Surfer Girls Kick Ass

  ‘Really? You’ve been working on letting loose?’ And he wasn’t baiting me this time. He seemed genuinely to not have noticed. I grunted and slouched into my seat, embarrassed at the obvious contradiction in what I’d said.

  ‘Hey, don’t worry,’ Seth said as he looked over at me and smiled kindly. And then he patted my thigh and added, ‘Today is all about fun and feeling good, okay?’

  I sat back up and took in his authentically sweet vibe, admiring him for it.

  ‘Damn, Seth. When did you turn into a cute lil’ smartypants?’

  We both laughed and I felt lighter already. Seth turned up the radio and we listened to music the rest of the way to the park.

  CHAPTER

  29

  ‘No way!’ I said with excitement as we turned into the park a few minutes later.

  ‘What’s up?’ Seth said, looking over at me quizzically.

  ‘I didn’t realize we were going to this park! I don’t know why. I guess I wasn’t thinking about it, but I love this park. I was just here the other day.’

  ‘See? You’re feeling good already!’ he said happily.

  ‘Are you going to taunt me with this ‘feelgood’ thing the whole time, Seth?’ I was joking, and actually enjoying the kind attention he was giving, even if it including a little sarcasm.

  ‘No, of course not! Soon I’ll be too busy embarrassing myself to be able to give you all the attention, so I have to get it in now!’

  ‘Well, maybe it’ll give me a chance to take the piss out of you instead!’ I used the Aussie term for ‘poking fun’, making an effort to act casual.

  We got out of the car and noticed his friend already there with about six kids between 9 and 13 years old, judging by the size of them. Seth handed me his extra board and I made my way to the flatter stretches of the park away from the crowd to warm up. Luckily, Seth had an extra set of elbow and knee pads too, and a helmet, which made me very happy and slightly less nervous. My mom had always made me wear protective gear, and it had saved me from bumps, bruises and broken bones on a number of occasions. Falling onto concrete sucked, I remembered. It hurt like hell, and it was way too easy to break a bone. Not to mention the fact that it would be super reckless of me not to protect myself. As a professional athlete, I needed to take extra special care of my body at all times.

  I weaved around the park, getting comfortable with the board under my feet, trying to find my groove again. After about 20 minutes of playing around on my own, I felt confident enough to join the others, so I skated my way over to the group of kids Seth was teaching, and stopped next to his friend.

  ‘Hey! I’m Zoe!’

  ‘Oh hey! Oh… hi! Yeah, of course, I know who you are! I’m Zach.’

  ‘Nice to meet you, Zach!’ I said as we shook hands.

  I looked him in the eye, and got the sense he was nervous about something. He kept looking away while we were talking, but maybe he was just keeping an eye on the kids. I wasn’t so in-tune with the whole kid thing, but nonetheless tried to keep the conversation going.

  ‘Pretty cool that you teach these kids,’ I said. ‘Do you like it?’

  ‘Yeah absolutely, l love it. They are good lil’ whippers, aye?’ He kept looking over at them, and I decided that, yes, he was making sure that Seth was fine on his own with the groms.

  ‘So how do you know Seth?’

  ‘Just from skating. He’s got a real nice rhythm when he skates, and he’s friendly with everyone, so I thought the kids would be stoked to learn from someone like him. I don’t even care what he teaches really. I just figured whatever he has to say will be helpful. We’re no experts here, aye? Just having fun and learning along the way.’

  We went back to watching Seth getting the kids to work on some ramp stuff. He looked back at me and called me over with a big swing of his arm. I skated up to him, throwing a ‘see ya’ over my shoulder at Zach. It was a bit weird joining in with the kids, seeing as I was much older than them. But hey, I was here to feel good, right? Seth and I both laughed in unison after watching their confusion with my participation.

  ‘Guys, this is Zoe. And for any surfers among you, she’s a professional, and she totally kicks butt. So make sure you get her autograph later too!’

  A few of the kids gasped as they seemed to recognize me.

  ‘Oh geez, Seth, now the pressure’s on!’

