Location: St. Barts
Today, on our beautiful home Ocean Star (which is looking rad after our thorough BA), we began our morning with some delicious muffins, courtesy of head chef Morgana and her sous chefs, Evan and Annemarie. After a speedy cleanup and very helpful waves and surf prep class from Carolyn, we were all super ready to go to the beach, where we would finally get to go surfing (an event we’d been looking forward to for weeks and weeks now). A brief car ride with an ever-entertaining Nick later, we found ourselves staring at an absolutely beautiful bay with waves spilling over and over. Those of us who came a little late to the surfing party were beyond impressed when we realized that the majority of the people out on boards, catching waves here and there, were our fellow classmates. Most of us had never been surfing before, and it was incredible how quickly so many people picked it up. I was so shocked when we arrived, and the first thing we saw was Duncan Luv straight shredding it on a wave. Then, someone handed me a longboard. Paddling out was a bit more difficult than I thought it was going to be, but eventually, I made my way out to where I could actually catch the waves… though I swallowed some seawater in the process. I think we all swallowed a little bit.
Nonetheless, we stayed at the beach for hours on end, taking turns between catching rays and catching waves. There were a lot of really awesome rides (shout-out to Carolyn and Austin for being totally dope on the board, though Nick self-proclaimed mayoral leadership in Shred Town), and it was so much fun getting to mentally check off a box on my extraordinarily long bucket list. I wish we could put all 2,385 photos, courtesy of Kathleen, on the blog, but unfortunately, you only get fifteen of them. Finally, around 3:30, we headed back into town and did a little bit more exploring before dingy rides back to Ocean Star for shower time and dinner (pizzas that were super delicious, if you were wondering). Now we’re getting cleanup going, and later, we’ll have SLD. Many of us are mentally preparing to take our final exam after cleanup in order to become rescue divers. Cross your fingers; we all pass! (Edit: We just graded the exams, and we all passed!)