Surfing

One of the days we were in Hawaii we went surfing. I was dreading going because I thought it would be really hard and boring but it turned out to be not that bad. The day we went it was really sunny and nice out. Our whole group went to the surfing shack on the beach near our hotel and met the surfing instructors. They were two young Hawaiian guys and they were kind of weird but they made you feel like family. They taught us the proper way of laying on your surfboard and getting up. We did practicing for about an hour, and then we finally got in the water. Surfing definitely was not as easy as it seemed. It took a lot of work to get up onto your surfboard. The surfboard was about twice the size of me and was hard to carry when you got out as well. I got up a few times but it was really difficult to actually stay up for a long time, especially in a big group. Everyone always went together and that caused problems because everyone would run into each other and when you get hit by the surf board it really hurt. We went surfing for about an hour until we all finally got sick of falling and getting beaten by surfboards. It was a good experience though, it's one more thing I can say I have done!

Outside Article:

Dolphins save surfer from becoming shark’s bait

By Mike Celizic

Surfer Todd Endris needed a miracle. The shark — a monster great white that came out of nowhere — had hit him three times, peeling the skin off his back and mauling his right leg to the bone.

That’s when a pod of bottlenose dolphins intervened, forming a protective ring around Endris, allowing him to get to shore, where quick first aid provided by a friend saved his life.
“Truly a miracle,” Endris told TODAY’s Natalie Morales on Thursday.
The attack occurred on Tuesday, Aug. 28, just before 11 a.m. at Marina State Park off Monterey, Calif., where the 24-year-old owner of Monterey Aquarium Services had gone with friends for a day of the sport they love. Nearly four months later, Endris, who is still undergoing physical therapy to repair muscle damage suffered during the attack, is back in the water and on his board in the same spot where he almost lost his life.
“[It] came out of nowhere. There’s no warning at all.
Maybe I saw him a quarter second before it hit me. But no warning. It was just a giant shark,” Endris said. “It just shows you what a perfect predator they really are.The shark, estimated at 12 to 15 feet long, hit him first as Endris was sitting on his surfboard, but couldn’t get its monster jaws around both surfer and surfboard. “The second time, he came down and clamped on my torso — sandwiched my board and my torso in his mouth,” Endris said.That attack shredded his back, literally peeling the skin back, he said, “like a banana peel.” But because Endris’ stomach was pressed to the surfboard, his intestines and internal organs were protected.

The third time, the shark tried to swallow Endris’ right leg, and he said that was actually a good thing, because the shark’s grip anchored him while he kicked the beast in the head and snout with his left leg until it let go.

The dolphins, which had been cavorting in the surf all along, showed up then. They circled him, keeping the shark at bay, and enabled Endris to get back on his board and catch a wave to the shore.