Table of Contents
Words by current resident Joe V.
Photos by CEO Roy DuPrez
Today I road my first wave since arriving in Mexico and attempting surfing for my first time. Surfing is one of the things I have looked forward to most in B2B. One reason it has been something to look forward to is that it required me to have a chance to go to Mexico in the first place. It is a privilege to even get to the ocean, and to surf for someone who is from Michigan where surfing is about 100 places down on my to do list from the top.
From the time my fellow residents back in Flagstaff returned from their Mexico trip I have been hearing surfing stories. The stories I have been hearing have gave me a fair amount of expectations about what to look forward to in my attempts at surfing. They said it’s a lot of hard work, but that it’s really a lot of fun. Up until this morning in my sixth attempt at surfing, the first two predictions had been coming true almost to a fault, and the fun part was pretty difficult for me to grasp. I had put in twelve to fifteen hours of surfing in my first four days and gotten my butt kicked. I was dreading hitting the beach that we went to this morning, because if there was one beach that opened up the biggest can of whoop ass on me, it would be Playa Linda. However when I first got into the water and started to paddle today I didn’t tire out quite as fast as the last three days. When the relentless surf like it has been every other day, my body was conditioned to maneuver in a way that helped me progress and overcome the challenge of the constant waves crashing toward me. The more comfortable I felt, the more possible it seemed to be that I could stand up and ride my first wave.
With the combination of my mind quieting down, and some real hope that I was going to have success on one of my upcoming attempts, my focus shifted. I stopped thinking about paddling or how tired of falling I had become. Finally once I caught the flow of the wave just right it seemed the standing up and riding should have never been so hard to do. And for the first time I was really truly have fun out there.