When Scott first asked Nick what he wanted to do when we were in Hawaii, he immediately answered that he wanted to learn how to surf. Welcome to Wednesday morning:
Scott Google’d surf schools in Waikiki and found the Hans Hedemann Surf School. This was more of a find than just a random surf school. See, Scott was childhood friends with Cy Hedemann (we still send a Christmas card every year) and unknown to Scott, his brother Hans started a surf school in 1997 after a successful career as a pro surfer. It was an obvious choice!
Before we ever left the shop, the boys learned the three basic laws of “riding a wave”. Umm, I just have to take a moment and tell you that the surf instructor was exactly what any girl imagined he would be.
Remember as a kid when you had to be able to swim all the way across the shallow end of the pool before the lifeguard would let you jump off the diving board? Surf School is kinda like that. You have to be able to “ride the lawn chair” before you can go in the water.
Once the boys passed the lawn chair test, they were finally headed down to the water.
I am pretty sure that this last minute conversation included trying to remember if balance was the second or third law of “riding a wave”. You can also see that I parked my chair in the shade of the lifeguard tower. I definitely did not want to get a sunburn and I found that this was the best place on the beach to protect myself.
The reality was that the surf school lesson lasted all of ten minutes. It took longer to walk to the beach than it did to learn to surf. After making sure everyone was ready, the group headed out. The boy’s group included an Australian couple on their honeymoon and a man and woman from Tokyo (who did not know each other). Oh, and did I mention the highly qualified surf instructor!
The area of the beach where the boys surfed was right along side a stone pier that was also a fish sanctuary. The surf instructor recommended that I check it out. And being that he is a professional, I took his advice.
At this point I will turn over the photography to the official surf school photographer.
There were a couple of mishaps early on.
But once they remembered the three laws, in the right order, they looked like they had been doing this their whole life.
Ok, that’s not one of the boys, but did I mention what a professional the surf instructor was?
I love this series of photos. This Japanese girl did not speak one word of English, but she was a great sport!
I am pretty sure that based on the smiles, I wouldn’t be surprised if surfboards were on someone’s Christmas list next year.
Scott’s friend Mary called Wednesday afternoon and invited us to meet up with her. Mary and Scott were neighbors growing up. Mary’s mom Molly still lives in the house Mary grew up in. Mary’s friend Ray rents the house next door, the one that Scott grew up in. Mary had talked to Ray and Ray invited us up to the house for a tour. It had been almost 30 years since Scott had been in the house.
We drove up to the house and got the tour. Some remodeling had been done, but the house was close to the same. Scott wanted to take some pictures around the house.
Sometimes it’s hard to get everyone interested in taking pictures, and sometimes you have to do something silly in order to get the others to smile.
The views from the house were beautiful.
Here is downtown Honolulu from the front driveway.
This might be our Christmas card photo for next year!
It was a day of new adventures and walks down memory lane. Hopefully the boys will take their families back to Hawaii and 30 years and teach their kids how to surf.
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