Judy Hopps (fluffy_cop) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-06-06 13:29:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, judy hopps, leon orcot |
Who: Leon & Judy
What: Surfing Lessons
When: Wednesday
Where: The Beach
Rating: Low
Status: Complete!
The sun was just cresting the horizon when Leon pulled the car into the near empty parking lot. Aside from a couple of other surfers who’d clearly had the same idea, the beach was near empty. Chris had never been one for morning’s and was still bleary eyed in the back seat, but Leon had always been the kind of guy who liked to wake up early, and after he’d stopped for coffee, he was ready to go.
He’d picked up Judy on his way to the beach. He had kind of promised her to teach her how to surf, though he hadn’t exactly expected her to take up up on the offer. But it wasn’t like it was putting him out too much. He was teaching Chris anyway, so what was one more?
“Alright Chris, come help me get these surfboards down,” Leon said. He’d tied them to the roof of his car, one of the ropes coming across the ceiling of the front seat and the other going across the backseat. With skilled hands he untied the front rope and got out of the car, waiting for Chris’s sleep-clumsy fingers to undo the backseat rope. “You excited to get going, Hopps?”
Knowing nothing about surfing, Judy had no idea what time was the best time to do it. She had only movies and television to rely on and it seemed that they would surf at normal, daytime hours. But when Chris let her know what time he would be picking her up, her eyes may have bugged out a little. Don’t get her wrong, she was use to early mornings for work and working out, but for her days off? Those were her sleep in days. Still, Leon had kindly offered to teach her, how could she say no? Plus she’d get to meet Chris, so it was like a win win.
So it was with a smile and a commitment that Judy found herself in the back seat with Chris, half dozing as the younger pupil as well. When they arrived, she was shaken from her reverie as Leon addressed her.
“Yeah, yeah, super excited!” she said, managing a smile. “Although I literally feel like a fish outta water.” Not having any proper surfing gear, Judy had just chosen a swimsuit to wear for their lesson. Glancing out at the waves now, she wasn’t sure if she’d like the temperature she’d fine waiting for her.
“What can I do to help?” She jumped out of the back seat, watching as Chris helped Leon bring down the surfboards.
Chris gave a determined nod and popped the trunk, pulling out Leon’s surfing bag that held their wetsuits and some towels. “I brought an extra wetsuit too. It’s too big for Chris, but it might fit you.” It had been on sale and Leon knew that Chris would eventually grow into it. Still, looking at Judy now, he wasn’t entirely sure that it wasn’t too small. He, of course, owned more than one for himself, but he hadn’t even bothered with those. Leon was much bigger than Judy; there wasn’t even a question about whether or not they’d fit.
Once Chris and Judy had their things in hand, he led the way toward the beach.
Judy opened her mouth to argue that there was no way she could fit into a child’s wetsuit, but she shut it. She could at least try and she had a feeling she might need it with this early morning tide. “Guess it wouldn’t hurt to try,” she said, taking the wet suit and a board to help out. It wasn’t as heavy as she would have thought, but she guessed that made sense. Still, it was awkward to walk with and she was glad there weren’t many other people out and about.
“So I’ll just try this on and meet you guys back out here?” She glanced at the two of them, hoping it wasn’t some kind of surfer initiation to get changed on the beach.
“Chris, go with her. You guys can help each other out if you have troubles with the wetsuits.” They weren’t the easiest pieces of clothing to climb into after all. Besides, Leon had no problem getting dressed right there on the beach, especially since he’d worn his trunks under his jeans, but the morning breeze was still a little bit chilly and he knew Chris prefered using the changerooms.
Chris nodded, and then took Judy’s hand so he could lead the way to the change rooms, even if they were fairly obvious and she probably didn’t need a guide.
Judy just nodded her head, smiling down as Chris lead her to the restrooms to change in. They each went into their own stall and Judy looked at the tiny wetsuit that was supposed to fit her. “Well, here goes nothing,” she muttered, beginning to strip down to attempt the change.
It took her a good amount of time and Chris even came by, his timid knock on her door to check in on her. She appreciated it, but she wasn’t about to have the poor boy try to help her with this thing. She told him to go down and meet up with Leon and that she would be with them shortly.
It took her another 15 minutes until she was able to meet up with them, her face a bit flushed and her hair a bit more tangled than usual, but the wetsuit was on. “Was there a trick to this you didn’t tell me about?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at Leon. “How is someone supposed to feel comfortable in one of these things?”
