The Pains of Paradise

It's an phenomenon I refer to as the, 'No Whining from Hawaii' rule. 

It is the concept that because you live in Hawaii, you are not allowed to complain about ANYTHING! Because, guess what... YOU LIVE IN HAWAII!

Sometimes there are real problems associated with living here, 

for the most part though, I get it. I really shouldn't be complaining. I call them Paradise Pains. No one who just spent and hour wading through snow banks in February wants to hear that your sunburn hurts, or that you are sad because you didn't get to go snorkeling because the waves were too rough and so you had to just hang out on the beach instead.

Today's story fits in that category. I've just started taking a few more surf lessons I've got to surf in some world famous locations and under blue sunny skies. 

I've got to ride the Beautiful and Secluded Chun's reef:

SurfCam

The warm and friendly Waikiki Sandbar

SurfCam

BeachCam

Surfing is incredible! One of my all time favorite sports. Rates right up there with snowboarding and rock climbing.

But after two surf days, I can only begin to describe to you the physical pain I am in. You spend most of your time in a cobra like position paddling with your arms as hard as you can.

Then you do a push up any time a wave comes at you and then again any time you want to catch a wave.

Needless to say my arms are noodles and my back muscles are ripped to shreds! But honestly that's not what hurts the worst. It's my hip bones, ribs, knees, and cranium that are killing me.

The place we were riding at Chuns was very shallow and I kept beating my knees up on the reef:

I also got a little bit of coral embedded in my toe that Richard helped me cut out with his Xacto knife:

I got pretty knocked around by the waves at Waikiki. I fell off and got drug around by my ankle, by my board. I fell off again but stayed close to my board, only to have it hit me in the side of the head, so I dove back under, and hit it with the top of my head, dove under again, and come up and hit the other side of my head on my instructors board! 

I got a bit of a sun burn on the back of my legs, but it's only really bad on the backs of my knees where I sweat off the sunblock.

However, the majority of the pain is a direct result of the way I paddle. By arching my back to keep my face out of the splash, I end up sucking in my stomach. This leaves all of my weight pressing on my extruded ribs and hip bones. This pic doesn't do the bruise justice:

I will end my complaints here though, because it does seem a bit silly to moan about wounds you gave yourself, while learning to surf in Hawaii. And Though I need to heal up before I can go back out again, I can hardly wait!