Rob's First Battle Wound

During my last year at BYU Hawaii, I am taking a beginning surfing class. I didn't want to leave Hawaii without knowing how to surf. The first day the class went surfing at Chunns Reef that is located on Oahu's North Shore. The surf instructor said that, "Chunns has the best long board surfing waves in the world." There are many different kinds of surf boards, and a long board is exactly what it says. My surf board was 10ft 2in, it was kind of like being on a barge in comparison to the more agile "short" boards that the pro surfers use. I paddled out to my first set of waves. I was determined to get up on my first day. As I was waiting there in anticipation, I looked down and all I could see was coral. It was really pretty, but the water was only waist deep. My surf instructor then stressed the point that when you fall, fall flat, or in other words belly-flop or back-flop. Then I hear him say, here they come, paddle Rob, paddle, so I began to paddle in front of the wave, then the wave grabbed me, I stood up, and I was surfing. It was an awesome experience because I was able to get up my first time. This lasted about 15 seconds and I threw my arms up in celebration, lost my balance, and fell flat on my back. I was so excited that I got up on my first try. I then, forgetting about how shallow the water was, kicked my feet to swim back to my board, and kicked the reef. This is not for the weak stomach:

This is what it looked right after my neighbor Scott graciously dug out all of the sand and reef with a q-tip, and then I poured rubbing alcohol into it to clean it. The cut was 1in long, 1/2 in wide, and 1/4in deep. It is definitely something that I will never forget. I incurred this wound on Saturday9-6, and waited till Monday to go to the Doctor, and that was when he lectured me for not going to the hospital and getting stitches. But he was impressed at how clean the wound was. I only missed one day of classes, and that was because walking hurt a lot, and the doctor didn't give me crutches, or pain pills. I had the opportunity to "tough it out". Jana has been more than helpful in the healing process. As much as she hates the sight of my foot, she was willing to clean the wound and dress it. I took an entire week off from the beach and the ocean, waiting for my foot to heal. The surf instructor allowed me to hang out on the beach so that I didn't miss a day of class. I went back to Chunns Reef with the class on Saturday 9-20, I wore reef walkers this time and was able to stand up on a wave for about 15 seconds, and then I fell flat. Wearing shoes, you look silly, but I came home without any re-injury, or new injury. Here is what my foot looked like one week later, and what it looks like now. Can you see the difference? By the way, I want to give a shout out to the Verizon LG EnV phone because that is what Jana and I used to take all of these pictures. It worked better than our digital camera.