Hang Ten and Cowabunga

Today, I saw something I have never seen before, nor would I have ever imagined seeing in my life time. It happened at the lake where I eat lunch often. Take this photo of the quaint and pristine lake:

Now, picture if you can, two older ladies, wearing bright older-lady-pinks-and-blues, rounding the corner and coming to shore… surfing. As in, on surfboards.

While it was a pretty blustery day, there were, predictably, no waves at the lake, as it is a small lake and not the ocean. Because of this, the two ladies each had one long oar, which they wielded like the famous Venetian gondoliers of yore, leisurely and effectively. From afar, I wondered if their boats were actually some version of a gondola, but as they neared I saw that they were definitely just surfboards. Yep, just two old ladies riding surfboards.

Maybe I’m, once again, behind the times and this surfing-gondola thing is sweeping the nation and I’m just the last to know. But I can’t imagine that people would want to be stuck standing up, carrying a bulky stick, when they could sit and paddle and have a similar experience. Of course, if this was fifteen or twenty years ago, I would have questioned the emergence of the kayak, thinking the canoe adequately filled the hand-powered-boat niche, so what do I know?

I do know that when I’m older and wearing my bright pinks-and-blues, I can only hope to have the gumption to go surfing, or gondolaing, or just try something new and bizarre. For this reason, I say, “Surf on, sister-friends. Surf on.”