were both thinking $470 dollars is a little steep for a very uncool looking, 3 feet wide and 40 feet long board that looked like it had already been bitten by a shark or two. Needless to say, the board sat on the deck and inside the condo for the rest of that evening because one thing you have to do on vacation is EAT!


We promised that we would get up first thing in the morning, watch the sunrise, then hit the water to try our hand at surfing. We followed through on our promise and got up the next morning and headed out. We stood there at the shore with the board between us giving each other one last "You sure about this?" look and decided who was going first. (I said "You want to go first?" She said, "I don't care, you can go if you want." Which really means, "I had really rather you go and break your neck or get eaten by a shark first, but I will be ready to call 911 once as soon as I can put away the camera and run back to the room to get my phone.") I grabbed the board walked out to about waist deep water, threw the board down, jumped on, and started paddling out into the waves.

After nearly being decapitated by 3 or 4 waves and swallowing 3 1/2 gallons of seawater, I finally got out to where the waves started forming. I spun the board around toward the shore, looked back for a good wave to catch, saw it, and started paddling. I had a terrible realization that I was too far forward on the board when I saw the nose of the board under water, but it was too late. I was already caught up by the wave and flipped, not rolled, but butt slapping the back of my head flipped. Next thing I remember was flailing in the ocean trying to figure out which way was the shore and where I could find some oxygen. I finally got my bearings, stood up in waist deep water, looked around to see who might have saw me, grabbed my board, smiled, and headed out again.

What a rush! So much fun and I crashed!

The video of the crash.... look closely!

After a few (cough cough....hundred) more tries that were slightly more graceful than the previous one I was finally able to get the feel of where I needed to be on the board and how I needed to catch a wave. Too bad I was so tired I could barely paddle let alone push myself up to my feet. I was able to catch a few on my knees and one time I was able to stand up and ride the very end of the wave. So exhilarating and I can't wait to try it again!
Later that evening, we tried again at a park at the end of the island but the waves were not breaking in a way that you could really catch a wave and stand up through it but we still tried and had a blast doing it!

Surfing is something that I will definitely try again and $25 is a cheap investment for so much fun! You can watch surfers in action at Folly Beach too on their Surf Cams!

By the way, Evelyn has started a blog as well and she gives her account of the surfing experience as well. This is a vacation that will be talked about for a while by both of us I believe. There was a lot of excitement packed into a couple of days at the beach.