Day 122: Surfing in Mirissa

Beth had found a yoga place run out of a nearby temple in Mirissa, so after breakfast, we parted ways. They jumped in a Tuk Tuk for the short ride to the temple, and I hired a Tuk Tuk arranged by the hotel to take me around the town and surrounding areas. I wanted to see the famous "stick fishermen" of Sri Lanka.

I'm not sure where the driver got the idea for the first stop. I could up barely understand him... He was suing something about "peacocks" and "school".... Though if my mind wandered as we turned on to some back roads, I started second guessing the words he said.... Replacing them with rhyming words that had a totally different meaning. But no, he dropped me off at a gate that led to a long driveway that went up a big hill that turned out to be a big school campus. Huh? Oh well, I hiked up, following the sound of music, and came upon one building that had twenty or so girls practicing a dance performance. I chatted with the principal and teacher that were there (I have a new Facebook friend :-0) as we exchanged information on each other's school system. This school had 1000 students with 70 teachers. It was populated by mostly poor villagers but apparently it had a good reputation for getting students through to post secondary education. Ok, good to know!

I asked the driver to take me to the fisherman's marina. This place is full of seafood options, which means of course there must be a bunch of cool looking fishing boats around. The marina was huge and it reeked of drying fish. The rows and rows of boats were very colourful, with various poles and flags sticking into the air like a giant pin cushion.

There was a large, open platform with a roof above where dozens of workers were working at repairing nets. I saw guys getting off some of the boats and they looked.... well worn. The driver later confirmed my assumption that these ships would stay on the ocean for weeks and sometimes months at a time. Given our whale watch reports about the strength of the ocean, I couldn't imagine being locked in these little boats for even an hour, much less a multi night stay.

A lot of the boats had splayed dried fish that they were offloading so it looked like their haul was half processed into dried fish while on board and half stored in the ice room below decks.

We drove West up the coast. We made one stop in Wilegama, an ideal looking beach where it looked like a prime spot to try surfing. The whole beach was curved around a big, open bay. The waves seemed to roll consistently straight into the main beach and it didn't look like there were any rocks anywhere. I spoke to one enthusiastic young guy who wanted to get me on a board right then and there, but I told him I may come back later with my kids. He gave me that "nod and smile" like "sure you will buddy".

After another 10km or so, the driver stopped at a spot with a couple of stick fisherman. I had understood from the hotel owner that the fisherman were getting savvy to tourists and were now charging to take pictures. I was ok with that, as long as I could watch them ply their trade, but the two guys that were fishing did not strike me as fisherman but rather two stand ins sitting on a pole. One of their "colleagues" was "guarding" the walk down to see them up close, and I assured him I would be offering them a tip for their "troubles" (my fingers were getting overworked with all the air double quotes!).

I stuck around for five minutes, but it just didn't satisfy me. I had spotted a potential better spot while driving up, so I told the driver to take me back down the coast. When we got to the spot I'd seen, I immediately got the feeling that this was the real deal. The three guys on the pole were friendly, but focused on their task. They had dark, weathered skin, comfortable looking stance on the narrow pole and fluid, easy technique with the pole: my expert (not) opinion - these were the real deal.

At this point of the day, they were catching little reef fish - they had a small bag each full of small, spiny fish about 4 or 5 inches long. At first, the driver kept the Tuk Tuk running, but eventually, he figured out that I wanted to watch the fisherman for a while, so he climbed down the rocky retaining sea wall and joined me. We sat and watched for 10 minutes, taking it in.

We headed back. I'd been out for about two hours and the girls would be done yoga shortly. It was fun bombing around the area in a Tuk Tuk - not quite as free as renting a moto, but still fun.

We had a great lunch (in fact the exact same thing as dinner last night!) chased down with my first ginger beer - seemingly the most popular drink around the island. It was a very gingery mix between ginger ale, root beer and cream soda. Not bad but I probably don't need another.

I convinced the girls, pretty easily to my surprise, that they needed to try surfing. Without too much time to think about it, we were back in my Tuk Tuk, this time squeezing in the four of us, with Robin on my knee. He took us back to Wilegama beach. The guy I'd been talking to before jumped out of his chair and looked shocked that I'd actually returned. With a big smile, he introduced the girls to their surf instructors - they guaranteed that by the end of the lesson the girls would be able to stand up on their own. Robin said "wait, I don't even know how to surf!?!", which was kind of hilarious.

The guys gave them a five minute lesson on the beach on how to pop up on the board..... Then they were off to the ocean. I was a little skeptical, but what do I know?

They were a hundred meters off shore. The instructors got them on their boards and pointed in the right direction. After a couple of attempts, doesn't Abby pop up on her board and surf all the way to the end of the water - classic. She had a huge smile on her face!

Moments later, Robin pops up and also rides a wave in. I couldn't believe my eyes. They were having a blast.

After the hour lesson was up, the girls had some free time to surf by themselves. I waded out to join them. They were full of that "new discovery" energy - they were surfing!!! For the next half hour or so, they'd grab a wave and get up quite a few times. One notable time, Robin caught a big wave and rode it into the beach in a huge long arc, taking about 45 seconds to get in. When she got back, she said "I didn't even know I could steer!". Soon after, Abby also caught a "big" one and did the same curve - "oh yeah!". We will have to make sure the Mudford's see these videos - now the girls can challenge their girls to take up skiing and skating! :-)

What a great day. Yoga and surfing..... In Sri Lanka! Mirissa is such a nice place and we can't speak highly enough about Sri Lanka.

We played some games at night, had three devilled dishes (chicken, fish and prawns) for dinner and piled into our bed to watch an episode of the Walking Dead. While the girls are loving the zombie serial, Beth is so addicted she is nervously doing the math on episodes left vs days left on the trip.... She doesn't want it to end - she's talking about the trip, not the TV series.... Right? Right?!