nova scotia 2 - keith

We met Keith when we were inquiring about surf lessons at Lawrencetown. He's the owner of Happy Dudes Surf Emporium and has a great shop and food shack near the beach. We decided to go with them for our lesson, and got a t-shirt and lunch with the package. They also let us camp out on their property the night before, which was interesting with the high winds right by the ocean haha. I asked him if I could do a portrait of him the first day we met, and he said he was down for it as long as we did it when he wasn't busy. So we ended up doing it a couple days later after surfing.

The surf lesson was definitely and experience. It was us plus two other people that were from the area. We had an hour indoors of basic training, watching videos and learning 'surf etiquette'. Then we picked up our wetsuits and boards, and hopped in the 11˚ water. The suits were actually really warm, but we didn't have any gloves so our hands were numb. We practiced everything we learned inside about paddling, how to turn around when you want to catch a wave, and moving from the sitting position to laying, and back. After a while of this, we were all too tired (except for Keith) to even think about trying to ride a wave for real. Out of shape much? Although he did tell us that some cocky CFL players tried the same lesson and were just as exhausted because you use muscles in surfing you don't use, well.. ever. So we just kinda laid on the board and enjoyed being moved by the current. Until we realized we were really far from the car and actually had to use our paddling skills to get back.

After we got all our stuff put away and out of the wetsuit (not fun to change in or out of by the way), we headed back to Happy Dudes for lunch. And boy, was that one of the best lunches ever. It was a $10 voucher essentially and I decided to get my money's worth. If you're ever in the area, go to Dude's Food. You won't regret it.

We finished lunch and got set up for the shot. I decided to shoot him behind his desk, with all the cool stuff around him. It's also where he sat for the indoor lesson, and the TV behind him is what we watched the videos on.

Next post coming from Battery Provincial Park in Cape Breton, check back here soon.