Surfing for Old Guys
When I was younger I surfed. Not great, well, not even really good, but I surfed. As my friends and I noticed, a surfboard strapped to the top of the vehicle made any car cool, thus making us more attractive to the beach honeys, or so we believed.
As you probably know, I have a huge love affair with all things ocean and beach related. I stand firm in my belief that my shark tooth necklace prevents me from getting bitten, that shuffling my feet jeeps the stingrays away, that while the sun causes skin cancer in others I'm immune, and that God doesn't count beach days against your days on earth.
With all that being said, I'm going to start working toward surfing again.
One of my twins is going to be attending Texas A & M in Galveston and studying Maritime Archaeology. This is not only exciting for him, but it also gives us a perfect excuse to get a place on the island where I can hit the water every day.
A couple of problems with my surfing plans though. I'm 1) too old, 2) too fat, and 3) too out of shape.
These kind of combine and are kind of separate at the same time.
A few years ago we wee in Hawaii and I sprang for the group to have surf lessons at Haleiwa on the North Shore. I quickly found out that my belly is too big and hurts when I lay down on the board, my shoulder muscles can't handle the paddle out any more (and no matter how good a shape you're in the only way to build your paddling muscles is by paddling) and my knees and other joints are too stiff to leap to my feet on the waves.
So…here are my plans:
Losing weight. I can drop pounds pretty fast, but I put them back on just as fast so this will require some work.
Get back into shape. Although it's ten degrees hotter than hell in Texas right now I'm going back to walking and starting the Couch to 5K program again, although I am going to go slower so I don't trash my knees like I did in the Spring. I'm also going to start practicing paddling in the pool.
Yoga. I'm going to try yoga here at the house to loosen up. This stuff is way harder than it looks on TV and I'm beginning to believe some of the people doing it have an extra joint in all their appendages that I'm missing.
Start slow. I bought a good boogie board made by Morey that is designed for those of us who are manly sized rather than the scrawny kids you usually see. I'm going to use it and my Churchill Makapuu fins for practice in the pool and hope to get in a little better shape before the winter swells start kicking in.
I'll keep you apprised.
