Get up and try again

  Montanita, Ecuador
Monday, November 26, 2007

surf's up in Montanita

The past two weeks have been all about learning how to be patient. Learning how to learn, and how to get back up on my feet when I fall or hit a wall. There is a lot of frustration and an even greater amount of pleasure in this training.

First, there is spanish. Everything was going great until the beginning of last week, when I felt that I hit a wall and nothing was clicking any more. Tenses were a mumbo-jumbo of verb suffices in my head, I was forgetting basic words that I knew just the previous week. I lost desire to practice at home and so I fell even further behind. This past weekend I spent almost a full day catching up to where I should have been at the middle of last week. I went over much of the material at my own pace and repeated if needed. Today I feel composed and ready for the next tense in grammar! Even though it is still intimidating when I go to the store or am stopped on the street and cannot explain myself or understand what is being said. Hopefully by the end of this adventure I will be able to converse freely. This is a good time to remember how I struggled with German before it finally 'clicked'.

Then, there is kite surfing. I took classes all of last week for a few hours after spanish class. Manuel, the school owner, works with a local kite surfing company and will set everything up for you seamlessly. We go out to practice at a beach 20 minutes south of Manta, its called Santa Marianita and its where the kite surfing school is based. Looks easy - you're on a board in the water being pulled by a kite. The pull of the kite should be enough to help you balance. Believe it or not it takes a good few days before you even get to try going up on a board... and I'm not there yet. So far I learned how to control a trainer (smaller kite for beginner use), and a real sized kite - both of those on the beach.

having fun horse riding

The pull of the kite and its sensitivity to your hand movements with the bar take some getting used to. My instinct is to always pull on the bar instead of push on it, which actually brings the kite down, not up! Then we also tried a few body dragging exercises in the water, the aim being to drag yourself along the length of the beach by navigating the kite which is strapped onto a waist harness. The trouble with this exercise is that a beginner will often end up bringing the kite down into the water, and to get it back up without having to swim with all the equipment to shore takes some skill. Twice now I had to roll up the deflated kite in the water and swim with the rather large bundle to shore. This was so exhausting that once it happened the rest of the session would be downhill from there. And naturally it was a great source of frustration to me. Specifically so because as anyone who knows me can attest, I hate to not know how to do something, it brings me out of balance to be a novice. I want to jump straight into the 'expert' phase. Very well knowing that there is no becoming an expert unless you go through the learning curve, and you have the patience to stick it out until it 'clicks'. Which I always end up doing in the end, its just that the process itself is highly annoying to me. Refreshed from the weekend and full of determination, on Tuesday I was ready for the next day of kite surfing. I had told myself that if I fall or the kite falls in the water, I will get up and try again, and be a sport about it. Within the first 5 minutes I managed to have a pretty scary accident on the beach - I lost control of the kite and before I could react, it was dragging me along in the sand and I was doing cart wheels, whereby I landed pretty hard on my head. I was scared and needed a few minutes to regain composure and make sure I didn't break my neck. But I remembered that I made a commitment to myself, and so I got up and tried again. And this time it CLICKED!!! I was no longer mechanically pulling and pushing on the bar - I was feeeeling the kite and playing with it. What an awesome sensation! Needless to say that once I mastered this skillset we moved onto harder material and now I am stuck again, hahaha... Get up and try again!

Chico lazing around on the beach one early morning

Then there's more. I tried to surf at the beach in Montanita this weekend. This coastal village attracts die-hard surfers from around the world - supposedly the best surf in Ecuador - and weekend tourists from Guayaquil. Its a funky little place, that Montanita. There are a number of stores in town that rent boards. Almost everyone in town hits the beach at high tide, either to surf or to observe and chill. For those who want to legitimize their surfing vacation with an educational supplement, there is also a spanish school in town which is growing rapidly.

I knew surfing would be hard because I have tried it once before and could not catch a wave for the life of me; all I remember is an hour an half of endless paddling. This time I had a good instructor though, who made me feel like I was improving with every run (even though I probably wasn't). By the end of the third session I could jump up on the board and maintain balance for... em... about a half second to a second. Ah! How frustraTING!!! How hard can jumping be, seriously? Another simple thing in life that I underestimated. I lost my patience on the third day and left a half hour earlier. And then while I was showering I left ashamed of myself, why am I such a bad player?

Group photo after beach volley

Nothing is ever easy the first time around. This made me even more determined. I am GOING to learn to surf. Before this trip is over. So once I was back in Manta I started researching my route south of Ecuador, and was delighted to find out that the entire northern Peru coastline is a surfing heaven. More or less I plan to stick to the coastal areas until I hit Lima, and from there on I will probably be travelling mostly inland to do the mighty Andes justice as well. This week I was practicing jumping in the sand and on the floor in the apartment, I think its already looking better (feels more natural, too) although I am certain I will be falling off the board for another few days to come. Except this time I remember that if you fall - get up and try again!

[PHOTO_ID_l=waz-on-beach.jpg]Mmmm, did I mention love works in a similar fashion? You think you've gotten the hang of it so you take the trainer wheels off, but just then you hit a rock in the road and you fly off, scorch the ground and end up with a bloody nose or chin. We never quite learn how to protect our souls, and its far more painful than hitting your head in the sand because no amount of ibuprofen will make the pain go away. The only thing to do is to get up and try again, or just get on with things.

So no, I'm not fluent in spanish yet, and I can't kite surf or surf either. I suck at all three, and I'm still a novice at love. To the rescue, determination - and a healthy dose of stubborness. I believe, I persist and therefore I can.

Get up and try again!!!