Read Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com

Read Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com To read this entire feature FREE with photos cut and paste this link: http://www.jetsettersmagazine.com/archive/jetezine/sports02/surfing/calif/diva/diva.html

If everybody had an ocean across USA/ Then everybody'd be surfin' like California/ All over La Jolla at Wiamea Bay/ Everybody's gone surfin- Surfin' USA/

I pushed hard on large button of my ghetto blaster as it clunked cassette tape on to my beach motif bed comforter. It was year 1983 and I was decked out in hand-sewn, self-designed shirt and jams imprinted with palm trees and surfboards. Funny, now that I think about it but I had used same fabric for bedding and my clothes. So it was hard to know where I began and where bed ended. Wow! Was I tacky or what? Talented but tacky!

Being a natural born artist and dreamer, my creations expressed my deep longing to live anywhere, just anywhere in world but Small Town, USA. Landlocked forever with not a wave of water in sight. As far from ocean as you could possibly get in a small, no, minute; scratch that, molecular town with a population of 800 and decreasing. Known for its chicken farms, chicken processing plants, and prized dog food plant.

No, I'm not knocking my hometown; it's just that I had bigger aspirations. Reading books and writing in journals took me to faraway places with so many adventures but reality kept me landlocked. I wasn't happy with just idea of graduating from high school, marrying a local boy, and raising children and chickens. I wanted so much more out of life.

Growing up in a small town and on a farm taught me many valuable skills and provided wonderful childhood memories and I wouldn't trade these for world. But as Beach Boys crooned out to Bar-bar-bar-bar-bar-Barbara Ann, I gazed up at fake palm trees hanging overhead and dreamed once again of being a surfer girl in California sun.

Now twenty-one years later, I'm totally stoked about heading out to southern California to catch a wave and soon I'll be sittin' on top of world, as lyrics of another song go!

Read Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com

Read Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com To read this entire feature FREE with photos cut and paste this link: http://www.jetsettersmagazine.com/archive/jetezine/sports02/surfing/corky/corky.html

I'd like to say sun flooded us with a warm glow that morning.

That we could barely make out orangey rays peeking through holes in clouds. I'd like to say that my feet and skin welcomed daybreak, but unfortunately this wasn't case.

It was an August Monday morning, and as I nervously walked onto Bolsa Chica State Beach in Huntington Beach, California, I was greeted by a bitter chill and a slight drizzle. It was gray and cold. So cold, that I couldn't understand why anyone would want to get into an even chillier water in an attempt to surf. But surfing isn't about lazy warm afternoons or playing in water. It's about style and technique. It's about love; something I would soon learn.

I have signed up for group lesson, and I took cover under tarp where I was welcomed by blonde haired, deeply tanned Rick Walker, Corky Carroll Surf School Director. After introducing myself, I felt comforted by his raspy voice and amazing enthusiasm. For next 45 minutes or so, rest of students and I listened to Rick's wisdom on importance of safety, direction and technique in water. One of more interesting things I noticed during his enlightening and slightly comical routine was fact that majority of students were about 15 years younger than I and about half my size. Naturally I bonded with a few surfers more my age as we were lined up in order of height. Feeling more comfortable now, I was ready and willing to give my first attempt at surfing an embarrassing try.

We were separated in groups of about four or five, each with a different instructor. Smiling and a little out of breath, an instructor by name of Brian showed up soaked from all ready surfing. After that came pivotal moment that made me understand how anyone in their right mind could be out here surfing in these gloomy conditions, I was given a wet suit.

Corky Carroll's Surfing School provided us with wet suits, pre-waxed surfboards and professional instructors. Brian told me that some of instructors here have been competing in international competitions for years. He, on other hand, only gives surfing lessons during summers. During rest of year he is an academic teacher.