Travel & Hotspots

MARIE-CLAIRE IN MALIBU

During my many beach walks here in Malibu, I always look in awe at the surfers. They get out of their car early in the morning, walk in their wetsuit with board under their arm to the beach, lay their phone and car keys on a towel on the rocks (yes, it's that safe here) and go for a few waves in the Pacific Ocean before they have to go to work. Oh, how jealous I am then. A feeling of regret creeps over me when I think of all the opportunities I've had in my life to learn to surf, but I chose to lie on the beach with a book in the sun instead. What held me back then? I think I’ve figured it out. Secretly, I’m a little afraid of the sea. The depth, all the life below the surface that I have no knowledge of, the unpredictable, the currents… But you really can’t live in Malibu and not go surfing.

So I first decided to buy a cool wetsuit. It’s quite a task to try on such a thing because once you have it on, you’ve actually already had a workout. So I just bought the first one that fit. Now I want to slowly build my acquaintance with the sea, so I decided that a surf lesson was still a bit too exciting, but a paddle boarding lesson should be doable. After I had completely laid out my fear of the sea to teacher Ric and he reassured me, he pushed me onto the board into the sea. Everything went fine and we paddled for hours over the calm sea.

I slowly got used to the beautiful seaweed that gracefully curled up beneath me in the crystal clear water. Everything seemed very peaceful. Until he thought he saw a whale. ‘Is it coming this way?’ I asked with a slight panic in my voice, while I - feeling like I was a kilometer off the coast - tried to keep my board balanced under my feet. ‘That would be amazing,’ he said. ‘Sometimes they swim underneath you. They are very sweet.’ He saw my panic and added: ‘But they don’t do anything.’ In my head, a mantra echoed: ‘Don’t come to me, not today.’ And very strangely according to Ric, they didn’t come. It was a good first introduction. I think the sea and I can become good friends. Soon I have my first surf lesson and before summer starts, I will join the Dawn Patrol.