Get up! Get up! Get up! (2/26: Lisbon, Portugal)

Woke up at 9am this morning, Christie is dying (instead of going to work – whole reason we’re in Lisbon in the first place), but I’m headed down to the lobby to meet up with my driver. Today, I’m taking surfing lessons!

We head out to Carcavelos Beach, about 20 minutes drive north of Lisbon, where I meet up with Manuel, my instructor. Get suited up in a wetsuit, get a long board, and we head down to the water. Before we ever get in, we spend about 20 minutes on land, going through some of the basics. I must have looked really stupid to anyone passing by. What they would have seen was me, lying down on a surfboard in the sand, pretending to swim, sitting up, pretending to swim again, and then jumping up on the board.

Anyway, once we get that out of the way, time to hit the water! I get on the board and start swimming out, to a chorus of “Paddle! Paddle! Paddle!” from Manuel. It reminded me of when I was in high school teaching 5 year olds how to swim at Babson day camp, and would always be yelling, “Swim! Swim! Swim!” at them. We get a ways out – yet only about 5 feet deep in the water – and Manual starts explaining waves to me. This is already much harder than I thought it was going to be. See, you pretty much have to figure out which waves are going to be good, where they are going to break, and what direction you need to be heading, all before the wave really looks like a wave. While I’m not actually trying to “catch” waves at this point, Manuel does want me to try to judge the waves, position myself to catch it, but then let the wave pass under me (three to five yards behind the wave break). The problem is, most of the time I seem to undershoot the spot I want to be in, and the wave basically breaks right on top of my head. At this point I should probably mention that the waves are about 6 feet tall. I’m not exaggerating, and you’ll all be able to see for yourself when ever I get around to posting pictures. So, 6 foot tall waves falling on top of my head, I learn pretty quickly not to undershoot the waves, and within 15 minutes or so, I’m nailing the breaks pretty regularly.

Ok, now it’s time to start “catching” the wave. Basically, all that comes down to is positioning yourself about 5 yards behind the wave break, and when you see the swell coming, start paddling furiously away from the wave, matching its approach angle. Done correctly, I’ll catch the wave right as it’s about to break, and just ride it into shore (still lying down on the board). This I’m actually really good at, and pick up very quickly. However, after all of this paddling out to the waves, and paddling furiously away from the waves, I’m pretty much exhausted, and, just so happens it’s lunch time. Part one of the lesson over, we head into shore for lunch.

Two hours later, back in the water. Now it’s time to start trying to stand up. This is the part I really, really suck at, which is surprising. I mean, this morning, if you’d told me that surfing basically comes down to upper body strength (all the paddling, and pushing yourself up to stand on the board), and balance (actually standing on the board), I’d have insisted that I’d struggle with the upper body strength part (cause I’m weak), but if I could get myself up, I’d be fine. Turns out I was wrong. I spend the next hour and a half trying to get up, and the longest I think I was actually able to stay standing was about 5 seconds. At first, it was just a mental problem. I’d catch the wave, and Manuel would start yelling “Get up! Get up! Get up!” and all that would be going through my head is “holy crap! This is working!” By the time my brain switched over to “Get up! Get up! Get up!” the wave would have weakened, and it would be too late to try to get up. So, once I got past that, and actually started trying to get up, I was just a disaster. A couple times I jumped up, and pushed the board right out from under myself. Another time I missed the board completely and my feet landed in the water. Most of the time, I’d land on the board, but immediately fall off to the side somewhere. But, eventually I got to the point where I could consistently get up on the board for 3-5 seconds before falling. I’m calling that a victory!

Around 3:30 or so, my second lesson over, I’m tired (from all the paddling and “Get up! Get up! Get up!”), I’m beat up (from all the waves hitting me), and I’m ready to go home.

Out of the water, clean up, change, and I’m in a car headed back to Lisbon. Get back to the hotel, and take a long, hot shower. Tonight for dinner, instead of heading to Fisherman’s Wharf, Christie and I decide to go to a more authentic restaurant. Ok, I insist on going to something more authentic, she’s still dying and couldn’t really care less. We go to Bota Alta in the Bairro Alto district, and have a pretty good dinner. We both get fish, a carafe of the house red, dessert (milk cake for her, whiskey tart for me), and finally head back to the hotel well stuffed.

Get back, into our respective beds, and watch TV for 4 hours. At some point we stumbled across some movie neither of us recognized, but Robert De Niro was in it, so we gave it a shot. Neither of us had any idea what the movie was, but something like every other person to show up on screen was either a star, or a “that guy”: Kevin Bacon as a prison guard, Brad Pitt/Billy Crudup/Ron Eldard/Minnie Driver as grown up versions of the kids at the beginning, Dustin Hoffman as a lawyer, and more. Anyone know what the movie is? It was called Sleepers, came out in 1996, and I swear to God I’d never even heard of it. Who’d have guessed I’d “discover” a movie like this hanging out with a friend in Portugal, of all places.

Yeah, definitely pretending the first two days in London never happened. Surfing was awesome, having a great time hanging out with Christie, even though she’s dying. Actually, this is a little funny. As part of whatever sickness she has, she’s lost her voice, so she’s constantly whispering. Well, when someone whispers to you, isn’t it your natural response to whisper back? So, Christie and I will be in the hotel room all alone, and she’ll whisper something to me, and I, of course, whisper back. Hmm… maybe you have to be there for it to be funny.