First Time Trying to Surf (Pacific City, OR)

This weekend Jon and I were invited to Pacific City, OR to celebrate Amy Simmon's birthday (Amy is the fiance of one of Jon's good friends, Aaron). Pacific City is located to the northwest of Corvallis on the coast (I'd been there once prior to this trip with Jon to do a hike on one of my visits out). On Saturday morning we left Corvallis and headed out to the coast. Our first stop was the Newport Aquarium.


Newport is the closest coastal town to Corvallis which is about a 35 minute drive. It is a unique town that I hope to explore further in the future. Our first stop in Newport was the aquarium. We visited all the exhibits, and my favorites were definitely the Sea Otters, Seals, and Sea Lions. As we walked by the window of the Sea Otter habitat one of the Sea Otters came over to check us out by coming close to the window and floating around. It was very cute!

After the Aquarium we made our way to Pacific City for the party that night. Before arriving at the house we all rented we bought some fresh oyster shooters from the market near the beach, and then headed over to the house. The house was located literally right on the beach, and was uniquely structured. There was a main room with big windows that overlooked the ocean, and there were three other rooms with high ceilings and lofts with beds in each room. It was a perfect little beach get-away. Everyone brought some kind of food, and we all shared and had a delicious dinner. We had a fun and interesting night with a break-in of the neighbor's hot tub (I don't think they would have minded since the house was for sale anyway, and we returned it as we left it), a quick dip in the freezing ocean waters of the Pacific, a walk on the beach, and a bon fire.

The next morning we woke up, cleaned up, and went down to the beach for some surfing. I was sooo misguided about the ease of surfing...it's tough! We borrowed wet suits and a surfboard from some friends that were there that weekend. The weather was beautiful out so there were a lot people on the beach and several surfers in the water. We got all geared up and headed out to the waves with our boards. We followed Aaron Hartz (who's an excellent surfer) and Amy out to the breakers were we could try to catch some waves. What I did not realize was how tiring the whole process is. I tried to catch one wave, and then got smashed by wave after wave. It was a work out to just get a spot where you were sturdy and could try to catch a wave. I finally got too exhasted to try anymore and headed for dry land...haha. Jon was able to catch a couple waves for the first time, but he soon got tired as well after trying several times to get back out to the breakers and getting thrashed. So we both called it quits, hung out for a few, said our goodbyes and headed back so he could get to work on time. All in all, I enjoyed being in the water and in the sun with good people, and I look forward to giving it another shot (maybe on a calmer day).