FOR someone whose only swimming experience so far is being pushed into a pool in Hawar, I balked when my editor suggested I attend the surf school at the Wahooo! water park.
It felt more like I had lead weights in my stomach than butterflies when I saw the roaring Flow Rider, which was incidentally running only on half its speed!
I decided that I was going to float down the Lazy River first and talk to some of the other students, but little did I know that I would be persuaded to change my mind.
Seeing so many others (including one of them a mum!) much older and brave enough to take the ultimate plunge convinced me to go for it.
I came across Naikita, my instructor, as someone you could really bank on to help you ride the waves.
Handling the surfboard, which I thought would be rocket science, was made simple as she explained how with every twitch you can have a different wave experience.
My first try was frightening because I thought I was drowning towards the end, but the feel of the current was good and I plucked up the courage to go for it a second time.
Although I lost the board both times I didn't really have to hold on to dear life as the water wasn't very deep and the force of the waves brings you ashore anyway.
Moreover, the place is manned by lifeguards trained by the UK Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS) to help if things go wrong.
The water maintained at tropical temperatures throughout made the surfing experience all the more pleasurable.
After 15 minutes of being soaked, I got to dry myself in a body dryer, which looked like something out of a Star Trek movie.
Although I really have no love for water or water sports for that matter, my mini-adventure and the passion I saw exuberated by the students really inspired me to take up surfing sometime in the future.
Special thanks to Wahooo! operations manager Tom Scheffer, assistant operations manager Susan Clark, Naikita and other surfers for making the experience a little less scary.
Copyright 2010 Al Hilal Publishing and Marketing Group
'Learning to ride the waves', Gulf Daily News, March 21, 2010, Jennifer Gnana
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