long boarding

Dear Blog,

Today after class I practiced long boarding with Dan, Shaw, and Charlie.  

I was able to use Charlie’s long board to practice. 

It was very different from Lizzie’s board, though. . . 

It was much bigger and it was very wobbly. 

It turned at the slightest touch of my foot movements. 

I think I like Lizzie’s long board better but Carlie's board was very good practice.

  Ill be long boarding later on tonight after I go to my best friend's birthday dinner. 

I’m looking forward to going out and actually surfing in the water.

  I wonder if the long boarding really helped me improve. 

It definitely improved my confidence. 

I hope it has helped me to balance better, I think it has. 

I guess we will just have to wait and see!

Love,

Catie

workout

 

Oh boy...  What a NIGHT!  Well, first things first... Lizzy has acquired ANOTHER surf student named Lindsey! Lindsey and I went over to Lizzie's house to learn how to long board some more in order to gain more balancing skills.  Lindsey started off very wobbly, but by the end of the night she was riding like Tony Hawk!  She was balancing and kicking to go even faster on the long board.  I was able to get the balancing skill down rather fast.  All you really have to do if find your center and bounce on the board a little bit to get comfortable.  After I worked on balancing on the board, Lizzie had me practice turning left and right.  She said if I learned how to do this on the long board NOW, then it would make it easier for me to learn how to turn on my surf board LATER.  I was able to pick up on that pretty fast too, so now I can say I learned how to longboard!

After a good session of long boarding, Lizzie, Lindsey, and I went inside Lizzie's house and met Lizzie's cat named Murphy.  After being introduced to Murphy, Lizzie decided to teach me and Lindsey some exercises that would help us with paddling (The video above).  We had a good workout session and really got the hang of things!  Before Lizzie took me back to campus, she told me I was to practice the exercises I had just learned and watch a surfing video as homework.  I'm looking forward to getting to the beach and trying my luck on the surf board again!

CATIE

Surfin USA

Unfortunately I was unable to go surfing yesterday, so instead I decided to work out to get myself in shape.  I consider surfing somewhat of a sport and when it comes to sports I like to be in shape so I can perform to the best of my ability.  I went to the pool yesterday and swam a super 500 freestyle and another 500 with 30 seconds rest in between every 100.  I thought this would help me with my paddling skills in the ocean along with getting in shape.  I am really looking forward to go surfing with Lizzie this weekend.  Its going to be B-E-A-utiful weather this weekend in Boca, so I might as well take advantage of it and go to the beach and catch some waves!!! 

Balance

Alohaaaa dudessss!

Along with learning how to surf, I think I might be picking up on the surfing lingo that Lizzy uses when she talks!  After going to Wednesday Night Live at Lynn tonight, I met up with Lizzy and her friend.  She decided that she was going to teach me how to long-board along with surfing because it would help me with balance.  Surprisingly, I picked up on it right away!  I feel like long-boarding will be easier than surfing though.  I think this because long-boarding is on solid ground and surfing is in the water which would cause me to wobble much more.  Even though I think surfing will be much more difficult than long-boarding, I still cant repress my excitement to learn how to stand up on the surf board!!  Lucky for me, Ill be meeting Lizzy tomorrow afternoon for another surfing lesson! I'm thrilled that I am actually learning how to do something that I have always wanted to learn!  I really think that ill be able to surf by the end of this semester.  But I like that Lizzie is teaching me one baby step at a time.  Long-boarding today really got me excited for surfing tomorrow! 

Peace out homie G slice...

FIRST DAY!!!

So0o0o0o Thursday February 3, 2011 is the first day I have EVER been on a surf board before!  Well... I didn't exactly stand on it... But I'm learning slowly but surely.  Lizzie picked me up on Thursday with two surf boards sticking out of the back of her truck.  I was so excited to finally learn how to surf!  I jumped right into the truck  and we sped off to Spanish River beach.  There were not many waves on Thursday, which was fine because Lizzie wanted to teach me how to paddle on a surf board.

We arrived at the beach and immediately went into the water.  You HAVE to love FL when you can swim in February!  She taught me how to lie on the board correctly and how to paddle through waves.  It reminded me very much of a skateboard with the turning.  If I leaned left then I would go left, If I leaned right then I would go right.  Lizzie and I paddled in between the jellyfish obstacles all the way down the beach.  There were some small waves that Lizzie said I would be able to body surf on.  (I wasn't ready to stand yet).  She body surfed a few waves, showing me that I had to paddle while I was moving with the wave.  I was able to surf a bit  on some of the waves and Lizzie would even give me a little push to get me started.  Every time I would do it correctly she would give me encouragement!  She is pretty much the best surfing teacher I could have asked for!  There was one wave I was so excited to surf that I jumped on my board SO fast that it flew out from under me!

By the end of the lesson, Lizzie and I had a few jellyfish stings.  But we were still in good spirits and I am VERY excited for my next lesson to begin!  Im looking forward to learning how to stand on the board but I know that will take a while to learn.  I cant WAIT!

bLoGoSpHeRe IdEnTiTy

HELLO EVERYONE!!!  Thought Id tell you a bit about myself so you can understand why I am going to be writing all these blogs on surfing!  My name is Catie Wolf and I am a sophomore at Lynn University.  I am taking the Blogosphere Identity class with Professor Carrie Simpson.  She instructed our whole class to pick a goal we have in life and to work on accomplishing it throughout the course!  While we do this goal, we also have to blog about it week by week.  I have never blogged in my whole life so this is rather new to me.

I have ALWAYS wanted to learn how to surf.  When I was very little I used to watch Rocket Power and all of my favorite episodes were the surfing ones.  I used to think it was so neat that the characters from Rocket Power lived so close to the beach and that they were so good at surfing.  Every time id take a vacation with my family to the beach, my dad would always get my brother and me a boogie board.  Id always try to stand on it like a surf board but it would always flop out from under me.
I was in my sophomore year of high school when my brother started college at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne FL.  His college was so close to the ocean that he was able to get out and learn how to surf.  I have always looked up to my brother so the fact that he learned how to surf made me want to learn how to surf that much more.

When I first came to Lynn University last year I was so excited that I lived so close to the ocean.  Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to learn how to surf last year.  I didn't really know anyone who had a board that  I could use, and no one offered to give me lessons or to teach me.  Also, I did not own a board so I couldn't even go out by myself to try and teach myself. However, the Blogosphere Identity class has given me a great opportunity!  I met a girl named Lizzie in my class that offered to give surfing lessons to anyone who wanted it.  So... I IMMEDIATELY told her i was interested and gave her my number.  So now I am going to fulfill one of my life goals.  I am going to learn how to surf!