I Did It Myself! (The Marvels of Surfing and Car Repair) - By Taymar
Posted on Aug 23 2006
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It all started a few months ago when Body Electric held a beginners surfing class for women. My friend Nicole sent out an email about it and I was super excited because I've always wanted to surf. The class was great! It was way more more fun learning to surf with a bunch of other uncoordinated beginners than the time I had gone out with a boyfriend who tried to teach me and failed, or the time I had gone out with my mom who didn't know how to surf either, and sunburned the back of my legs without ever catching a wave. I caught my first wave on my first try, rode it all the way in on my belly, and stood up for my first time several waves later. I was hooked!

Kristen, one of the other surfers, had found out about the class through our mutual friend, Celinda, and we started chatting. We both agreed that we loved surfing and wanted to do it again sometime.

A few weeks later Celinda sent me a link to a new group Kristen had started: SB Surf Grls. I didn't have my own board or wetsuit yet, but I signed up for another class at Mondos beach. Jack came with Caspian, and it was the total role reversal: boyfriend on the beach with the kid watching the girls surf.

Learning to surf is not just addictive, it's become really empowering. I have always considered myself to be uncoordinated and bad at sports. I guess I still have bad memories from competitive run-ins with high school-athletics. There was no sense of competition out there, just comradrie as we all cheered each other on when we caught a wave, or pushed up to standing.

I found some boards on craigslist right before my trip to Arizona, and am eager to go out again.

And then, this morning...I changed my own car battery! I took out the hardly touched toolkit I had bought at IKEA, and by the time I was done my tools looked like tools should look: covered in grease and dirt. My hands were dirty too, and I've never been so proud to have black underneath my fingernails. When I dropped a lugnut, I thought of my grandfather, who had never had a son, asking me if I could help him find a little part he dropped while he was working on the car.

At times I would find myself thinking "I can't do this! I've never been good at this stuff." and I wondered where those kind of thoughts came from, and banished them.

Putting the whole thing back together was nerve-wracking. I kept going back to my computer to check the instructions I had found online while trying not to get grease all over my mouse. I was very proud of myself for taking before pictures with my digital camera. I had read an article somewhere that had suggested this was a good idea when you take stuff apart.

It didn't entirely come in handy when I couldn't remember exactly how the positive cables had been attached. I went round and round about it, but finally resorted to calling an ex-boyfriend, who informed me that the two cables on the positive side should be touching. I tightened all the screws, washed my hands three or four times without much success at getting them clean, and retrieved my keys. I sat there for a few moments just praying that the car wouldn't blow up. Finally, I turned the ignition and...viola, the engine started!

I fixed it myself! I fixed my own car! I changed a battery, which is sort of like performing minor surgery without a medical degree.

There is nothing that I cannot at least try to do.

- Taymar

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