Adult Summer Camp

We got to our adult summer camp AKA surf camp on Sunday and the past couple days have been a blur of surfing, eating, drinking, some sleeping, and more surfing. I can barely lift up my arms, as I type this out right now. I am so sore and tired, but in the best way possible.

The camp itself has been a blast. Niko and I are the only Americans among a ton of Portuguese, Italians, Russians, French, German and Irish people which has been super fun. There is a large group of 18-21 year old kids that love picking Niko’s brain about weed culture in the United States (lol), a smaller group of people about our age, and then a couple of families. All in all, it’s a really phenomenal group of kind, funny and welcoming people.

As for the surfing…the waves, frankly, have not been great. It’s a bit chaotic out this week. The forecast predicted 3-5ft swells which is well in Niko and I’s wheelhouse, but the manner in which they are coming in makes it much more challenging. Essentially, the time in between waves is so small that it is all but impossible to paddle to the outside of the break because there is no rest in between sets. Once there, the current is so incredibly strong that you are basically on a treadmill paddling back to where you started. If you manage to do all of that, you then need to dodge, duck, dip, dive, and then, catch a wave. Needless to say, I am struggling a little bit, BUT I feel like I am improving massively. Niko and I never formally learned from a surf school or coach so I’m working on breaking some bad habits I picked up along the way. The coaches are all amazing, especially our primary coach, Egor, a current Russian national surf team member.

Every day, we wake up, have breakfast, get all of our surf gear ready and head for the morning surf sessions. A little break and lunch, and then the afternoon session follows. By the time we stumble back to the house around 5:30-6, we’re all salt fried and exhausted, waiting (impatiently) for dinner around 8. Today, we decided to try a super early morning session because we thought the forecast looked better. It didn’t really pan out but it was fun to surf early, with no one else in the water, and before it started to get too hot. We’re just coming out of a nap, waking up more sore than when we fell asleep so we’ll see if we go out and surf again.

I’m really stoked we decided to do a camp, we’re doing exactly what we wanted: surfing every day. Even though I’m sore as hell, I’m more content than ever.

The €1 beers don’t hurt either…