On the 14^th of March, 2011, couple of days after a massive earthquake and a subsequent tsunami hit Japan, I decided to go surfing. I guessed that since fear-mongering would be the highest for a couple of days, I would find a lot less people than usual on the beach, and thereby giving me a peaceful and yet enjoyable experience on the beach. I was right about lesser number of people turning up at the beach. Enjoyable experience – not so much.

Sydney is a host to quite a lot of attractive beaches, and Manly beach is one among them. It is also a beach known for its incredible waves which makes it just the right place for surfing. For the experienced surfers that is.

The main assumption of course is that I considered myself a good swimmer before stepping into the waters. This assumption comes back to bite me in the back and haunt me later.

Here is my story.

As I looked across Manly beach, I saw many an experienced surfer cutting across waves and surfing on a few outrageous waves. I rented a surfboard across the beach for one hour and waded into the waters almost immediately. At first, the surfboard was difficult to handle. Paddling was difficult, much less standing on the surfboard. The surfboard has a latch which you strap on to the right leg so that you and your surfboard are always together (and hence would not lose the surfboard). After some struggle, slowly but surely, over the next half an hour or so, I started gaining control of the surfboard. I was able to stand on the short waves which were close to the shore line. I was able to ride the waves not as confidently as the experienced surfers, but fairly well. This was exciting stuff. It was a totally new experience, and I was loving every moment of it. I did it again and again and again. Each time, I was growing more and more confident of my surfing skills.

As I grew more confident of surfing the shallow waters close to the shore line, a thought crept into me. Why not surf the bigger wave? It’s logical, isn’t it? Of course it is (rationalization is a, as I stated in my earlier blog posts is as close to ‘bitch’ as it gets). And so I surfed back to the sands of the beach, and keenly observed the experienced surfers for about 10 minutes on how exactly they were going about their deep-sea surfing. It looked like a simple procedure. You swim into the deep sea, wait for the wave to come along, turn your surfboard in the direction of the wave, paddle hard so that you maintain some velocity and once the wave begins to take you along, you just stand up. The basics were the same irrespective of whether it was the shallow waves or the deep-sea waves.

Or so it seemed.

I waded through the shallow waters into the deep sea. My initial idea was not to go beyond 15 meters from the shore line. I assumed I could swim back pretty easily (you remember the good swimmer part above – yeah that!) if I was not able to surf properly. I severely underestimated two things – a) the ability of the sea to pull me back within itself along with the water b) the fear the roar of the waves create when you are caught in the middle of it.

As I moved in, the waves were hitting rapidly and furiously. Sea water, as is the case usually, is salty and this water at Manly beach was saltier than normal. And when this kind of salty water gets into your eyes, it burns like hell. I kept going for about 10 meters or so. I looked back at the shore line and I was hardly any distance away from it. I kept walking into the sea and by the time I realized what had happened (a big wave or two had passed over), I was close to 50 meters into the sea. I looked back at the shore line in horror.

I had my surfboard, but it was not of much use because of the rapidity and the speed at which the waves were coming on 50 meters into the sea. I had absolutely no surfing experience till date (except for the briefly and quickly learnt skill in shallow waters) and the huge volume of water and the roar of the waves (especially the white froth that comes at you at your eye level) around me sent a shudder through my spine. I was literally shaking. I couldn’t even see properly as my eyes were burning.

I quickly came to my senses. I thought I would swim back to the shore line. Wrong assumption again. I furiously starting using all the tips and tricks I had learnt during swimming (‘good swimmer’ you know!). Instead of moving towards the shore line, the waves were taking me away from it inspite of my frantic swimming. I was going deeper and deeper into the sea. And then, a swimmer’s worst nightmare happened. ‘Gulp, gulp’ I started gulping water. That’s when I realized I was dying. Not maybe dying, but very close to it. As a swimmer, you are never taught to drink water – and here I was, after close to 15-20 minutes of trying to fight the sea, gulping water. I told myself, ‘Screw it, I am calling for help!’

And then I screamed. I screamed ‘Help, Help’. The worst part about screaming 50 meters into the sea, with huge waves rushing above and past you is you have no idea whether your scream reached other surfers, much less the beach-crew. I probably screamed four times, before I gulped even more water ‘Gulp, gulp’. And then I saw this beach-crew guy coming towards me on his surfboard. It surprised me how quickly he reached me. The first thing he did was to remove the strap on my leg (the strap which ties me to the surfboard) and from then on, I was able to swim easily. I tried climbing on to his surfboard but a huge wave hit us from behind. I swum along with the wave with probably the last ounce of my energy and finally reached the shore line. My surf board followed me, although not tied to me.

I sat on the beach sapped of energy. I was trying to puke the salt water that got in, but couldn’t. It was a nauseating feeling. The sun was beating down, but I didn’t have energy to even stand up, much less move into a shade. After about half an hour, I mustered some energy to return the surfboard and sit in the shade. It was probably an hour before some I had some energy to take a bath and wear fresh clothes.

I looked at the sea from afar, calm at the shoreline and furious beyond. I did not smile. I was probably thankful. Or probably it was fear. I would never know. I had just learnt that sea was a dangerous being, if not handled properly (an understatement?). I probably learnt a bit of surfing in the meanwhile, but the experience of getting so close to death and yet so far from it is humbling. Or probably mind-boggling. I would never know.

P.S: If you have missed them earlier, here are the travelogues I had written on Sydney -

a) Sydney Part 1 Travelogue

b) Sydney Part 2 Travelogue

A: i can’t believe he’s dead  so sad

me:   i think u shud fly to LA for the last rites

A: it’ll be unbearable

Now, i’ll just think its all a dream

infact, i’ll try and fool myself that he’s alive

me:

A: anyway, he’s a legend which can never die

me: i think u shud visit a temple or smthg and meditate for sometime :

A:   u think i’m crazy?

me: lol, no, really

A: he’s a magician dude

not just his music, dance, singing but also his capacity to mesmerize billions all over

look at his fans during his tours, the girls have orgasms literally dude

me: Baltimore MJ sangham start cheyyi {‘A’ lives in Baltimore and I am advising him to start a MJ club}

me: maannn this is like made for the media kindaa situation, exploitin to the hilt

A: you got to be a fan to understand

i understand  :)

me: cha!  :)

A: is that it? is this all there is for life?

work your ass off, succeed, get money fame etc and then finally, thats all you get?

very unfair dude

me: 3000 yrs ago…Bhagawad Gita – same message

2) Watched ‘The Hangover’ and ‘Transformers’ over the past weekend. ‘The Hangover’ is an extremely funny movie, too gross in certain parts but funny nevertheless {Never ever watch this movie with your parents/kids}. ‘Transformers-Revenge of the Fallen’ is easily one-of-its-kind movies, especially with the IMAX experience that I went through. The grouse as usual from the media was that it was all fight and no story. Cars and Motorcycles morphing into AutoRobots – and you expected a story? Really? The graphics are mind-blowing and so is the cinematography. Watch it for sure, preferably in IMAX.

3) With news such as this trickling in, we are well on our way to our past of splintered princely states, this time managed by the well and truly proven morons of the world. Why just states? Let’s split them into different countries and see where it takes us!