Leon smiled, amused at how flustered Judy looked. Getting into a wetsuit could definitely be a challenge, especially for people who’d never been in one before. “You’ll get used to it,” he assured her. “And you’ll be glad for it once you’re in the water. Before I throw you to the sharks, I’ll teach you how to get up on the board,” he said, gesturing to the boards he’d already laid upon the sand. Then, he showed her how to pop up onto the board, a move not too unlike getting up from a burpee. He didn’t have much doubt that she’d figure it out quickly. Judy seemed like someone who knew how to hop.
Judy made a face at the terminology Leon chose for their first lesson. “Really? We had to go the shark route for the first time?” She crossed her arms, but watched as Leon demonstrated what to do. It seemed easy enough on land, but she knew it would be something else once they were in the water.
“How do you do it out there without slipping?” she asked, bouncing up after another attempt. This would be good exercise, something she could add into her routine. She glanced over at Chris and smiled. “Is he this hard on you too?”
Leon gave a bit of a feral grin at Judy’s face. After all, what was the fun in teaching someone something if you couldn’t tease them a little bit? “Just preparing you for what’s out there,” he said with a wink. Not that he’d ever had an encounter with a shark.
Leon rubbed his hand over his surfboard. “Wax,” Leon said. “Don’t worry, slipping won’t be a problem. Falling’s something else, but you’re not going to be sliding all over the board.”
Chris was sitting on his board during Judy’s lesson, his eyes heavily lidded with sleep, but at Judy’s question he nodded awake again and then shook his head enthusiastically as if to say Leon wasn’t hard on him at all, clearly trying to impress his older brother.
Judy was in the middle of popping back up one last time but hesitated at his teasing. She was sure he was just joking around, but it happened, didn’t it? Something about sharks seeing the surfboard and mistaking it for a seal or something. “If I go missing a hand or something, you have to take care of me and take over all my case files,” she muttered, springing up from her last try.
Judy crossed her arms and looked from Chris back to Leon. “Pfft, it’s because he likes you better, I’m sure.” She winked. “Alright, do we actually get to go in the water now? Or do I get to continue hopping up and down for your amusement?”
“I’ll take over your case files, but I’ll be damned if I’m taking care of you too,” he grumbled, though in truth he probably would. He would never admit it, to himself or anyone else, but he did have a bit of a nurturing streak.
“We can get in the water now,” he said. “Attach the leash to your ankle and we can head out. Chris, you can go ahead on your own.” He didn’t need Leon to help guide the board and tell him when to get up anymore at least.
He waded into the water, and after he was about waist deep he dove under the waves, coming up a few feet out and shaking the water out of the mane of his hair. When he saw she was about waist deep in the water he instructed her to get on the board and begin paddling.
“Really, it’s the least you could do for having me get attacked by a shark!” She may have said that last part a little too loud and she made a face, glancing around her to make sure no one took it to heart. “Well, there’s a small blessing for being up this early,” she mumbled, but followed Leon towards the waves after leashing the board to her ankle.
She followed his direction, hesitating only for a bit to dunk her head under as he had done. Her hair was...well, hard to manage and the thought of getting it wet was not high on her lists of things to do that day. But, it was too late to back out now and she plunged under, coming back up with a gasp.
“Cheese and crackers that’s cold! I thought the water was suppose to be warmer here!” She shook her hair out, a few tendrils bouncing back to life as she followed Leon’s example. It felt a little awkward, her arms splayed out to either side. She found herself kicking her feet, despite them not being in the water and blushed.
“You make this look easier than it actually is!”
Leon couldn’t help but guffaw at Judy’s sputtering. “Sorry Hopps, we’ve got the cold ocean here,” he said, winking. It was a shame, but she’d adjust to it quickly. Especially with the wetsuit she was wearing.
“You don’t gotta kick your feet,” he told her, though he was pretty sure she probably already knew that. “It’s all upper body strength until you get your feet under you.” He kept alongside Judy until it was only his shoulders above the water, and instructed her to turn the board toward the beach. Once she had, he turned behind him to get a look at the waves. Seeing a swell coming up behind them, he started yelling “This is it! Paddle, paddle, paddle!” And once the wave was beneath her he yelled, “And up!”
Her thoughts echoed his own as she was suddenly very thankful for the wetsuit. She couldn’t imagine surfing in her swimsuit...then again, she had visions of riding waves while the sun was high in the sky and the water was just a tad bit warmer. Still, she trusted Leon and she hoped he hadn’t just brought her out this early for amusement. She glanced over at him and realized that could have been the exact reason.
Brushing those thoughts from her mind, she tried to follow his instructions as best as she could. When she heard him yell ‘And up!’ she turned to look at him and tried to do exactly as he did. She was able to get both feet on the board, but she was only standing for a millisecond before she was toppled over into the sea.
She came back up, feeling the pull of the board underneath her as the current tried to take it with the tide. She coughed a little, pulling on the string to bring it back up so she could have something to float on.
