If I am not at school or playing a sport, I am probably surfing. Surfing gives me an insane adrenaline rush, and I have loved it since I was a little kid. So, naturally one of the greatest moments of my life involves surfing. It started on a cold December day. I woke up at five in the morning and immediately began to get ready. First, I slurped down a large coffee, and then began to stretch. I stretched in front of my computer and watched the wave reports. The colorful orbs, indicating wave height, danced across the map and landed directly on top of Long Island. There was a winter storm rolling in and I was getting ready to ride it. My dad came down stairs at about six and flicked on the weather; it was supposed to snow. We packed up the …show more content…
I ran up to the water edge, slid through the water while lying on top of my board and began paddling out. Wave after wave I was smashed on top of the head and pushed back ashore. After a long, twenty-five minute struggle to paddle one hundred yards, I had made it out past the breaking waves. At this point, I was drained and I decided to bob in the water for a little while. While I floated, seals played with each other all around me and it began to flurry. I finished resting and was ready to paddle for a wave. I sat on my surfboard, staring at the horizon for a bump in the water that was rolling my way. As I saw a faint outline of a wave approaching, I shoved my board underneath me and allowed it to pop back up, giving me some momentum to catch the wave. By pushing my hands through the water and kicking my feet, I managed to catch hold of the waves forward momentum. I quickly popped up and began to ride the wave. At first, it seemed like an ordinary wave. But, as I set my direction parallel with the wave, I began to understand what I got myself into. The wave came up over me and crashed to the side of me, creating a tube about two feet taller than me and twice as wide as me. I settled into the pocket of the barrel and continued to look all around me, soaking up every possible detail. After the wave faded to a crumble, I jumped off my board and packed everything up. I was stoked about
I smiled to myself and decided that I would go join in. With that, I took a huge deep breath and jumped into the salty water. The water was cool and refreshing; I felt it slide through my hair making it sway in the water. I swam deeper and deeper into the deep blue water. Sunlight streamed through it, lighting up the water around me turning it to gold. I kicked harder and I felt my muscles surge with strength and I pushed further. My lunges began to burn for the need of oxygen, but I refused to go up. I repeatedly told myself just a little bit longer. Until I was unable to proceed anymore without more air in my lungs, I swam to the top of the water taking a huge breaths, filling my lungs with air. I could then taste the salty water as it ran down my face and dripped over my lips. Just then I thought, I will never forget this moment, this place, or the experiences I felt while visiting
Whoosh! A phenomenal wave flew over my head, pulling me down with it. Next to me, to pull me back up was my brother, Matthew. Whoosh! Then came another wave, dragging me down again. My brother pulled me up once more. At that point I could see the haven-like shoreline becoming more distant; however, I was only ten at the time and did not understand why I was being pulled further away from it. I did not realize it at the moment, but a riptide had caught me.
As my family and I sped along the coast, the sour smell of sulfur vents and sea salt pungently gusted through my nostrils. My clothes were damp from the constant spray of seawater. My sense of balance was overcome by the sequential hop from wave to wave and – combined with the
It was a bright sunny day and the lake looked like glass, perfect to go water skiing. My dad, brother, and I decided to go get the boat ready for our trip. We had to get the sunscreen, refreshments, and water skis. Once we all got in the boat, we had to untie the ropes that were tied to the boat and the dock and lead the boat out of the dock without it colliding into the dock..
...n. When a sting ray swims past you or a jelly fish is there in the water beside you, again there is a realization of just how much is going on under the water that is not seen. The waves can make you feel so insignificant when you get tumbled head over heels in the water and you have no control over yourself. Only after experiencing this can the powerfulness of the waves be realized.
I struggled to keep my head above water as fierce waves battered against my fragile body. My lungs screamed in anguish as harsh cold water filtered into them, steadily consuming the space that had moments ago been occupied by oxygen. As I felt my strength waning, I wondered if fighting was even worth it. After all, it would be just as easy to let the waves overtake me and be gone forever. Oftentimes, uncertainty can strike people when it is least expected.
