As we were walking down to the beach, Michelle and I saw a number of cute guys...and a big yellow sign at the entrance to Kuhio Beach Park that read SURF LESSONS.
“Ooh, let’s try that!” Michelle exclaimed. “Haven’t you always wanted to be a wahine? A surfer chick?”
I considered this for a minute. “No.” Then I grinned. “But I bet I could get into it.”
We went up to the booth and got some info.
“Lessons are $35 a person,” the guy at the booth informed us. “You need to book lessons a day in advance, since classes are very popular.”
“Hmm...let’s confer,” I said to Michelle. We walked over a few feet away, then I said, “You wanna do this?”
“I don’t know. Board rentals are probably less.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Michelle, that won’t do us a hell of a lot of good unless we know how to surf.”
Michelle grinned. “Maybe you don’t.”
“When did you learn?”
“When I was thirteen, before Dad met Mer...your mom. He brought me here on vacation. I took surf lessons, and I remember most of the stuff. Whatever I don’t remember, I could jog my memory watching the surfers. I don’t need any more lessons.”
I laughed. “And you were just gonna go out there and make me look bad!”
“Nah, I’d just play dumb. The point is, do you want me to teach you how to surf?”
I thought it over. “Well...okay.”
“Cool.”
“Just not today.”
“Why not do it in the morning, when the surf’s better?”
“Yeah, that sounds good. Thanks.”
“Hey, what are friends for? Why don’t we go to Ala Moana tonight so we can surf tomorrow?”
“Sure,” I said.
So that night, we went shopping at Ala Moana Center. While inside Local Motion (AUTHOR'S NOTE: Local Motion is real, it's a chain of surf shops in Hawaii; the people in Real World Hawaii worked at one), I heard two girls talking about something that made me want to laugh.
“So check it out,” one girl said. “I was dropping off Aunt Pua at the airport this afternoon...”
“Uh-huh,” said the second girl.
“And you’ll never guess who I saw!”
“Who?” said the second girl, sounding like she was just so interested in the answer to that question.
“Keilani, I swear, I saw Nick Carter!”
I snickered to myself. Everybody always thought they’d seen somebody famous. Just today I’d seen a Brad Pitt clone back home in San Francisco. There was no way the Backstreet Boys would come to Hawaii, what with all the work they were doing on the new album.
Would they?
As I looked at the surf the next morning, I turned to Michelle and complained, “Refresh my memory...how’d I get talked into this?”
“Oh relax,” Michelle reassured me. “The waves aren’t that big. OK, so I showed you all the basic moves and stuff, so we can go catch a wave now.”
“Kooky,” I said in my best Jim Carrey impression as I grabbed my board and headed for the water. My first couple of waves were pretty good. But on my third wave, I wiped out. We’re talkin’ I flew off the board.
“It’s OK!” Michelle called as she manuevered onto a wave. “We all make mistakes.”
“Yeah, well, I’m going to find a better one,” I replied as I paddled back out. I found a great wave. Really I did. But instead of a picture-perfect situation, I wiped out again and went in practically headfirst.
“Ha ha, stupid chick’s pearl-diving!” I heard a guy shout nearby. (AUTHOR'S NOTE: that's a surfer term for wiping out headfirst; I've done it before, it hurts like a biatch, and some rude people really do laugh at you for it) In return, I flicked him off as I got back on the board.
“Hey, look out!” a voice yelled in front of me. I turned to see who had warned me, just in time to see a monstrous wave...and the really hot (but familiar-looking) guy riding it. I didn’t get a good look at him because I was too busy trying to get out of his way, since this guy was right in front of me. I scrambled out of the way, but it was too late. In an effort to get out of my way, the guy tried to steer and ended up wiping out. He collided with me, and I fell off my board again.
Smooth, Natalie, was my first thought. My second thought was, That asshole is gonna die, and I don’t care how hot he is. I tried to get to the surface so I could get my board and yell at that guy.
Then I hit my head on the board – hard – and ceased to think at all.