Last Full Day in Phuket

Today I got my run in early and ate a light breakfast, because I had decided to try the flowrider at the Surf House. They have a 2-hour session from 10am-noon where you take turns with whoever else signed up trying to “ride the waves.” I paid my 990 baht (about $30) and looked around at the other participants, hoping to find someone I could put my bag near. I found a woman with a camera who was not going to ride though her son is a regular here, and she happily allowed me to keep my bag at her table. As it turns out, her son Nathan is not just a regular, he is really good. He’s a member of their pro team and went to the Nationals in 2019 where he earned his ranking of 7th in the world in flow riding bodyboarding and 10th at flowboarding. And he’s just 15 years old (so he was just 13 then!).

I’ve been stopping to watch the flowboarding every time I walk by here on the way to my daily massage. I read online that the really good flowboarders are fun to watch since they do tricks and also the beginners because they fall down a lot. I should be very entertaining. There were 10 of us in the session: Nathan and his friend who is also fairly experienced, a little slip of a girl maybe 11 years old who was on her second time, a guy and his girlfriend who were on their 6th time plus their friend who seemed a bit more experienced, and four of us beginners, me and 3 Russian men who were just trying it for some fun. They were very supportive and I was so glad not to be the only first timer. So half of us were entertaining: Nathan and we four beginners. To the left is Nathan flipping his board.

There are three stages for a beginner boarder:

Stage 1 flow board

Stage 1: The guide eases you out on a rope which you both hold, giving you some stability as you try to balance. That’s how it looks to the spectators (see pic to the right). For my first time it was more like clinging to the rope praying it will somehow save me as I fight to keep my balance…and failing. Then the water sweeps you up over the “hill” and crashes you into the back wall. That was unexpected. And it hurt. But only the first few times until I figured out how to slow myself down. At least it gave my masseuse some good kinks to work out.

Here’s a funny video of me getting overconfident my third time and letting go of the rope early “I got this. Uh, no I don’t. Wham!” Beginners are definitely fun to watch fall!

me with rope

Stage 2: Once you get the hang of it, you can instead trail the rope behind you, which sort of anchors you a tiny bit in the back helping keep your board 90 degrees to the waves (important for newbies, not at all useful for the pros who spin every direction). The rope doesn’t look like it makes much difference, but it helps A LOT! I found it much easier to “try” different things like cutting left or right while holding the rope behind me.

me up without rope

Stage 3: When you are ready, you let go of the rope. I was really proud of myself that I was able to stand one my own a handful of times, mostly for a few seconds, but the last run I actually stood without the rope for a good 10-15 seconds. Unfortunately, any time I tried to do anything, I pretty much just lost my balance and fell.

nathan somersault zoomed

Here are some videos I took of Nathan bodyboarding and flowboarding…the kid’s got style! Then you can compare it to the videos of me. I think my style is called “Hanging on for dear life.” Thanks to his mom Nicola for the outstanding videos and pictures of me she took! In addition to being an excellent photographer, she is a fellow adventuresome traveler. She and her husband are in the hotel business and have lived in various parts of the world, originally hailing from England.

nathan flip zoomed

me falling

wipeout

making ice cream patong

Dinner was again at food street. I went with the calamari in oyster sauce, some BBQed item that looked good, and I wanted to support the sweet older lady who had the ice cream stall so I got a strawberry oreo ice cream. It was in rolls of frozen cream like I’d first seen in Lisbon. They pour the cream on a freezing cold round metal surface, mix in the strawberries, then scoop it back together before chopping it up and respreading it multiple times. The finished product is below.

Strawberry Oreo Ice Cream