The BIG Little Lies California Road Trip - 1st August 2019 - Surfing & North Coast Village

[smithlane]

Day 15

Surfing day today!

Up and ready by 9.30 to meet Helen and the kids on the corner of the complex. We walked down towards the pier to the hut that Mark had said we could rent surf suits from.

We were a bit early but were told in no uncertain terms that they open at 10 and not a moment before . She was clearly not having a good morning!

Helen, myself and the 4 kids were renting suits, they do a deal with Mark for $10 per suit for the day rather than $11 for 2 hours. Nick then came along wanting one too, Jim was going to brave the water without one.

This photo makes me laugh, Nick will randomly strike up a conversation with anyone wherever we are. Here he is chatting to the electrician about the difference in electrics between the UK and US

All the gear but no idea

We now walked to Lifeguard Hut 2 to meet Mark. The four kids were going first so we could watch.
Mark got the boards on the sand and got the kids to practice the 6 steps. Paddle, rest, push up, back foot, stand, front foot. Sounds easy enough but it looked really complicated

After only 20 minutes he got them into the water, quite quick we thought.
We watched from the sand. Jen, Hope and Sam picked it up fairly quickly although not exactly following his steps. A few falls were had! We had fun watching them . Sean bless him needed a bit more encouragement but did it in his own style.

Almost got it

Nearly...

Nailed it!

Jim and Nick went and got Helen and I some breakfast. There were a few huts and vans along the beach serving different foods. The coffee hut sold breakfast croissants with sausage and egg in them so we got one of those each and a soda. Very nice and filled a hole!

The kids’ 2 hours went by really quickly. They had almost mastered it but needed more practice. They were understandably exhausted!

Now our turn. We too had to practice the steps on the board on the sand but I felt quite rushed and hadn’t got to grips with it before he was taking us into the water.
These are the only photos the kids took of us

Well what can I say, I was rubbish! I couldn’t stand up at all, I could get the first 3 movements. Paddle, rest, push up but then I automatically would put my knees out. I couldn’t get in the standing position without doing so. The only one of us who mastered it was Nick, the rest of us were rubbish.

Mark didn’t really take the time to show us how to correct our mistakes or even show us a different technique only to just keep trying. After an hour and a half I had to take a breather, my hands were killing me and I had bashed my ankle. I went back in for the last 15 minutes but just used the surf board as a bodyboard which was far more fun

Our 2 hours were soon up. We were all quite disappointed, we thought we would have a little more direction from Mark not to quickly show us then just stand in the water and tell us we were doing it wrong!
Helen later You Tubed a couple of beginner videos and she said the method they were being taught was completely different to what we were shown and it looked much easier.
Oh well, we had a bit of a laugh and at least we tried something new.

We had all well and truly worked up an appetite so packed up our things and headed to the other side of the pier to see what food options there were and to hand in our wetsuits.
We found a BBQ van with this guy telling us it was the best BBQ meat all the way from Omaha, Nebraska! They had won a bunch of awards.

He gave us all a sample of their brisket and I have to say it was good!
Sam and I shared their Shack Attack which were hand cut fries topped with brisket and smoked sausage, bbq sauce, nacho cheese, cheddar cheese, sour cream and jalapeños. Jim had the same but with only brisket. With 3 drinks it came to $26.
Next to the van was a hotdog stand so got Hope one with some crisps and a drink for $6.

We got called over when it was ready and my Lord it was so good. I wished Sam and I had one each!

Whilst eating I could feel my ankle swell and it was getting really sore so once we’d finished we made our way back to the apartments for a rest. I sent the others ahead of me as I was taking forever.

Would love to have rented one of these cottages that were right on the beach

Eventually made it back, I took some painkillers and went to lie down. I ended up falling asleep for nearly 2 hours, I must have needed it!

I woke up just as Jim was heading to Walmart with Nick to get some dinner. What with my ankle now huge and unable to walk combined with us having ploughed through a lot of our spending money we decided a nice easy dinner in would be good.
Once Jim had left I had a shower hoping that would help but it was killing me! Jim messaged to say they were on their way back to the Leans so I sent the kids ahead of me as it was going to take me a long time to get anywhere. My foot had completely frozen and was almost double the size of the other one. I got the pole out of the parasol and used it as a walking stick

It took me 25 minutes to walk from one side of the complex to another, should have been a 5 min walk
I collapsed on their sofa whilst Nick and Jim got dinner ready, it was quite nice not having to do anything! Helen had really sore feet so was fairly immobile too. She did strap my foot up in a bandage which helped just a little bit.

The boys had got 2 cooked chickens, sub rolls, hotdogs, potato salad, new potatoes and some salad. It was the perfect amount for all of us. For dessert we had a choice of cheesecake or cherry pie and ice cream. Better than a lot of our meals we’ve had and a fraction of the cost!

Whilst eating we watched The Hangover which is a favourite of all of ours. We then watched the first episode of Parenthood on Netflix which is a series based on the Steve Martin film. I’ve been wanting to watch it for ages but it’s annoyingly not available in the UK. We all really enjoyed it so will have to find a way of watching it when we’re back home.

It was about midnight by the time we left. Nick very kindly drove us to our parking garage so I only had to go up in the lift. More painkillers taken then straight to bed.

[JudyC]

Ouch , hope your ankle improves

[Macca04]

Ouch hope it didn’t impact on the rest of the holiday, my son has an hilarious video of my very sporty now ex brother in law learning to surf in Australia. He said it was really hard and exhausting.

[Nesbits]

Ouch, that ankle looks painful. Good idea using parasol pole as a walking stick 😃

Shame about your surfing lesson, maybe it’s something best learned when your young.

Great trippie

[smithlane]

Originally Posted by JudyC

Ouch , hope your ankle improves

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Thank you, it did improve just in time for hiking in Yosemite

[smithlane]

Originally Posted by Macca04

Ouch hope it didn’t impact on the rest of the holiday, my son has an hilarious video of my very sporty now ex brother in law learning to surf in Australia. He said it was really hard and exhausting.

See more...

Thankfully it improved just in time for our hike of the Mist Trail in Yosemite.
Yes it is both really hard and really exhausting. They make it look so easy in the videos, although it could just be that we're not that young or particularly very fit

[smithlane]

Originally Posted by Nesbits

Ouch, that ankle looks painful. Good idea using parasol pole as a walking stick 😃

Shame about your surfing lesson, maybe it’s something best learned when your young.

Great trippie

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I was looking around the apartment for anything that could help and thankfully came across the parasol pole, wasn't perfect but really helped being able to lean on something
Yes I think I have learned my lesson that at nearly 40 I should leave all physical exercise alone

[Macca04]

Originally Posted by smithlane

Thankfully it improved just in time for our hike of the Mist Trail in Yosemite.
Yes it is both really hard and really exhausting. They make it look so easy in the videos, although it could just be that we're not that young or particularly very fit

See more...

Ex brother in law was 50 at the time far too old to start surfing 🏄 😂

[Goldia]

Such a shame about your ankle. Sounds like the surf lesson wasn't that great really. But like you said at least you've tried something new.

[smithlane]

Originally Posted by Goldia

Such a shame about your ankle. Sounds like the surf lesson wasn't that great really. But like you said at least you've tried something new.

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Thanks Abby. I'm not sure what we were expecting from the surfing but we just felt a bit ripped off. Obviously didn't help that I hurt myself but that was to be expected with me