Surfing Tsunamis

To be honest, I actually did not see the sign reading "WARNING...Tsunami warning in place. Do not go on the beach for any reason" as we strolled down to the ocean, surfboards tucked under our arm, ready to take our first surfing lesson. However, we were all very aware of the horrible 8.9 earthquake off the coast of Japan that caused unbelievable damage and destruction the evening previous to our surf lesson. And I will admit that we also understood that tsunami warnings were now all over the Pacific, including the exact area we were about to surf.

The evening of the eathquake in Japan, I was already tucked in bed ready for a good night's rest after a long exhausting day. In my sleepy state I remember hearing bits and pieces of the news and realized that this was quite an extreme earthquake and thought about the likelihood of tsunamis hitting New Zealand. Yet I was too tired to get out of bed, so I decided to depend on others to force me to evacuate if any tsunami occurred. Later in the evening, I was partially awoken by a few of my friends returning from some bars, one who was especially worried about the possibility of a tsunami sweeping over Raglan (the beach town we were currently staying in.) Hearing him in his worried state, I started to ask questions like "when is the tsunami supposed to hit?" and "is the tsunami coming to Raglan?" Evidently, I never did ask these questions though, because according to my friends I was sound asleep. Therefore, I must have had this conversation in my head and answered the questions to my own satisfaction so that I could return to my happy, peaceful sleep. However, I do remember hearing things like "we have to leave at 6:00am" and "high ground" and "tsunamis are hitting everywhere!" Apparently, I took this all as "go to sleep, you are invincible."

The next morning around 9:00am, I woke up to glorious sun rays pouring through the window and a dry room that was untouched by any tsunami. It turned out I am in fact invincible! Our group took off to meet our surf instructor and get ready for a full day of catching waves. Our instructor, Steve, warned us of the beach ban due to the lurking tsunamis in the Pacific, but also told us that once the ban was lifted we could begin the lesson. He asked us if we were worried about the tsunami, (at the same time we also recieved a phone call from our program advisor in Auckland requesting that we do not go in the water for any reason) but after a moment we all came to the conclusion that we were more worried about our $70 that would go to waste if we chickened out of the lesson. So we suited up in our penguin suits and took off for Ngnarunui Beach ready to surf any tsunami that came our way.

It turned out to be a wonderful day with nice waves that were perfect to learn how to surf and we all had a blast! As I bobbed up and down over waves, all concerns about a tsunami disappeared and I began to concentrate more on the fact that standing up on a board in the water is much harder than it looks! Also, watching all of my friends wipe out (as well as myself) was quite a thrill! I don't believe the beach ban was ever lifted for the duration that we were on the beach considering that I saw the signs as we were leaving. However, I am glad that those $70 did not go to waste and now I am one step closer to becoming a pro surfer!