In the land of extortion, you have to watch your back, as word has it ...

By Kim Gilberty first surfing experience was in May 2006Mwhen I stood on Waikiki beach and watchedin amazement as local surfers and tourists alike caught wave afterwave, some displaying incredible skills and ease in the water, othersrevealing their inexperience as they took to the water on rentalboards for the first time. I have to admit, I was intrigued!When I first decided to brave the waves with my girlfriends, allequally inexperienced, each with less upper body strength than thenext, I’ll confess I had high hopes! I had seen movies like Blue Crush,Point Break, and watched Pro surfers on TV and figured, “How hardcan it be, right?”Well, to say my hopes for a career as a pro surfer were crushedwas an understatement. I was so terrible that first day that a surfinginstructor actually told me so, and offered to help me catch somewaves for free! Yes, I was an actual surfing charity case! AlthoughI barely stood for two seconds that day it was enough to get mehooked.A week later I was the proud owner of a beautiful blue and yellow9”0 longboard which I christened Tallulah in honour of my bestfriend Becca. She decided that first day that surfingjust wasn’t for her, but a girls gotta have herbest friend in the water, right?Thus my board was christened Tallulah;Becca’s nickname.I surfed everyday of summer ’06, and by theend of September, I am proud to say, I had a fullyfledged addiction. However, upon returning to Ireland, I realizedwith amazement that surfing at home is very different!In Waikiki, I had become so used to throwing on mybikini, grabbing my board and walking two blocks tothe beach that I was in shock when I first attempted tosurf in Ireland. Rather than a two minute walk, I had a three hour28 | womenssurfstyle.com | wSSm