Over the past year, we’ve been experimenting with a wide variety of ocean sports. We both love swimming and the ocean, and have increasingly felt like we’re not taking full advantage of San Francisco’s aquatic sports opportunities. So we’ve been trying out various wave-riding sports.

Surf-Kayaking
Not to be confused with sea-kayaking, surf-kayaking is done in very small incredibly unstable kayaks. While sea-kayaks are intended as transportation and people are mostly taught to come in behind the waves, a surf-kayak is designed to catch waves.

We took a surf-kayaking lesson at Half-moon Bay last year, and had a really amazing time. The instructor had us paddle from inside the harbor, so that we got some practice on the boats before dealing with any waves. This turned out to be very important. Two people in the group (Toby was one of them) fell out of their boats, and had to practice getting back in without tipping the boat over. Because we were coming from the harbor, we came in behind the waves and were able to have the experience of catching one without having the paddle out over the top of them. The boats are incredibly buoyant — they float almost entirely above the water, so the feeling is far more like flying than any of the sports we’d later try.

The tough part, it turns out, is getting out far enough to catch a wave. Paddling over “the soup” in such an unstable vessel is incredibly challenging, and we both spent more than half the time in the water. We were with a great group, which made the experience really fun, and falling out just increased our determination. Catching a wave is so thrilling, it made the effort worthwhile.

After doing this for 4 hours, we were so exhausted that we actually went to bed at 7pm and slept the entire night.

Bodyboarding
In June, we went to Hawaii for a few days to take bodyboarding (aka “boogie boarding”) lessons. Many people asked us why we would need to take lessons for this - after all, this is something that kids do all the time, no lessons required. It turns out that bodyboarding is a serious sport as we learned on a hike in Marin - we passed through Rodeo beach, where there were several surfers and a lone bodyboarder. The bodyboarder looked like he was having a phenomenal time - didn’t have to wait “in line” for waves, had flippers to help him catch waves, and was doing some pretty nifty tricks. YouTube has many examples of professional bodyboarders. We decided that this could be a good sport for us - limited and relatively inexpensive equipment (the board can fit in the trunk of a car), and we’d both had fun boogie boarding as kids.

While bodyboarding is pretty rare in San Francisco, it’s quite popular in Hawaii. Walking around, it’s fairly common to see kids and adults with boards and fins. Our instructor took us to Makapu’u beach for the first two days (we later read in our guide book and on other web sites that Makapu’u is a popular bodyboarding location but can be quite dangerous for novices). By the end of day 2, Brooke felt that bodyboarding was not the board sport for her, at least not in Hawaii - a rather scary nosedive confirmed this. Toby, on the other hand, was a natural. On day three, Toby went to Ala Moana, which required a 20 minute swim out but had long, beautiful waves.

Surfing
We visited Jacksonville to visit Brooke’s mother a couple of weeks back, and rented a beach house. There was a surfing school right near us, so we thought we’d try it out. We had very large surfboards, about 9ft long — larger boards are easier for beginners because they don’t tip or rock as much. Our instructor was great, very relaxed, and he made sure that we got a good start on our first couple of runs by pushing us at just the right moment — because of this we were both able to get to our feet on our second try, which was incredibly encouraging.

Toby continued to practice after the lesson. We both began to understand why people become so addicted to surfing, with many of them constructing their whole lives around being able to surf as much as possible. The feeling of catching a wave is fantastic, and the feeling of missing it only leads to wanting to do better next time (”I almost had it!”).

Stand-up paddle surfing
SUPS is an increasingly popular board sport - it was all over Hawaii and seems to be taking hold in Jacksonville. Pierce Brosnan recently shared his love for stand-up paddle surfing on The Daily Show.  Imagine standing on an enormous surf board and paddling as if in a canoe. You can catch waves or have a great time in flat water. Brooke really enjoyed being in flat water - you’re pretty far away from shore (you feel like you’re in the middle of the ocean) and there’s a nice balance between being very focused on the small (keeping your balance, noticing changes in the water as the tide comes in) and the large (you feel like a speck of dust in the middle of the ocean). She also saw some cool wildlife - e.g., a swordfish leaping in the water. You don’t have to surf waves to have fun on a stand-up paddle board, but it’s relatively easy to do so given how big the board is.

We felt like all of these board sports were great physical activity and enabled to get out in the ocean and have fun in the water. When we get back to San Francisco, we’re going to both try SUPs, renting from Boardsports School. Toby also plans to venture out to Pacifica to practice surfing.