JMS Winner: And still to this day, I never gave up surfing

 I was at Dockweiler Beach for my first day of surfing this year and I was pretty excited since I had to wait until I got out of school just to finally do the sport I love. The surf program was held by the job my aunt works at, so I would get picked up by her to go.

  I was already changed into my wet suit and now I just had to wait for the main worker to say we can go pick a teacher. While I was waiting, my aunt, Kat, was sitting next to me in her beach chair.

  “Are you ready to go surfing?” she asked me.

  “Yeah!” I excitedly replied back to her question. Kat didn’t really need to ask, since it was clear based on how happy I look.

  Just then, the main teacher finally blew a conch shell-shaped whistle, signaling that everyone that was going to surf had to circle. As I went to the circle, the main worker was just explaining some basics, explaining what to do when our board falls, and some other announcements. I knew most of the procedures since I’d been going to this program for around three years, when I was around eight years old.

  They finally announced that we can go look for a mentor. I ended up choosing Jason since I worked with him in the past. Jason was a nice guy and liked to teach others about surfing.

  “Hey Nelly! Long time no see!” he told me.

  “Yeah! Haven’t seen you in a while!” I exclaimed back. I couldn’t even wait anymore – I was just happy because I wanted to surf again.

  Before we surf though, we always have to go practice the pop-ups, which is how to stand on a surfboard. We had to choose a surfboard from the rows and columns of surfboards and look at the main teacher to explain how to stand up on the board. Despite me already knowing how to stand, I still paid attention because I wasn’t really able to actually stand mid wave. 

 Five minutes later we finally got to go to the shore and start surfing. I picked up the surfboard I had chosen and followed Jason to the shore. I got onto the surfboard and I paddled until I found a perfect wave.

 “Are you sure you don’t need help?” Jason asked me, making sure so I wouldn’t fall on accident.

  “Yeah! I’m sure! I’ve been doing this since I was eight!” I replied., “Thank you for asking though!”

  “Okay I’ll watch you!”

   Minutes had passed by. I wasn’t really doing well – I kept tumbling and falling. But when I thought I had finally found the perfect wave, I positioned my board and waited for the wave to come. When I got on the wave, everything was going well, or so I thought. But I had gotten on my board too early and the wave was too powerful, making me lose balance, and ended up knocking me and my board down, and I fell underwater with the board.

   I was deep in the water and I was drowning. The salt water was dragging me down as I was still trying to get up. I had run out of oxygen and I was trying my absolute hardest to swim up, or at least try to signal someone for help. 

  Luckily, Jason had witnessed this, and so did my aunt. When I was about to slip into unconsciousness, Kat went to go get me and took me to the shore, and gave me a bottle of water.

  “Are you okay?” Kat asked me, clearly worried about me.

  “Yeah I’m fine, I just… I’m fine.” I was out of breath and I tried to take a deep breath as I was trying to process that event I was just in.

  I took a sip of the water Kat gave me, and Jason had told Kat that I should take a five minute break so I can rest. Kat agreed and went back to talking with the others who weren’t surfing. 

 As I was sitting there, I really started to think that surfing just wasn’t my thing, and that I was chasing a dream that could never be caught. I tried to not let those thoughts get to me, and tried to have some hope and that I should stop being dramatic over a simple mistake, despite that “simple” mistake almost made me die.

  I was just fighting my thoughts: on one hand I was paranoid of losing my skill, on the other hand I thought maybe I was thinking too hard. 

 I kept drinking my water, my nose burning because of the amount of salt water that got into it.

 I was thinking so hard on this, that I didn’t even realize my five minute break was over. I was just sitting there lost in my thoughts, until Jason came back and asked me:

  “Nelly, are you ready to go back surfing?”

  I was going to say no, since I didn’t want to drown again, but I thought again. Maybe I could do better this time and actually stand up on the board for the first time after three years. So I had decided if I wanted to surf or not and replied back to Jason:

  “Yes.”

  Just a plain yes. I knew I couldn’t give up on my favorite sport just like this. I still had to continue until I was the best of the best. I went back into the water, grabbed my surfboard, and got back to surfing. I knew I was going to succeed this time, I just had the feeling. I was positive. I got on my board and continued where I left off.

  I still was falling, but despite that, I was still trying. After all those tries, I finally got it: I found a wave, started surfing, and I managed to stand up on the board and actually not tumble or trip. The cameraman luckily was watching and recorded me standing on the board. When I made it to the ground, I felt proud of myself, and Jason gave me a high-five.

  “Good job Nelly! I knew you could do it!” he praised me.

  “Thanks.”

   I was still shocked I actually stood up on the board, since again I never stood up on the board. In the end, I was extremely thrilled and proud of myself for reaching this achievement and not giving up. And still to this day, I’m still surfing …because I never gave up over a mistake.