Surfin' Safari - I'm a real surfer now

Exciting day today - more surfing! Our buddies at R-Six hooked me up with a sweet fish board, I've been dying to test one of these out for awhile. A fish board is a retro style wide short board (popular in the 70's), usually with a swallow tail. This one is 6'2 with a quad fin. They're perfect for learning turns on smaller waves, which is exactly my plan. Chris is on sunbed rest from a bad cut on his foot, which he is trying to keep from infection.

I leap into the ocean and catch a few white wash waves for warm up. I can stand up with no issue, my balance is perfect. Yes! Every 20 minutes or so, there's a set with double-overhead so you have to keep an eye out (as always) so you don't get caught in the impact zone. These waves are breaking heavy, too, the big ones. I paddle out for a few of the smaller waves and catch only a few rides in 2 hours - my timing is off today. I am also having trouble with the duck dive, I can never get deep enough to avoid the wave completely. A set of big waves is coming in and I just make it over the first one. I get caught in the second. I can tell at the very last second that I will barely not make it, so I roll off my board and swim hard against the wave. I make it over the wave, but I get a hard jerk from my leggie and realize my board has gone over the falls. The board pulls me over the falls, and this is a heavy wave. I get spun through the washing machine twice, touching sand on my second time - and this is pretty deep water. I'm under for like 10 seconds (trust me, this is a long time) and come up gasping for air. Fortunately there's not another big wave in this set, so I immediately start swimming for shore to get outside the impact zone. This is when I realize I have only half my board. The wave has literally broken my board in two pieces. Pants. I make my way to shore, where an excited group of Indonesian children run over with my other half. I am pissed about the board, but strangely excited as well. I survived a wave that broke my board with no injuries. Lucky me.

Chris is not happy. We walk back to the surf shop to face certain punishment. Fortunately, we signed a contract with them and know the penalty for breaking the board: $100. At least fifteen people shout at us from the street on our way home - "Broken! Big wave?!" The guys at the shop are super nice about the board. Apparently this happened two weeks ago also. One of the guys tells me he's broken 15 boards in his life and shows me scars from his surf history. He asks about my wave and I show him my surf scar on my knee. I am a real surfer now.

Dinner is at The Balcony. Frozen margaritas for just 25,000rp! I haven't had a margarita since the States and boy do I need one after my wild day in the sea.