There would be friction between your hands and the rope when trying to pool or if you lost grip of it. This resulted in your hands becoming blood red and burning. I began to appreciate sailing with its moods of being calm and suddenly becoming rough. Sometimes the wind would pick up and the boat would be going remarkably fast that the sail would be getting pushed into a 40 degree angle with the water. This means we were basically trying to stay on the boat because it would be dangerously close to flipping if a larger wave were to come. We traveled all the way to the other side of the bay in which we then docked the boat on the beach. We found a beach ball on the beach, therefore we took a brief intermission to throw the beach ball around. We then pushed the boat off the beach and hopped on. There was water constantly brushing my face making it difficult to see. There was a “thumping” noise when the wind would pick up, from the waves hitting the front of the boat and the boat falling back down to the water again. After these events, I knew I wanted to do this more
It was a very cool day, overcast with a drip of rain here and there. Waves were vicious, water was as cold as the arctic, and my weak body was always being compared to a pencil. I began my swim as I attempted to avert the waves but, I seemed impossible. They kept pushing me back, yelling at me to go back to the beach, today is not your day. The waves, they swept me away with ease. I was a squirrel in a dog's mouth, a ragdoll, being tossed every which way. Tossed off balance underwater, I was baffled. My lungs whimpered for air, my body slowly drifting away. The aspect was blackening, the whole world spinning in circles, then, I felt weightless…
Immediately, I angled my position and went for a dead sprint toward the water. I jumped off the cliff. I never felt anything like it; the trajectory had me flying through the air for longer than I expected. A surge of adrenaline pulsed through my body, bringing a new sense of life to me. The scorching heat went away as gravity pulled my body toward the water, bringing me a pleasant breeze through my fall. Then, I finally hit the water. I didn’t stick a solid landing, as I went head first into the water. I panicked and opened my eyes under the murky water, only to see nothing but dirt and sediments float around me. I kept sinking and saw a monstrous fish swim right in front of my face. At that very moment, my body went into overdrive, and I managed to project myself back up to the surface.
We arrived in Lake Oswego and as a group decided to head to a popular place known as barrels. Barrels is roughly 40 feet above the water. Lots of people were there and it was a fun time. After a few minutes of standing around, I decided to make the plunge. Slowly, I climbed on top of the railing and looked over the sparkling blue water below. Inside my head, I counted down from five and my feet left the earth and were gliding through the air rapidly towards the water. My feet hit the water and shock overcame my body. The icy water chilled me as I clawed to reach the surface. As I hit the surface of the water, I smiled. I had conquered the first jump and I knew I could survive twenty-five more feet.
The lonely empty silence is overpowered by a wall of foam rushing towards me. Wheels of sand are churning beneath my feet. My golden locks are flattened and hunched over my head to form a thick curtain over my eyes. Light ripples are printed against my olive stomach as the sun beams through the oceans unsteadiness. I look below me and can’t see where the sand bank ends; I look above and realize it’s a long way to the top. Don’t panic Kate, you’ll get through this. I try to paddle to the top but am halted by something severely weighing me down- My board. That’s what got me in this mess in the first place. I can see the floral pattern peeping through the sand that is rapidly crawling over it. I quickly rip apart the Velcro of my foot strap and watch my board float to the surface effortlessly as I attempt climbing through the water to reach the surface. The fin of my board becomes more visible to me as I ascend. Finally, an alleviating sensation blasts through my mouth.
I then pulled in my sails and began to steer out into the great body of water that now lay in front of me. As I began to sail faster I realized what was coming and there was no escaping. The feeling of nervousness turned into a feeling of sheer fear of the unknown. We had rehearsed the act of capsizing thousands of times on land, but nothing had prepared me for the actual event its self. There were now no instructors to help me or explain capsizing to me on a white board it was just the boat and I. After an hour on the water, the instructor told me it was my time to flip the boat on purpose and practice getting it back over.
Thinking of surfing brought me to think about my brother who is a surfer. I reminisced about the times he and I had sat quietly in the ocean waiting to see that perfect bump in the horizon. He taught me a great lesson in surfing; you don’t always have to pick the first option because there are more opportunities to
I will never forget the first time I went snorkeling, it was something I had been afraid to do up until the moment I touched the water. Beforehand all I could think about was what if I got attacked by a shark? I was too young to die and I felt like I was tempting fate. Then once I made the plunge into the water everything washed away, as if the waves carried the fear with them as they folded over me. I remember that day so clearly, rocking back and forth, up and down, I sat on a small glass bottom boat. The enormous ocean waves making me nauseas as I put my snorkel gear on. I hurried as fast as I could, knowing my nausea would go away as soon as I entered the water. This wasn’t the first time I have gotten sea sick, but it only shows up when the boat is sitting still. As soon as I got my equipment on I jumped into the water, fins first. I felt the sensation of goose bumps shivering up my whole body, tiny bubbles rolling over my body from breaking the surface, they ran from my toes upwards to break free at the ocean’s surface. Once the bubbles cleared, I looked around to see a new blue world I have never experienced before. I heard the sound of the ocean, mumbled by the sound of my deep breathing and the tanks of the more experienced scuba divers below me. It’s a very relaxing and peaceful sound, and if I had not been in such a new and unusual place I could have floated with my eyes closed for hours.
This lukewarm water was deceiving though, because it only seemed lukewarm due to the drop in temperature and misty rainfall. The waves were rushing toward me like a bull to a matador’s red flag. My mouth tasted as if someone dumped a whole shaker of salt on my tongue. The wave pushed my further and faster as it I could feel the wave breaking on my body and there I was back at the shallows again floating in with the white wash and was ready for another wave. As I stood back up and ran back out to the deep water I saw one of my surfing mates catch the most perfect barrel it was rad. It would have been a great snap shot. I caught another wave, this one was even bigger. The thrust of the wave was twisting my body and I was pulled towards the sea