Scribe learning to dance on water

Chris Yemma

Surf instructor Scott Morlan’s goal was to have me “up and dancing on

the water” near the end of my first lesson.

It wasn’t ballet, but I managed something, albeit a fleeting

glimpse at success.

And so I began my odyssey of morphing into a different lifestyle

-- as surfers insist it is -- and I survived my first lesson last

Saturday in the Surf Class with Scott Morlan.

With virtually no surfing experience and limited bodysurfing

know-how, I strutted down to Newport Beach Pier looking to breeze

through the first lesson.

Little did I know it would actually be a workout, and a physically

draining one at that.

Morlan, also the surfing coach at Newport Harbor High, skimmed

through the basics on the beach before the six of us newcomers this

week (the rest of the class began July 9) waded into the frigid water

for our swim test.

Frigid could be an overstatement, however, as Morlan said the

water temperature was an even crisper 59 degrees the week prior.

As I ever so slowly eked my way out into the -- we’ll just call it

frigid -- water at about 8:30 a.m. under overcast skies, I was

thanking myself for making a quick trip to Sport Chalet Friday to

pick up a necessary wetsuit.

The 100-yard swim test, a mandatory requirement, but also a

rest-easy factor for Morlan so he knows he doesn’t have to babysit

everyone in the water, I passed with no relative difficulty. It did,

however, commence the upper-body drain I would be experiencing later

in the lesson.

We all passed the test, thankfully, and grabbed our boards.

And with Beach Boys’ tunes dancing in my head, I paddled out, in

search of the perfect wave.

Thoughts of the movie Point Break, with Keanu Reeves, came to

mind, but it was something I kept to myself at the time. The movie

Endless Summer would have also been a good choice, but the way my

arms were holding up from all the paddling against the current, it

felt more like the Endless Lesson.

All joking aside, though, and after a few paddling lessons,

instructions on how to sit correctly on the board and a lesson on how

to quickly turn the board around when the wave comes, we began the

water rides.

The five instructors -- Morlan; Mahea Hookano, 17, of Costa Mesa;

Dave Northup, 22, of Corona del Mar; Tim Northup, 23, of CdM; and

Lisa Turk, 18, of Newport Beach -- observed and assisted.

“You’ve got a natural hop-up,” Dave Northup told me after a few

rides, and I was thinking, “that’s nice, but I’ve also got a natural

wipe-out.”

At one point, Northup called on a classmate to observe my “natural

hop-up,” building up the pressure for my next ride, which turned out

to be a pretty decent highlight-reel eat-it.

But eventually, after numerous unsuccessful attempts, I found my

groove, and I was dancing for a solid 10 seconds, arms flailing and

wake spraying.

“I would definitely recommend to everyone they take a lesson

before they get into surfing,” Morlan said after Saturday’s

instruction. “I see people who come down here who don’t know what

they’re doing.”

“In one hour, you learned to paddle and stand up,” he told me.

The class, offered by the city of Newport Beach, had a

wide-ranging age class, from little Kristen Kiehnle, 8, to Alex

Starostin, 38.

Most of the students were able to balance on the board after their

first and second days.

Corona del Mar resident Priya Yerasi, 37, offered her insight

about the class.

“It’s a new hobby to occupy my abundant spare time,” she said. My

odyssey will take me through three more Saturdays of challenging fun.

Hopefully my arms don’t fall off.