“Yeah, this was a great idea. Lots of fun. Good idea Hopps.” She looked around for Leon and Chris. Chris seemed like he had more success than she had, but she didn’t see Leon anywhere. She frowned, glaning around her until she saw he was (relatively) in the same place as before.
“You’re not actually gonna surf?”
Chris had been surfing for a couple of months now under the tutelage of both himself and Logan, and so Leon didn’t even look at him until Judy was underwater. He was impressed at how quickly the boy had managed to pick it up, but then, kids always seemed to learn things quickly.
He was also impressed at Judy for managing to get both her feet under her before toppled into the waves beneath her. With a couple of strong strokes, he swam over to where she was. “I can’t surf and watch you at the same time,” Leon explained. “You stood up too far to the right,” he said by way of explanation. Training boards often had a line down the middle to help newbies know where to place their feet, but Judy was using Leon’s very own surfboard and it didn’t have such easy markers. Right now he kind of wished that it did. “You want to make sure both your feet are on the centre of the board.”
Judy wrinkled her nose, guessing there was sense to what he said. Still, she didn’t really think she would be under such scrutinization and wondered how ridiculous she might have looked. All the same, she paid close attention to the advice Leon provided for her next try.
“Yeah, easier said than done!” she said, shaking her head. “Gotta think about jumping up and keeping balance after that?” She swung herself up onto her board, shaking the water from her hair. “That’s asking a lot this early in the morning!” Yeah, he wasn’t going to hear the end of that.
But it was all in good fun. Judy was actually having a good time, despite the time and temperature. “You know, I’ve never swum in an ocean before. It’s kind of cool and a bit intimidating.”
“Once you get the hang of it, it’s dead easy,” Leon assured her. And he was sure she’d get the hang of it sooner rather than later. She was athletic and agile, and once she figured out her foot placement it wouldn’t be hard for her to ride the wave to the shore.
He blinked in surprise at the next revelation though. He’d lived his entire life in the Orange County, and the idea of someone never having swum in the ocean was a foreign one to him. “Never?” he asked, surprised. Maybe he should have gone over some ocean safety tips before they’d gotten in the water. Well, since he was here it probably wasn’t needed. “What the hell have you been doing all this time?”
Easier said than done, but Judy trusted him. She was sure she would be able to overcome it; if she could make it through the Police Academy, this should be a piece of cake, right? She watched as the waves came and went, ducking under as one passed over her, shaking her head as droplets fell back into the ocean. She glanced over at the surprise not in his face and nodded.
“Well, yeah! I mean, I haven’t really had a chance to go out to the ocean and...I dunno, it just seemed kind of weird to strip down and just dive in, ya know? Better to do so with some friends! And then once you have friends, isn’t it kinda weird to just say ‘hey, wanna go swimming at the beach?’”
Leon stared at Judy as though she had grown a second head. “How is that weird? Asking your friends to hang out at the beach is pretty much the definition of normal out here.” What the hell kind of place did Judy come from where asking her friends to the beach was considered weird?
Judy was almost startled by Leon’s reaction and held her hands up in defense. “Hey, I’m not use to this great weather and being able to strip down and enjoy a day at the beach! It’s still kinda new to me!” Still, she couldn’t help but grin. “Maybe if some of my friends here invited me out more often, I wouldn’t find it so strange!” She gave him a wink, ready to try her second go around.
“Alright, feet on either side of the board for balance. Any other advice before I make a fool of myself again?”
“Yeah, you should bring that up with them,” Leon said. As far as he was concerned, he had a very small handful of friends and a wider network of work acquaintances, but even with his friends he didn’t often invite them out. He and Logan came to the beach fairly often to surf together, but that hardly counted as far as he was concerned.
“Feet right down the middle,” he corrected her. “Keep your legs bent; it helps with balance. But I don’t think you need any more advice than that.” She looked pretty good, other than the foot placement thing.
Judy couldn’t help but roll her eyes at his comment, even if it did make sense. Leon didn’t seem like the super social type and she was surprised she had been invited along this trip! Well, invited after she may have inquired about it, but asked all the same!
She tried a couple more attempts, each one getting a bit better. By her last one, she was able to ride the wave all the way, but unsure what to do after, fell back into the ocean.
“LEON! Leon did you see?” As soon as she breached the surface, she whirled around for him, a big grin on her face.
Leon let out a triumphant whoop when Judy stood on her board, pumping a fist into the air, though the sound of it was no doubt swallowed by the surf. There was something gratifying about watching her finally standing on the board after his instruction. “Yeah I did!” he yelled when she asked. “That’s the ticket Judy. Keep doing it that and you’ll be a pro in no time.”