“Consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself?”
Herman Melville
On Tuesday morning, I woke up in the mountains, to the same dogs that had been barking all night plus the birds. I didn’t have plans, but by 10am, I balked at the thought of spending another day on dry land. The trip to the beach isn’t fast, but now I knew the way. I got to the bus station and bought a ticket.
The heat of Rio hit me in the face when I arrived, and I walked in Carioca to find lunch, a record shop playing all kinds of sounds I had never heard before. I arrived to the beach in the late afternoon and swam until dusk.
Then, I checked into a youth hostel by the beach (R. Joana Angélica) and chose a bed by the window which looked out onto a concrete wall.
I ate dinner by myself, and then with a group I met at the hostel! I got soaked to the bone walking back in a sudden rainstorm, and barely slept. At 8am, I popped out of bed and checked out, the only dry clothes I had left were my swimsuit and rashie. My havianas were cutting into my feet a bit but I hustled to the beach and had a breakfast of ice coffee and globo biscuits on the way.
When I arrived, the line up was calm, as promised, but the instructor I met the day before and their tent was no where to be found.
I wielded my few words of Portuguese to arrange a new lesson with the school that up and running in the morning. I met my instructor and practiced popping up on the beach.
Expectations were low, and when I stood up on the first wave they made me feel like I was surfing like Medina already.
The sections were short and most of the time I spent in the water was going under and over the salty waves, paddling as hard as I could for 5 seconds of calm water, and of course, being pushed into waves!
I felt out of breath, It had been too long.
“Are you tired?” Asked Anderson, the instructor.
“No! ”
“Turtle roll!”
A wave was coming. I happily realized that this expression translated directly, and thought how few words had actually been exchanged in this lesson, yet how beneficial it had been to borrow the eyes and discretion of a local for my first session at Arpoador.