Surfing

Pretty much all of my family had surfed before. Except me. So, a few years ago, I persuaded my brother to take me with him on one of his surf sessions. We had just gotten new surfboards the week before in preparation for summer, and we were excited to use them. It was early morning and the swell was good, so we paddled out. I was taught a few of the fundamentals of surfing and after a few tumbles into the waves, I slowly got it. As the day ended, I could surf properly without plunging headfirst into the waves. I decided to go surfing with him every Wednesday and Friday for the rest of the summer. As summer was coming to a close, I could master most of the beginner's tricks. The following summer, I joined a surfing camp. The camp was a ten minute walk to the ocean, and instructors taught me all they could about surfing. It was amazing.

The Ranch

A few years ago, during the Spring, my family and I visited my great-aunt and uncle in their ranch in Illinois. It was a unusual and exciting experience. The ranch was in the middle of a large terrain, almost in the middle of nowhere. The ranch itself had cattle, horses, sheep, anything you could think of, and it was amazing. We stayed their for about a week or so, and we filled up our free time with riding the horses, kayaking on the nearby lakes, hiking, and boating. We also tried water skiing. My great-aunt and uncle had bought the equipment, when they had bought the ranch, but as they grew older, they found that they didn't want to try it anymore. So, they persuaded us to try.  Unlike my first experience kayaking, (my last blog) I failed many, many times at water skiing. And to be honest, it takes time to learn a sport like that. But after numerous fails, and water stuck in my ear, I learned to balance. And once you really get the hang of it, it's really fun. Some days, we would waterski all day. Now, we waterski every time we go there.

Kayaking

Two summers ago, my family and I went on a vacation to Big Bear for about two weeks. During this time, we did various things, including hiking, biking, pretty much everything you could do at Big Bear. Near the cabin we were staying at, happened to be a kayak rental shack. I had never been kayaking before, so I as exciting when my brother announced that we would go. As I sat in the shaking kayak, I was a bit worried that I would tumble in head first into the water. Of course, I could swim, but the water wasn't all that warm this summer so the chilly water might give me a bit of a shock. As we slowly rowed away, I felt like I was getting used to it. Eventually I could even do most of the stuff that the pros could do! As we were turning back to the docks though, my brother leaned a bit too much to his left side, and he flipped into the water. Although very wet, he managed to get out of the kayak fine and swam up to the surface cracking up. To this day, we still tease him about his horrible balance. I was glad I decided to try kayaking, and I still do every summer.