June 4, 2017

One year ago, I was sitting at our kitchen table, reading the newspaper about the results from the 2016 Wahine Classic (an all-female, local, surf contest at Folly Beach, South Carolina). Locally, it is just called “The Wahine.” I sighed and mumbled something to David, such as “Oh man, I’ll never be able to do anything like THAT.” He said, “You can do anything you want to do. Don’t let me stop you.” My sweet husband encouraged me over the next year to train and get back into surfing after two c-sections which produced the most beautiful children that I am blessed to call “mine.”

“You aren’t backing out of it. There is no way to get out of this,” David said. “Unless I’m too pregnant to even ride a surfboard in a year,” I said, kind-of-hoping. Fat chance. A year flew by, and here we are: the entry form accepted, check cashed, and a lovely message from co-director, Patti Noe. I’m in the open-novice division. My first surf contest at age 28. Whoa. That sounds intimidating, at least to me.

I went through so many emotions and a lot of anxiety in the last year, specifically about this contest. I went from: “Yay, I can’t wait!” to “What the heck am I doing?!” I kept on with a lot of self-doubt and fear: “You are too old for this.” “You are a mom and going to be out there with 7-year olds.” “Can you even pop-up anymore?” “When do you have time to train?” “You are a bad mom for leaving your kids; your family, to go spend hours swimming laps and practicing.” “What are you doing out here?” “What are you trying to prove?” “You do not belong here.”

Shut up.

This is about me conquering myself.

I was able to reconnect with some old friends and practice surfing again. It wasn’t until after I started swimming laps at the local rec pool for months that I felt as though I had any ab strength to pop up on my board. My husband was my biggest supporter in all of this. He encouraged me to go out surfing and/or swimming at 6:30am at least twice a week. He watched our children so I could practice and even brought our girls, by himself, to the event. David, I am forever grateful! Shoutout to Brittany, Kristin, and Rachel for waking up early to go with me. Thankful for my “surfing sensei”, Audra Gibson (the one and the same of Traveling Ink) for all of your tips, critiques, prayers and sunscreen.

The night before the contest, Rachel and her husband, Jon, spent the night and we were fighting off nervousness and we both got really excited when Audra brought us our welcome grab-bags and T-shirts.  (Thanks sponsors! We felt like we had won before it even started with all of the surprises in there!). The words that I kept hearing over and over in my head before the contest were: “This is going to be fun” and “rejoice.” I just needed to get out there and do it.

Saturday was a great day! The waves were small, 2 ft. and glassy/semi-glassy — meaning normal conditions for Folly Beach. I got to hang out on the beach all day before our afternoon heats, watch some great surfing, meet some amazing other wahines, take part in raffles and free food and enjoy the company of my family and friends under our tent. When it was my turn, it was so much fun to encourage the other girls in my heat and have friends standing on the shore to cheer me on. My fears subsided once I got out there and caught one wave. I honestly wasn’t thinking about how many waves I caught, I was just thinking: “wait, paddle, pop-up.” It was the fastest and yet hardest 15 minutes. I felt like I was sprinting the whole time. I wasn’t even sure of how many I caught, but I did advance to the finals the next day!

Afterwards, I couldn’t help but laugh because that was so much fun! I felt as though I had punched Fear in the face! Man, that felt good! My goal was not “to win”, but I already won because I was just being me out there. I had a goal and I went for it. I did not listen to the lies in my own head. I did my best. I did something that I never thought I was good enough to do.

I am more than a conqueror.

I am salt and light.

and among other things, I can add one more–

I am a wahine.

What is a dream or a goal that you have? What is stopping you from going for it? Get out there and DO IT! I’ll be cheering you on, every step of the way!

-Jen

P.S. Out of all of the amazing ladies out there, I met a few of the women in the “Goddess” category (50+). One woman is in her sixties and she is an amazing surfer and paddle-boarder and she said that she started surfing in her forties! You have no excuse that you “are too old to learn something new.” Several other women also told me that this was on “their bucket list, and now completed”. Way to go ladies! We totaled at 109 competitors this weekend, from various states in the Southeast, as well as one from Mexico. Such an amazing turnout and an amazing event. We will be back next year, –the whole ohana!