Earlier this year, Emma from Montana took surfing lessons with her family and she wrote an essay for her 5th grade class called Surfing is Fun.  She shared the essay with us and we’d like to share it with you!

Surfing is Fun
By Emma

Some people never get to do it. Some only dream.  Me, on the other hand, I’m not either of those people. I’m a surfer and surfing is fun!

Surfing is fun because it’s great to have a new experience with your friends and family.  Once I was just about to go surfing for the first time in my life and I was really nervous.  But I thought to myself, “The instructors do it almost every day and they’re not hurt.” So I got out there and I surfed.  After a while we were all getting the hang of it so my mom caught her own wave.  She didn’t stand up fast enough for her to get her original wave but lucky for her a smaller but still good wave came along and she stood up by herself.  After that she couldn’t stop talking about that moment.

Also in surfing the smaller waves can sometimes be the stronger ones.  For example, once I had a wave that looked fairly small and I got up and surfed it.  Expecting to fall several times but never did.  That wave was getting kind of boring because it never stopped.  I was scared it was going to take me all the way to shore so then I just sat down.

Surfing is still fun even if you crash because the cool water splashing your face is refreshing and it cools you off.  This is pretty much how crashing goes.  You hear a cracking sound, a loud splash, and then nothing but silence.  Your ears fill up with water, your ankle gets tugged a little and you swim up. Light is back.  One time I was just about to stand up and the minute I got up, I practically walked off my board because I was unbalanced.  Another time was when I was standing up and the nose of my board got pushed into the water and my board did a small flip in the air and when I popped back up my board was upside down and I struggle to get it back over.  Then I heard the instructor say, “I like the crazy nose crap!” while laughing.

Even though surfing is really fun, it is still a lot of hard work.  For example, you have to think about everything while you’re surfing.  Here are just a few… You have to balance and dive in the water right.  You have to keep standing up right and make sure your swimsuit stays on when you crash.

One of the things that makes you get a workout and makes you very tired is paddling.  Once I had a really long wave so I was carried closer to shore than everybody else.  Every time I tried to turn around a little wave would come and push me back around toward the island.  Finally someone from Ty Gurney Surf School came and got me and towed me back.

Emma having fun surfing with TGSS!

There are also lots of rules you have to think about while you’re surfing.  Just one is that you have to think about where you look because if you look down, that’s where you’ll go.  Look down, fall down.  Look right, go right. Look left, go left.  Well you get the point!  It’s like the saying, “you are what you eat” except it’s “you go where you look.” Well, not close in meaning more just sounds alike!

Some people don’t even try to surf.  Some do try and never get to.  I didn’t even try and I’ve surfed and surfing is fun.