The Girl Who Faced The Elements

I looked in the mirror. I had short brown hair, and hazel eyes. My lips were dry and cracked. My lips dried out really fast.

I wasn’t sure why I had the mirror in my room. I didn’t care about what I looked like most of the time, but my mom made me keep it.

“Ricky, Come on! It’s time to go to the beach!”

“Alright, mom!”

We lived next to the beach. I had loved the water ever since I was a little girl. I loved the smell of the air, the way the trees blew, and the way the water sparkled.

I walked out to the kitchen, my mom handed me a granola bar. She had blonde hair with gray streaks, green eyes, and also had chapped lips like me. I guess the chapped lips thing was genetic.

She handed my some Chap Stick. “Here put that on. Now go grab your board and some surf wax.”

I ran to the laundry room. It was just a little closet, but it was also just big enough to store my surfboard. I grabbed it, and then I ran to my room where I kept my surf wax and ran back to the kitchen.

I was a little out of breathe by the time I was done with all the running.

“I packed sandwiches for the beach, so if you get hungry you can come and get it. I also packed some strawberries; I expect all of them to be eaten.”

I smiled and said “Hey mom, I’m going to wait outside for you, okay?”

“Okay, go ahead.” She gave me a nod as I opened the door.

I sat on the steps with my board. I ran my finger along the middle of the surfboard. I smiled as I remembered my first time surfing. I rode my first wave all the way to shore, I hit the sand and my family cheered for me, and so did the instructor. I ran back into the waves and surfed for the next two hours, barely even needing any help from the instructor after two or three more waves.

The door opened and snapped me back to reality. “Come on, get in the car. I got your board.”

She grabbed my board and I walked to the drive way and hopped into the front seat of the car. Getting in a car that had been sitting in the sun wasn’t fun, so I opened to the door to help it air out a little.

I heard some light banging on the roof as my mom strapped the surfboard down. She hopped in the front seat after a minute and turned the car on. I closed my door as the air conditioner turned on.

We were at the beach in no time. It was around a six minute drive. Walking took around twelve minutes, but my mom preferred taking the car because it was hard to carry all the beach stuff.

Once we arrived at the beach, I put my wetsuit on over my bathing suit and grabbed my board off the roof (With a little trouble) and then grabbed an extra bag to help my mom and ran on the board walk to the beach.

I felt the sand in-between my toes as the board walk ended and I looked across the beautiful beach.

I wasn’t allowed in the water until my mom got here, so I found a spot and put my wax on it until my mom came. Waxing boards did take a while.

I put the leash on and ran towards the water. Once I was deep enough I jumped on my board and started paddling. There was almost nobody in the water, and the waves were perfect.

I duck dived under a wave, taking a deep breath as I went under the water, and letting it out as I hit the surface.

I had to do this to a few waves until I was pretty far outback. I saw a wave and started paddling for it, not starting to early, or too late, but at the perfect time. I caught the waves and turned to the side. I stuck my hand in the water beside me, slowing down so I could be inside the barrel a little.

It was a great site inside the barrel. The smooth waves go up from your side, over your head, and down to the other side of you.

I moved out of the barrel before I got trapped in, and WHAM. I went right into somebody.

“Hey! Don’t you know not to drop in on somebody’s wave?! Seriously, search up on the surfers rules of etiquette! Someone could have got hurt!” I didn’t even bother to look at him as I yelled at him.

“Don’t talk to me like that! It’s your fault because you didn’t see me!” It was a guy’s voice.

“I’m sorry if I didn’t see you because you tried to steal my wave!”

I grabbed my board and paddled off. “Stupid Kook.” I muttered. I went back over to where I was originally, in front of my mom so she could see me properly.

I paddled for another wave but just missed it as I felt it raise me up, and then let me smoothly descend on the back of the wave. 

I saw another good wave after a minute, and started paddling.

I felt the force of the wave move my board and I stood up as soon as I felt it.

I did a 360 on my board and landed back on the wave. It was always fun to do that, because it looked so cool but it was actually quite easy as long as you knew how to do it.

I went over the back of the wave and paddled back to where my mom could see me. She got worried if I went too far.

I paddled further away from shore where the waves were just starting to form and sat there for a while, letting the waves lift me up, then back down gently. I watched as the seagulls flew above me, and smiled until I realized that they weren’t seagulls.