Here's the evidence! I surfed.

When we were planning our vacation, I didn't plan on surfing. My plan was to rent a scooter for a day or two and snorkle as much as possible. Well the scooters were $30 a day and I was able to find cheaper ways to get back and forth from where I wanted to go. After my bad sunburn on day 2, I tried to limit my water exposure the next few days. But as soon as I saw the surfing lesson signs up and down the beach, I knew that this was it. After hearing that it was only $35, I really knew it was for me.

Considering my almost-life long obession with dolphins, you might expect me to whip out a few hundred dollars to snorkle with my beloveds. Nope. Even I have a price, especially when I'd be the only one doing it. If the hubby wasn't going to snorkel in the open water, than I wasn't going to spend $200 to have him watch me spend $200. So surfing it was!

I hemmed and hawed for a few days about it in my head. "You're a mother now, what if you fall and kill yourself?" "You're not 16 anymore, you'll never get up." "It's only an hour, is it worth it?" To answer that last one, yes.

I dunno if I can explain this well. I've tried a few times to others and haven't been very successful.

When I went to have the lesson, I was pumped. And scared. As the instructor was showing me and the 2 others in my group how to turn, my head started to spin. Left turn means left hand up...no, right hand up, left hand backwards...scoop, scoop...ACK! I'm not very good with left/right to begin with so I started to panic. Then the sheer weight of the boards freaked me out. "I'm going to paddle this huge piece of wood out, where? And then jump up on it?"

As soon as we hit the water, I had to climb up on top of the board. Thankfully this tomboy climbed her fair share of fences and knew how to throw her leg over something. Of course that was 75 pounds and 15 years ago AND on dry land. But I did it. Victory #1!

Then I paddled out to my instructor who got out there like THAT. OK, he's a professional. I also did get some ego booast from beating my fellow surfing mates, even if they did have at least 5-15 years on me. The competitor in me took over. Victory #2!

Then the moment came...I had to turn the thing around WITHOUT getting hit by a wave while parallel to it. If you are parallel to a wave chances are that you're done. You get flipped and start over. But I did it. And then I paddled into a wave, got on my knees, and stood up and surfed. Victory!!!!!!!

Honestly, it was pretty easy. But it's hell to master. And after doing it every single time I tried (even my wipeout wasn't that bad...it was bad technique), I realized something. Even in my not-so-fit state, a touch of asthma, 40 lbs overweight, and pretty much a coach potato, I did it. And that made me realize that I have been way underestimating what my body can do for years.

I'm not going to start training for a marathon tomorrow. I know I'm not a distant runner. Even in my best fit days I sucked at long distance. But my body is way stronger than I've been giving it credit. And I've been letting it waste away.

It's a stroke of brillance and deeply sad to think of what I've been missing out on. But it's mostly a huge realization that I can do it.

My gym has one of those climbing walls and I keep trying to talk myself into trying it. Then I walk up to it and I think, "I'm so not strong enough." Well by the end of the year, I hope to at least try it, if not take a few lessons and start rock climbing. Again, I don't kid myself into thinking that I'll be scaling the Rockies next summer, but hey, just the rock wall will be a good start.

All that for $60.

(ps: If you click on the photo, you'll get to our vacation Flickr set)