  ‘Ha ha! No pressure, no pressure. Only fun! What’s our goal, guys?’ Seth asked with enthusiasm.

  ‘Fun!’ they all yelled back.

  ‘And how are we all doing?’

  ‘Awesome!’ they all yelled back again.

  ‘See Z, no pressure, only fun!’

  ‘Wow, you are so damn proud of yourself, aren’t you?’ I joked.

  ‘Is there any other way to be?’ Seth shot back.

  ‘Ugh! Good point!’

  Actually, it was a brilliant point. And a brilliant concept. With it now etched into my brain, I skated down the ramp, joining in with the flow. The kids were just so cute too. They were friendly and adorable and they stuck to me like glue. I felt like I’d taken a happy pill; they lifted my spirits immensely. My skating wasn’t half-bad either! In fact, it may have been their fun-loving attitude that helped loosen me up. I couldn’t believe it.

  It’s like that tree metaphor. The one about how tree branches are made to bend with the wind. If they were stiff, they’d snap off with any breeze. Something like that anyway. And that’s how it went. The more relaxed I was, the more fun I had, and the more confident I felt, which made me relax more. Geez, I really had gotten highly strung!

  Seth demonstrated a few moves on the ramp, and Zach wasn’t joking. He had a nice rhythm. He stayed low and did a lot of footwork. He was relaxed in a way that allowed him to shift his weight and manoeuvre his board effortlessly. Watching him closely worked well for me because I learn best by emulating what I’m shown. It’s like I can tap into the person’s vibe and connect with their rhythm. In fact, I’d say it’s exactly how I got so good so quickly at surfing. Oddly enough, I learned the most from watching surf videos. I’d watch the same clips over and over again, and connect with the styles of certain surfers.

  Wow, I need to start doing that again! It was a nice little reminder.

  By the end of the hour, the kids were sooo happy! And the parents, who were all hanging out on the sidelines together, came forward and thanked Seth and Zach for a great lesson. They took pictures of their children with Seth, and then with me, and we all had a hoot hamming it up! And when a bunch of the kids asked for my autograph, I told them to make sure they got Seth’s too, because he was for sure going to be a pro soon enough.

  ‘Way to pass the buck, Zo,’ Seth said with a smirk on his face as he scribbled his signature on the pieces of paper the kids were handing him.

  ‘Ha ha, you know it!’ I said happily, feeling like I finally got one on him.

  We chucked our gear in the back of his car and drove off.

  ‘So hungry, oh God!’ I said as we pulled out of the park.

  ‘Yeah, let’s feed.’

  ‘Sweet, okay, but I’m buying.’ It was the least I could do.

  ‘Right on, mate! I’ll take it. Thanks!’

  He took me to a cafe near the beach by our house. It was pretty busy, obviously a popular choice. It had a Hawaiian theme, which made sense, since the name of the place was Aloha Vibes. We ordered at the counter and sat down.

  I was curious to learn more about Seth, which I suppose is why I offered to take him to lunch. His easygoing confident nature intrigued me, and I was starting to view him less as Sophie’s little bro, and more as an individual worth getting to know.

  ‘Seth, you were amazing with those kids. They loved you!’

  ‘Yeah, it was pretty fun, hey?’ Seth replied in a nonchalant manner. He was playing it cool, or maybe he was jus
t modest. Either way, he was doing a good job of under-acknowledging his talents.

  I continued, ‘So, are you really wanting to turn pro?’

  ‘Yeah, for sure. I just can’t imagine what else I would want to do with my time. Plus I really want to travel. I haven’t been many places yet.’

  And then, looking up at me, he asked, ‘Is it amazing to travel around like you do?’

  ‘Yeah, pretty much! I mean, it’s great to check out places around the world with epic surf spots. Plus, I just love to spend time by the ocean – and being on the WSL means spending a lot of time hanging out in between heats.’

  ‘What about the different cultures?’ he asked with curiosity.

  ‘It’s been great to see how other people live, for sure. On the downside, I don’t always get to explore the sights of places I travel to, because I’m preoccupied with the competition. And then once the event is finished, or I’m eliminated, whichever comes first, I’m off to the next. So it can get kind of tiring at times.’

