Since the rest of us really needed to work on Monday and Tuesday, and get ready for our trip to Nicaragua, we booked David's surfing lessons for Monday at noon.
Gustavo Castillo, a surfing champion from the Costa Rican team set up and supervised the lessons, giving David a unique opportunity for one on one with one of the best surfers in the world. This shot is of David's fourth or fifth attempt to ride a wave, and you can see the professional instruction paying off already.
The lessons start off with 20-30 minutes of beachside talk. Safety procedures, (don't go near anyone else, stay in white water...) are taught, and careful demonstrations of how to get up on the board from a lying down position.
Once they are sure that you understand and can duplicate all the steps on land, they take you out in the water, and coach you through it all over again, because by that time you are so overwhelmed that you have forgotten much of what they told you.
From that point, it is just practice. Gustavo loaned David a board, and he was surfing Monday afternoon, and Tuesday morning. When we went back Tuesday afternoon, David had graduated to a smaller board.
I have been very pleased with the way they have monitored the process. Always while David is surfing now, Gustavo or one of his instructors are watching. When he comes in, they give him some pointers for next time, and the same as he is heading out to the water.
We have a lot of work to do from now until we head back to Canada. At least we won't have to worry about David enjoying his trip!
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