Ouch!

My body is sore. Thanks to the skimboarding practice I had yesterday. Weeeh! And thanks to my cousin, Vincent Balucanag, for teaching me the basics of skimboarding. Skimboarding is so easy to watch and I thought that I could do it effortlessly but I was so wrong! It took me a while to learn how to ride the board and achieve my balance. I earned a lot of scratches and bruises on my legs because of falling but it felt good to finally ride and slide perfectly! I wish I could go back next weekend to practice some more.


Drop. Hop. Balance.

Drop. I had no problems with dropping the board on the shore but you can't just drop it anytime you want. You have to wait for the wave. For my practice, I did not run towards the waves. I just waited on the shore, waited for the perfect wave, and even waited for my instructor's "go" signal to drop the board. Vincent reminded me not to push the board, just drop it.

Hop. Now, this is tricky. If you think that you could just hop on your board and you could now skim to your heart's content, you are wrong. I had the worst falls during this time. Sometimes, one of my feet gets left on the shore while the other is already on the board, the board slides through, then I fall. When hopping to your board, you should also position your feet apart. My right foot was on the rear portion while my left foot was in the front-middle portion. The marks on the skimboard made it easy for me to know where to put my feet.

Balance. I had to constantly remind myself to bend... Vincent was always telling me to bend. BEND YOUR KNEES to help you balance your body, specially when you're already in the water. I haven't been exercising lately so it was so tiring to bend. And honestly, right now, my thighs and calves are so strained. I was sure lucky to have a patient and professional skimboarder cousin who taught me how to skimboard.

Here's a video of my successful attempt at skimboarding:

So, should I try skimboarding again? My answer is a big and resounding YES!!!