Good to be Alive - Paul and ME (c) Jasmine Färling
Mom, you shouldn't be scared of "the sharks" when I'm surfing but whether i'll make it to the surface after the wave bashes me...
So the surf was shit at Balangan Beach due to the on shore wind, so we listened to Paolo's (the Brazilian guy who's been traveling for 30 years, has lived in Indonesia for 7 years and owns a surf "village" on one of the islands in front of Java) advice and followed him to Serangan Islands. He said that this place would have an offshore wind, so the conditions for surfing would be great.
Scared might be undermining how I felt when I had to climb on the back of Jasmine's scooter.... I don't really trust my friend 8D She did fine though. After driving reeeeeally slow (20km/h) she was zig zaging everyone in the crazy traffic of Bali.
We lost sight of Carlos and Emma so we had to find our own way to Serangan Islands. We did pretty well ! Carlos and Emma were pretty surprised to see us but no one was in more disbelief than Paolo :D
We met this Spanish guy Paul and he was also a beginner in surfing. We were watching the waves for a bit terrified by their massiveness and aggressiveness. After a while we decided to head out anyways. We figured there was a smaller section we could probably take.
Well. We were terribly wrong. I borrowed Paul's long board and we paddled out quite far out. It wasn't until our third try to get on a wave that it happened. This massive wave broke on us and before we had even had the chance to try to stand up, we were in the water.
The wave and my surf board was dragging be under water for what seemed like ages. I must've traveled probably ten meter underneath the water before I could feel the force of the wave relax a bit. I was starting to panic. I was a bit lost which way the surface was and I hoped it as where I saw the light coming from.
Usually I'll wait a couple of seconds before coming up to the surface so that i'll know my board has passed me and isn't going to hit me when I surface. But this time it as difference. As soon as the wave loosened its grip, I was sprinting my way to the surface. I didn't care if the board would hit me and knock me out - I just knew I had to get to the surface N-O-W or I would drown. I wasn't sure how much longer I was able to hold my breath underneath water with my asthmatic lungs.
I was horrified - the surface seemed to be so many meters above me. The wave had really pressed me to the bottom and I was not sure I would make it in time to the surface. With each stroke I thought "when am I goijgn to hit the surface?!?!" It seemed like for ever. I was sure I would drown.
Just then I hit the surface and the sweet air. I saw Paul gasping for air next to me and I could hear him scream "I WANT TO LIVE" (which I later realized had actually been "I want to leave"). He hold on to my surf board and I was panicking because there was another massive wave just going to break on us. The worst thing was that out leg ropes were tangled to each other - "now we are really going to drown", I thought.
I was almost thinking of taking my leg rope off (thank god I didn't cause I wouldn't have made it out of the sea swimming. I suck at swimming..) when our leg ropes got free'd from each other.
I took the biggest gasp of air before the wave hit us. It wasn't as powerful though and because we had managed to hold out to our surf boards, we were back on them paddling quite fast. I paddled as hard as I could to get out of the break section. Luckily a wave broke behind us and the white wash carried us almost to the shore.
I was so happy to get out of the water and be alive.
I don't really know how to conclude but when I think about that moment underneath the water, I get shivers. I'm happy that I wasn't afraid to try it, but next time i'll also try to reason whether I can actually surf the waves before heading out.
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