  ‘Yeah, but still, Zoe, it must be pretty cool.’

  The waitress brought out our drinks.

  ‘Iced vanilla latte with whip?’

  ‘That’s me, thanks!’ I said, excited to take that first delectable sip.

  She reached across the table to put my refreshment down in front of me, then placed a green smoothie in front of Seth and let us know that our food would be out shortly. Before getting sidetracked by my drink, I turned my attention back to Seth.

  ‘Seriously though, Seth, you really are smooth on that skateboard. It’s almost like you’re floating. How do you do it?’

  ‘Um, dunno really. I just try to stay relaxed the whole time. As soon as I get tense, I remember to relax. And the more consistently I can be relaxed, the easier it is to follow the feelgood.’

  And again he smiled, that sweet smile, a smile that would eventually come to be known as ‘the smile that soothes the soul’. I cupped my head with my hands, shaking my head in disbelief and wondered aloud, ‘Who is this guy?’

  Just then the waitress arrived back with our food.

  ‘Chicken cranberry wrap?’

  ‘Yes please!’ I was freaking hungry by now.

  ‘And here’s your tofu scramble burrito with a side of avocado.’ She placed it down in front of Seth, handed us some napkins, and told us to enjoy, before walking away.

  ‘Are you veggo then?’ I asked

  ‘Sort of. I mean, I eat meat on occasion, but less and less. My goal is to be vegan, but it’s a bit of a slow transition as I learn how to do it properly. Plus, meat production is horrible for the environment, and if it’s not organic, it’s actually really harmful on the body…’ he trailed off, looking somewhat embarrassed.

  ‘No, it’s cool that you’re super healthy. I want to be healthier, but I’m not very good at it. It’s hard to be picky because I travel so much, you know? Sometimes the options just aren’t there.’

  ‘Well, we can’t have that now, can we? I’ve seen you with the hangries and it’s not a pretty sight!’

  I wish I’d had a chip or something to throw at him, but I didn’t, so my best evil glance had to do.

  ‘Ugh, Zozo, if that was your mean face, I’d say you failed miserably.’ He winked at me. And I blushed.

  CHAPTER

  30

  Seth dropped me off at home and headed off to a mate’s house. There was no denying that it had been a pretty remarkable day. I got to hang out with Seth and learn about his world, participate in a fun skate class with a bunch of groms, who were just so freaking cute and that’s saying a lot coming from me. Most importantly, though, I’d enjoyed being back on a skateboard again, despite the painful memories associated with it.

  I flopped down on the living room sofa, but left my dirty feet dangling over the edge so as not to muck up the couch. I stared up at the ceiling. My blank canvas. As my mind began to wander, it took me back to the Colorado days of my childhood, when I was maybe 7 or 8 years old, and when skating was a huge part of my happiness. I would spend hours at the park while my mom waited patiently for me to become too exhausted to skate anymore.

  The cool part of skating when you’re little is that there’s less fear of getting hurt, which equals more room for adventure and risk-taking. This can create a ton of joy when playing with friends.

  I loved those moments with my mom at the skate park, but thinking of them also made me feel sad from the fact that she’d left us. How could she do that to us? I wondered. How does someone just up and leave their family? As an adult, now I realized that it wasn’t because she didn’t love me, but at the time, all I knew was I no longer had her around. And it was hard. I missed her all the time. I was confused too. There are moments in a child’s life when nothing can replace a mother’s touch. It’s innate. It didn’t matter how awesome my dad was (and he was awesome for sure), there was always a void, a hole where my mom was supposed to be, supposed to be there for me, her daughter.

  When someone you love leaves you, it’s hard to not take it personally – so I spent years wondering what I had done wrong that had made her want to go. But over that time (and with countless hours of therapy), I learned that what she did had nothing to do with me personally, and everything to do with herself. And whether her reasons were fair or unfair, well, that wasn’t going to change the fact that she had left.

