Surfing was really hard. I'm super sore today, have a severely stubbed toe, and surprisingly a sunburnt face(I even put on sunscreen). But..it was also fun, and I'd definitely try it again.I made it to the train on time...stupid me only got 3 hours of sleep. Found the Surf Club president and other other beginner surfers, and off we went. It was me, Clare(the prez), Bram from Belgium, Jasmine from Germany, Jessica from England, and a boy named Pip from a little island called Guernsey(an absolutely amazing sounding place).
The good mix of people made for interesting conversation on our hour and 1/2 train ride to Chichester. The train ride scenery was good too...saw a castle and lots on pretty English country-side.The lesson was only 2 hours long, so after a brief intro on the beach, we got right into the freezing cold water. It was so cold that when I would fall of the board and go underwater, i would get brain-freeze. We had really thick wetsuits, and we were working pretty hard, so I managed to stay warm until about the last 20 minutes...except for my feet. I didn't get booties, and that was a mistake. My feet were numb after about 10 minutes...which made it hard to do stuff, like stand on the board. I could have sliced my foot open and would never have known(I definitely stubbed my toes numerous times...don't think I broke anything though).
The weather was weird. It was sunny, but then a squall rolled in...making the waves pretty crazy and raining on us for about 10 minutes. Then it cleared up, there was a rainbow and the waves calmed down...but by that point we were getting out of the water. The waves were so strong, we didn't really even try paddling out..we would just walk out and catch waves pretty close to the beach. I managed to catch a lot of waves, but by the time I figured out how to stand up, I was too tired. I definitely think I would benefit from "popping up" on land a bunch of times first.
After we finished in the water, we went back to the Clubhouse for lunch and to thaw out. I was actually alittle concerned about my feet for awhile, but I think they are ok. We could have gone back out for another session on our own, but we were all too tired and cold, we instead we took a walk down the beach. Then we headed back into Chichester to get a pint. It turned out we were ready to leave way before out pre-booked train tickets, so we all agreed we'd rather pay for new tickets then kill time sitting in the pub. We'd end up spending just as much money sitting around.
So, we headed back to London...I'm surprised we all managed to stay awake on the train. It was a good trip, I definitely want to try surfing again, and the English Channel is great for it because it's so cold you don't worry about what creatures might be lurking.
When I was uploading my photos, I found my pics from the OU/TX game. I went with my friend Kristin to the Texas Exes party. I was the only one in crimson, and it wasgreat when we won. If you look carefully, you can see my red back in behind all the burnt orange!
