*Tracy Chamberlain Higginbotham - September 28, 2024 - Kennebunkport, Maine*

“Hey, turn on the movie Point Break with Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze to see what surfing is about,” said my baby brother, the one I taught how to blow bubbles from bubblegum. Him and I had a date to meet in Kennebunkport, Maine for him to return the instruction favor and teach me how to surf.

I’ve wanted to try surfing since seeing surfers at a Maine beach in November 1997. I was amazed they could be in the frigid water that time of year. My brother was 15 at the time and eventually became a “breakwater bard” with his friends who also played with him in a band.

*Tracy Chamberlain Higginbotham and Jacob Chamberlain - Kennebunkport, Maine - September 2024*

Now 40 years old, he met me at the Aquaholics Surf Shop in Kennebunkport, Maine, a business started by a female, to get our wetsuits and long boards. As a 59-year-old woman, I wondered how my menopausal body would actually fit in a wetsuit, but it did. It felt like wearing full body spanks. Zipped tight up the back from my neck to my ankles. It was rubber armor and getting used to that added layer would make the movements a bit harder for me, but worth it.

It was a sunny, 60-degree day and the water temperature was 60 too with perfectly placed roller waves, not too intimidating, but enough for a beginner to try. With the blue surfboards tucked under our arms, we headed out like two California shred masters. “Shaka Baby,” I said to my husband photographing the affair.

Jake showed me the proper moves on the wet beach before walking in the water. Then it was up to me to position myself perfectly on the 9’ beginner board from front to back and in the middle waiting for the perfect crest of the wave. I have been a long-time ocean body surfing chick so I was comfortable hanging in the water and knowing what to look for.

*Moving feet forward to crouch, then stand*

“Paddle now, paddle, paddle, paddle, now up,” Jake said. After some attempts, I understood the rise of the wave below the board to start the movement from lying flat to arms pushing your body up to a “crouching” position before full extension. To be honest I never made it up to the full extension position but made it up to crouching 3 times and thus “rode a wave and surfed” as the surf store owner, my brother, and a couple of other surfers pointed out to me.

*Some Kentucky Bourbon to warm up halfway through.*

I was so close to standing up on my board on top of a wave but after 3 hours of paddling, and getting hit in the face with salt water and seaweed, I felt I had tried it enough for the day. My only wish is that I could have tried it the next day because I think I could have stood up all the way. I said to myself, “When your parents took you downhill skiing when you were five, you didn’t perfect skiing that day, you fell, you got up, you tried again and it took years to become a great skier, it is the same for surfing or any new sport you try, Tracy.”

I can tell you one thing for sure; surfing is my favorite sport I’ve tried to date. It was joyful, mesmerizing, difficult, exhilarating, and plain fun. To frolic in the ocean for 3 hours not being cold, free to ride the waves, jump above or below them, spend that much time with my brother who I don’t see often, and even have a shot of whiskey halfway through to warm our bones, will be an experience I’ll never forget.

Honestly, I would go out there today if I lived near an ocean. Watch out waves, I’m coming back to conquer you and enjoy this really playful, addictive happy sport. Shaka, baby.