From Crashing to Coasting in Five Weeks in Santa Barbara

In my quest to understand the Santa Barbara lifestyle throughout my internship at the Independent, I took on my greatest challenge yet — learning to surf. Luckily, UCSB Recreation was here to help. Their Intro to Surfing class equipped me with the instruction, surfboard, wetsuit, and inspiration to build my surfing abilities.

Every Sunday at 8 a.m., I tested the limits of my brother’s no-brakes, no-gears road bike as I made my way from Isla Vista on the trails to Campus Point Beach. On the first day, some pretty tame zero-to-one-foot waves awaited my classmates and me. We circled up for a quick lesson about wave anatomy, tides, and pop-up practice. Our instructor Sophia shared that she fell in love with surfing by heading out on the water every day during her time at UCSB. For her, that feeling of moving in harmony with mother nature with the push of the waves is truly unbeatable.

Though I mostly caught the waves while kneeling or lying down at first, I still experienced that harmonious feeling. The routine of surfing becomes almost meditative. Paddle out. Get pushed by a wave. Stand up. Fall off. Do it again. The salt water shot up my nose and the overcast skies didn’t exactly match my romanticized view of Southern California surfing, but I kept chasing that feeling.