Sound the bells

Dear Followers,

I am creative, I don't know if you noticed (look at the address of the blog and the title, do you see it now?). 

Since I start this blog as a part of my training here in Cape Town, I would like to write my first article about my experience here and point out one thing in particular. 

Well, I went surfing on sunday afternoon, this was my first time doing it, I was excited and scared at the same time thinking of Jay Moriarity and the big wave or the Hawaiian surfer crossing the impossible and surfing on walls like I would simply do jump rope. OK nothing comparable, we can agree on that, the waves were "wavies". Anyway, I come from France and I see sharks on TV, in movies (Everybody's seen Jaws or "les dents de la mer" for the francophone) but I've never been in a situation were you find yourself in the situation of that poor kid in jaws, well NOW I have. 

So I was in the ocean, quite far from the shore trying to stand up on my board (and NO I wasn't successful) when I heard a siren. Feel free to judge me, I was not panicked, I actually did not even look around me or question myself about this alarm. I was far from thinking about sharks. I stayed in the water for another 5 minutes but when I finally looked around, nobody was around, I was the only one, 10minutes from the shore and people were waving me to come back quickly. Ok, THAT moment was the scariest one of my entire life. As soon as I realized that it was urgent to come back I tried with all my little muscles to come back to shore. I questioned myself "what is the fastest way to get back over there?" "What is the best position to avoid being eaten by sharks", questions were left without answers cause I was trying hard, out of breath to swim as fast as I could. 

When my feet touched the sand, I wanted to cry, I like adrenaline but that was something, I would have to pass up. 

I don't know how you're feeling right now, but it was impressive, I felt powerless and for the first time not safe at all. 

I won't give up on surfing, I will just be more careful and I will keep you posted of my progress. 

Cheers, 

Louise