Why I surfed in New Hampshire
On adventurous friendships and signing waivers
Are we surfing when you visit? The water temperature has gotten up to 40 degrees, by the way!
This past weekend I visited my friend Kristin in New Hampshire. She took me surfing in rainy, forty-degree weather at Long Beach in York, NH. Known as a packed summer tourist destination, die hard locals surf along the state’s twelve miles of coastline all winter.
I wore a 8/7mm wetsuit, hood, gloves, and booties, with only my face exposed. Despite my neoprene seal blubber, cold water seeped into the seams between my layers the instant I entered the water. The sound I made when the first wave smacked me in the face could be described as animalistic.
After the shock wore off, it was a blast. We spent a couple hours splashing around in the waves and I hopped out feeling invigorated.
If you hadn’t figured this out already, Kristin is just…way cooler than I am. She once quit her job and bounced around between national parks for nine months, sleeping in her car. She slept in a hammock in her New York apartment for years.
Both chafing at our chosen desk jobs, we met in an EMT certification class at New York’s Borough of Manhattan City College back in 2012. We squeezed in night and evening classes as we both searched for careers that involved more physical activity. Neither of us ended up as EMTs, but the class sparked our friendship.
She took me, a consummate city kid who knew nothing about the outdoors, surfing for the first time. We’d drag our boards on the A-train to surf at Rockaway.
We’ve traveled all over the world together — Costa Rica, Belize, New Zealand. She’s the only person who visited me in both Nepal and Italy after I left New York. She once motorcycled seven hours through the desert to meet me in Joshua Tree for Christmas, where we ate pho at the Jelly Donut in Twentynine Palms.
On nearly every trip we do an activity that involves signing a waiver. Skydiving. Bungee jumping, where the jump master offered Kristin a free jump because she did such a beautiful job the first time. By contrast, he told me that my legs were shaking. We are built different.
Rock climbing. Scuba diving. Grade five white water kayaking over a waterfall.
Everyone needs an adventure friend. We push each other out of our comfort zones. We egg each other on. It can get a bit risky. We’ve discussed that this dynamic isn’t always healthy.
But this trip we didn’t sign any waivers. Perhaps this is growth.
Though on Sunday we did skip the “little fight club” getting started down her block.