Surfing With The Green School

It was a surf trip, but the surf’s not what I remember. That’s not to say that the waves weren’t decent, which they were. All I want is to give an accurate retelling of those three nights and four days and not some glorifying, all-mighty surf expedition. Because, well, that’s just not how I see it.

Somehow we were able to have the privilege of surfing with the Green School’s surf program and be a part of their extracurricular program. That meant going to a specific beach every Saturday and meeting with the school’s surf instructors who would lead us into the water and surf with us. Then after the month was up, there would be a three night surf camp where all the kids who did surfing throughout the year would attend. We would also get to go. It would also be the chance where we could actually get to know and hangout with the students. Wescott would be going with the high school group on separate days and Otto and I would be going with the middle school group a week later. Since Saturday was the weekend, nobody was technically required to go to the weekend surf sessions, so for the first month in Bali, we didn’t see a lot of other students in the Green School Surfing Academy, but we would soon be immersed.

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7:30 am. The mornings of the surf week were always quiet, peaceful even. After breakfast everyone would go down to the beach and surf nonstop till noon. In total, there were 25 kids as well as multiple surf instructors, a few chaperoning dads, and Colin, who was in charge of the whole surf academy, in the water at once. We spent the week at a beach called Medewi in the western part of Bali where fishing boats lined half of the shore and dead fish was as common as sand. Once our arms started resembling that of a noodle, and only then, we’d all head in for lunch. A couple hours later, there would be an afternoon surf.

“Here’s the competition: there are two boards and two teams. One at a time, each person from both teams will go out and catch a wave. You’ll be scored individually by how well you surf that wave, but if you decide to catch and ride a whitewater wave you automatically get a 2. If you fall off, that counts. You don’t get to keep trying for another shot at a wave. So pick good. Then at the end we’ll add up all the scores and the team with the most points wins. And the first team to finish, where all their people have gone out and come back, gets an additional 10 points added and the second team only 5. So, you’ll have to think about performance as well as speed.”

We were sitting on the beach in a half circle around Colin while he was explaining the afternoon’s game. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at all nervous. It was just for fun, but still, I couldn’t help the butterflies surfacing inside me. I’m confident enough in my surfing ability yet when you add the pressure of catching a good wave, riding well, and doing it somewhat fast, then I had no idea how I would hold up in that situation. Not to mention that the board was as tall as me, give or take a few inches, and I’m like five-foot-nothing! I’ve never ridden a short board before so this would be very interesting. We were soon divided into groups and the first two people began to paddle out. When it came to my turn, I decided to just go out the back like I normally would and catch a wave. Unfortunately, none of the waves were looking that good, and when a good one did show up,  I was too late because the person from the other team was already riding it back. I was alone… For now.  I needed to catch a wave, but time wasn’t on my side.  Heading back in, I managed to snag some whitewater, barely getting up. Definitely not one of my best rides. Though thankfully, unlike some kids back on Mercer Island where to them gym equals the equivalent of the Olympics, nobody seemed too upset by my lackluster performance.

7:00 pm. Dinner was finished and by now night was fully upon us. I was rooming with two other girls―really five if you take into account the fact that it was an adjoining room and we had opened the door to allow easy passage. Sprawled across three of the beds in one of the rooms, I watched passively as all the girls took out their iPhones and I was reintroduced to the digital world. I had forgotten what this was like―what I myself was like―to be in the same room hanging out with someone while simultaneously not being there at all.

“Do you have Facebook?” One girl had put on music and was blasting a rap song.

“No,” I casually answered.

Another girl was texting with a boy, saying something about liking him and stressing about how to reply back to each incoming message.

“Mmm,” and the girl talking to me went back to her Snapchat.

A different girl then asked, “you have a phone?”

“Yeah, but I left it at home. I didn’t bring it on my trip.”

“Oh okay,” and next to her the ‘mmm’ girl looked up; laughed saying, “I could never do that,” which got the other girl laughing too.

7:30 am. The next day led primarily the same path as the last, but later there would be no afternoon surf. We would then be leaving the following morning.  So with the rest of the day  free, we decided to go for a swim in the pool, accompanying those already in who had the same idea. About an hour later, I had to get out because one of my ears became so clogged with water that I couldn’t hear anything. I spent the next thirty minutes trying unsuccessfully to get the water out when everybody started coming back in. While they showered and changed, I filled the time by sitting on my bed with a water bottle in hand, voraciously gulping down the awkwardness of not knowing what to do with people you just met with each single drop. I probably drank the most water in that couple of days than I had in the whole year. But, soon we all settled down and played a few games of BS and listened to music until we noticed it was time for dinner.

11:00 am. We arrived late morning at the Green School, where Mom was waiting eagerly for us with kombucha and raw peanut butter cups. I waved goodbye to a few of the girls and then we simply drove back to Ubud, passing the now familiar rice paddies.

“Did you have fun?”

“Yeah,” Otto and I replied, almost in unison.

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While my surfing wasn’t stellar, and the waves weren’t perfect, I realized that what I will remember most is that you can be halfway around the world and find a group of friends that make you feel like you are right at home.