My Favorite Surfing Story!

This is Aunty Linda Tagawa. In Hawaii, you call your elders "Aunty" or "Uncle". That is polite. The sad thing is when some adult starts calling me "Aunty"....whoa....that means I'm getting old! HA! Whatever the case, that is respectful and family. Anyway, Aunty Linda came to me (tammy) about 3 years ago. She called for a private lesson on MOTHERS DAY (my mothers day too) at 6:00AM! because she didn't want to go out with a lot of people. She said she was a school teacher at one of our local schools and she was also 63 years old and wanted to surf all her life, but was scared! She was going to treat herself to a Mothers Day present for HERSELF! .So, as you would do, I met her on Mothers Day at 6:00am.

We went out for 1/2 an hour and she caught 3 waves. 2 lying down and 1 wave on her knees...she was scared paddling over 6 inch wave swells and could barely lift up her head from the board. I had to paddle and walk her out to catch a wave, and fetch her on the inside and do it again. At the end of the lesson, she was tiered, but TOTALLY HOOKED! I gave her 2 more lessons and from then on, she was in the water, paddling, practicing, meeting the locals, and LOVING the lifestyle! Today, she has purchased about 3 surfboards of her own, brought a car so she can fit her surfboard in it, has a surf rack, and has a cute license plate that says something like "surfdiva" or something cute like that. She is known in the water and surfs regularly. She is an inspiration to anyone who thinks they are too old to do something, too scared to do something, too weak to do something. She is all heart! In her short 2 years of her surfing career :)....she has been featured in Surfer Girls Magazine in japan. They did a 8 page editorial on her! AMAZING huh?