Let’s talk fear. One of my biggest fears has got to be the ocean 🌊. Not so much the fear of drowning because Eve and I are both pretty good swimmers 🏊🏻♀️ considering our parents pushed us into YMCA at a young age and passed all the levels before passing on the swim team. But I’ve always had a fear of what’s beneath the ocean like… 🦈. It’s silly, but I never liked swimming in our pool at home alone because I was afraid something would pull me under… thanks mom and dad for letting me watch scary movies! 🙈 But when in the Caribbean, MUST SUP + SNORKEL!!
On our agenda for our bestie’s bachelorette party in Tulum, Mexico was a SUP + SNORKEL day in Soliman Bay with Mexican Caribbean Kitesurf 🏄🏻♀️. The owner and instructor was THE BEST PERSON EVER!!! His name is Mauricio and he explained every step of the way with so much detail and made sure we all understood what we were doing. He had a GoPro 📷 on him and took as many pictures as we wanted. Mind you, it was 8 girls so he definitely got lots of photo requests from us, but was such a great sport about it! THANK YOUUU!! 🙏🏼
The SUP part was totally enjoyable even though it was hard for us to stand up for a long period of time before kneeling down to our comfort zone. 😝 It was seriously a full body workout because you have to use your core and legs to balance and your arms to paddle. 💪🏼 We SUP’d out near the coral reef and swam out to snorkel.
Eve and I both decided not to use life jackets since we were confident with our swimming abilities 🧜♀️, but we had no idea how strong the current would have been. 🌊 It was a breeze to swim out and we were literally gawking at how gorgeous the life beneath the water was 🐠! The ocean was sooo clear so we could see all the coral and fish clearly. Maurizio warned us to constantly look down to make sure we were we didn’t kick the coral for its protection and for our own.
My goggles kept fogging up so I had to keep taking it off to clear it. This was when the current started to push me over to the coral and I kicked it with my toe and freaked out thinking I had to get medical attention because I thought it was going to burn me or something. 🤣 I have no clue where this idea stemmed from…. jellyfish??? I don’t know 🤷🏻♀️. I yelled out “I KICKED IT!!” in full panic mode and our gf told me if I wanna wasn’t hurting or bleeding, I was fine. Then I heard one of the other girls scream because she was actually bleeding and that was when I started panicking more and my fear of the unknown beneath the water crept up to me. 😖 I could hear my breath grow faster through the snorkel, which made it very difficult to get enough oxygen in my lungs. I was losing strength from treading water for so long and also kept having to unfog my goggles, which made me drink a lot of ocean water so I knew it was time for me to swim back to the paddle boards.
Since I was the first one to begin the journey of swimming back, it was a little hard to tell where the boards were without anyone on top of them. We didn’t have to swim very far out to get to the coral because the current was pushing us that way, but when I turned around to make my way back, the boards looked sooo far from me. It felt like YEARS to swim back since the current was pushing against us- the last stretch was definitely the hardest. 😰 I kept telling myself I could swim this no problem so I sucked it up and back stroked when I got too tired and needed a break. It was seriously such a relief when I touched the board. LANNDDDD (sort of)!!! 😌
After I caught my breath and calmed down, I was SO glad I had conquered my fear of the ocean and adventured out into the water with my girlfriends. 🤗 Am I going to ever do this again? If you asked me when I was freaking out about “wtf is touching my toes” (duh coral reef, Elisa 🤦🏻♀️), I would have said HELL NAW, but if you asked me now after I had time to access the situation, definitely yes. It a great thing to conquer your fear and do it over and over again until you are more comfortable with it and feel more in control. 🙌🏼 I don’t know if I’ll ever be okay with swimming in a pool by myself because shark, duh! But I would say snorkeling is a great start in the wild!! 😜
ALSO- IM SO SORRY TO THE CORAL REEF I TOUCHED WITH MY TOE 😭 I’m definitely going to get my own snorkels for the next trip so they fit better and I won’t have to keep adjusting! 🙈 I’ll probably practice in a pool before I go too hehe
Moral of this story was: WEAR A LIFE VEST NEXT TIME 🤣 You never know how strong the current is going to be in the ocean so it’s always a GREAT idea to be safe than sorry!! I think Eve ended up okay though because fine, I’ll admit it. She was always a better swimmer than I was 😛
Hope my story helps you prepare you for your next SUP + SNORKEL adventure and/or CONQUER YOUR FEARS!!!! 👊🏼👊🏼👊🏼 Let me know if you liked this blog post and if I should post a full blog about Tulum with recommendations! It’s such a beautiful oasis and a must visit for everyone!! 😍 Really appreciated this opportunity to experience it with all of our girlfriends! Hope you get to visit soon too!
Xox Elisa