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“I wasn’t really feeling the whole getting-hit-on-by-Brad vibe.”
He laughs. “Fair enough. Just to be clear, I’m not hitting on you. I’m only offering to give you a free surfing lesson.”
“Thank you, but no. I’m just enjoying the beach.”
“You’d enjoy it a lot more if you were out there catching your first wave. It’s absolutely required as part of the full Hawaii experience.”
“Honestly, I’m not…dressed for it.” This bikini really is sort of skimpy.
“You’re in Waikiki now, Dusty. Skin is good. Trust me, you won’t regret your first feel of the power of the ocean underneath you. It’s a religious experience. Seriously.”
I bite my lip.
“Come on, Dust. You know you want to. It’ll change your life.”
Am I considering doing this? “I’d fall off.”
“Luckily, if you do, you’ll land in warm tropical water that’s only around four feet deep until way, way out. Can you swim?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Let’s go.”
“You must have other customers.”
“Nope.” Lucas jumps up and goes over to his surfboard, placing it on the sand in front of me. “Your life is never the same again after you catch a wave. It changes everything: your Karma, the way you manifest the rest of your future, your entire path.”
Damn it, he really is sort of convincing. I have always wondered what surfing would feel like. And when he puts it like that, how can I not? “Are you sure you don’t mind? You don’t have other appointments?”
“I’m done for the day.”
He’s still smiling. Maybe surfing makes a person blindly happy. I have the sudden urge to find out.
“Okay,” I finally say. I climb to my feet, following him to his surfboard. “I’ll pay you. You don’t have to do it for free.”
“The hotel employs me. I could sit on my ass all day and not take a single lesson and still get paid. This will be purely for my own enjoyment.” He seems harmless, and he’s persuasive. “I love helping people get their first surfing rush. Watching people’s lives changing right in front of your eyes is about as real as it gets.” I can see why the hotel pays him without worrying about a schedule. I can’t imagine he’s ever short of customers. “And I promise not to hit on you like Brad,” he adds.
“I could do without that, thanks.”
“This is a spiritual lesson and nothing more.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, come over here and stand on this board.”
“I’ve never even been near a surfboard before, so you might need to lower your expectations.”
“I don’t have any expectations, but if I did, you’ve already exceeded them. You’re by far the most beautiful girl on this beach.” More grinning. “Oh, shit, did I just break our rule?”
“I think you might have, yeah.”
He shakes his head and his long dreadlocks swing. There are little beads on the end of a few of them. “Okay. Sorry. Forget I said that. Now, watch me. Stand like this, in the middle, arms out but not too far. Feet like this. Get your balance. Everyone has the urge to lean back but I want you to do the opposite. Lean into it.”
I spend the next hour learning how to get my balance. And then I follow Lucas out, paddling like he does. And then I proceed to spectacularly fail to stand on a live, moving surfboard as it jettisons me at what feels like a hundred miles an hour over open water.
I try a dozen times but it’s much harder than it looks.
“One more,” Lucas hollers from where he’s sitting on his own surfboard. “You almost had it that time. Do it again.”