  The experience taught me that I never wanted to end up like her; that is, spending years living a life I didn’t love, only to wake up one day and decide to bail on it all. Yet ironically, I had been questioning lately what I’d been doing this past year. And not just in a few random moments here and there. I’d been poised to throw my whole career away, so many times I can’t even count. And my attitude showed it.

  Wow. Is this all that life is? Are we all just lost and confused? Are we all blindly stumbling around in the dark, desperate to survive?

  I could feel a headache coming on. Dammit Z, you’re stuck in your head! I said to myself disapprovingly as I leapt off of the couch in one quick movement. I grabbed S’s yoga mat from the corner of the living room and walked out the back door and onto the beach to find a spot to do some stretches. My body was feeling rather stiff after skating all morning, and I needed to move this energy out. As I put the mat down, I heard someone yelling at me from the house. I looked back and saw Abby on the upper deck, waving her hands at me.

  ‘Zoe! Come up here if you’re going to do some yoga. I need to practice too!’ By the sound of her voice and the erratic waving, I got the impression she was excited about it. I, on the other hand, am the worst yogi ever! I’ll do anything to avoid getting on my mat. For me, yoga has more to do with a few random seated postures and then savasana. In fact, this is how I would sum up yoga: blah blah blah… savasana!

  ‘Okay cool!’ I yelled back to her, wondering what this yoga session was going to entail. My mind was resisting the potentially long session, but I knew my body would thank me for it afterwards. So in this instance, doing what felt good meant sucking it up and following Abby’s lead. I picked up my mat and shook it out, then jogged the few meters back to the house and up the stairs to the top deck.

  ‘Hi Abby,’ I said with a smile as I entered the house.

  She gave me a hug to welcome me. ‘Zoe, lovely to see you! Having a nice day?’

  ‘Yeah, it’s been awesome. I went to the skate park with Seth actually. He’s incredible!’

  ‘So I hear! Of course he doesn’t want us to go watch him. That would be too embarrassing. But he does show us videos every once in a while.’

  ‘Yeah, I was really impressed.’ I stopped, unsure of how much info to divulge. Abby was cool with Seth’s choices, but I didn’t think it was my place to tell her the specifics of what Seth was up to.’

  I put my mat next to Abby’s and felt obliged to let her know that I wasn’t much of a yogi.

&
nbsp; ‘When I say I’m doing yoga, what I really mean is I’ll do a bunch of downward dogs, pigeon, and a few other random poses. I don’t have much of a routine about it. I’m just stoked to get any sort of stretching in.’

  ‘Oh that’s fine. Actually it’s perfect because I want to practice my teaching skills. Do you mind if I lead you in a short series that I’ve been working on?’

  ‘That sounds perfect. Thanks!’ In absolute truth, I most liked the fact that she’d said ‘short’ series.

  About 20 minutes later we were done, and my body was feeling much better. The tension in my back seemed to have disappeared, as had my headache.

  ‘That was great, Abby! Way better than what I would’ve done on my own, that’s for sure!’ I got up slowly as Abby handed me a glass of water.

  ‘Here, it’s got lemon, cayenne and honey in it. Really good for your digestion, and even better if you drink it first thing in the morning, before you do anything else.’

  ‘Cayenne?’ I wasn’t sure I liked the sound of this concoction.

  ‘It’s just a tiny bit. Try it and see.’

  I took a tiny sip and then gave myself a moment to taste it.

  ‘Not bad!’

  ‘It’s a lot better than drinking coffee first thing in the morning.’ I think she was trying to hint at something.

  ‘Oh geez, I don’t know about that!’ I replied in disbelief. I loved my morning coffee.

  ‘I promise. It was hard for me at first too, but now I’m so used to it – and it’s made a huge difference in my life. I’m more alert and clear and stable. Without the caffeine crashes.’

  ‘Yeah, early afternoons are tough for me. I’m always so tired.’

  ‘If you do this instead of coffee, it’ll change your life. Just think about it, okay?’ I could tell she was pretty serious about this request.

  ‘Okay, sure, I’ll give it a try. Thanks for taking such good care of me. It means a lot. Your whole family is… just… well, I don’t know how I’d be doing if I wasn’t here with you guys right now.’