2:00pm class: When a massive wave comes, you either go over or through it. To go through the wave, hold onto the surf board rail. Extend arms straight with body in plank position. Shift your body off the board over water. Drop into the water rolling onto your back while pulling the board up and over you. (Like a turtle lying on his shell.). Push the tail of the board up with feet while pulling the nose down with hands. You’ve now created the perfect wedge to go through the water.
Classes are staggered based on the wave conditions for the group. There is always someone greeting you Baleal Surf Camp.Tali is making easy work of suiting up in her non-complicate wetsuit. Zinc oxide type of waterproof sunscreen comes in a riot of fun colors. Now getting it off if a challenge I have not mastered. Enjoying the day by the beach after surfing. Several rounds of beer for Instructor Thomas’s birthday.
9:00am class: Green water surfing is right of passage. Accomplished surfers congregate straddling their boards in the green water. From a distance they look like bobbing seals in the water. While perched on their board, they gaze for “the” wave. We rode the waves catching them as they swelled and jumping off before they crashed. Paddling to the green water must give surfers their massive arm muscles.
Exuberant Italians. all physical therapist and quick learners. Rosie and my Australian roommate Caitlin. Our youngest Arabella surfer was part of our surfing family. Families have special classes.Mitchell the youngest is part of our surf group. his experience in Hawaii gives him an edge.
Weather: 60-65°/ overcast, windy; light rain after class
9:00am class: Practice pop ups on the beach (pushing up with “chicken arms,” bring back foot on board, bring front foot on board). I surprise myself by riding on the board a few times.
2:00pm class: Practice pop ups on beach (MODIFIED: pushing up with “chicken arms,” bring back knee on board, bring front foot on board, stand on back foot). The class went to the other side of the peninsula as there were fewer people and different wave conditions but the more threatening shore wind could easily slam the board into your body. I had a few rides. One wave with the most tremendous force lifted and propelled my board all the way to shore. Albeit I road lying flat on my stomach and never had the opportunity to stand. Could this powerful wave be the type surfers catch and amazingly ride zigzagging in the curl?
As the day was windy, overcast, and 65 degrees I felt myself get colder and my energy level falling. I stopped class early and assistant Thomas carried my board back to Baleal Surf Camp while I ran trying to generate heat. Had I wimped out or was I listening to my body say tired bodies become accident prone? Making the right decision isn’t the most compatible with the ego.
Parade of surfers heading to the other side of the peninsula. “Into the breach.” The surf board nose into the surf or the wind will slam the board into your body.Rosie from Yorkshire.
Dorien is last year’s French instructor. Though not his current student, he continues to be attentive and helpful.Bruno who began Baleal Surf School 31 years ago. He literally swept me off my feet in his welcome. Kaby is my new head instructor. I literally can tuck myself under the arms of this giant.Gustavo THE instructor.Yours truly suited up for the zebra group, beginners with experience. Look a little off? My waxy sun screen is turquoise blue.
Weather: 60-75°/ hazy until noon than blue sky with white clouds
With morning haze lifted, Rosie and I got in our wetsuits to join surfers with boogie boards. Lots of fun and a soft reintroduction to the powerful Portuguese waves. Late afternoon a group of four French housemates invited us to join them with surfboards. I leaped at the opportunity but wisely back peddled. The smarter move would be to wait for lessons. The group was thrilled when I volunteered to photograph them in the water. A win, win proposition.
Buddy system for carrying boards makes the work easier. Rosie from Yorkshire and Marie from Paris. Yes, there is a surfboard under Marie’s feet. Ambroise from Paris who shared his expertise with the guppy surfers.
We are the people from the best ever Baleal Surf Camp.
Asen from Bulgaria. Ciel and Elsa from China.Kiril from Bulgaria. Martin from Bulgaria. Linda from United States of America.Liss from Luxembourg. Max from Ukraine. Meike from Germany. Nicola from Bulgaria. Polina from Russia. Rado (third from left) from Bulgaria. Meike, Kiril, Rado, NicolaRomain from France. Sasha from Ukraine. Vishnu from India. Olga from Russia and Linda United States of America
Weather: 65 degrees, windy overcast becoming blue skies with white clouds
Morning Lesson: Right and left turning.
The winds bring complications. Each time I tumble in the water, I wrestle to turn the board nose-to-wave. If not, the wind lifts the board and slams it into me broadside. I tug harder to pull/push the board to deeper water. My elementary skills are showing less success. My body feels the effects of five days of double lessons.
I’m surfing.
Mid-Morning Lesson: A 30-minute break between lessons, while sitting wet in the chilly breeze, continues to deplete my energy. I shiver wrapped in a towel.
“Know when to fold’ em. Know when to walk away.” from Kenny Roger’s The Gambler. For the final class, every movement seemed tumultuous. Junior asked if I was tired. If it shows that clearly, I can’t fool myself into making the most of the last hour of class. Pressing myself isn’t worth possible injury. Having managed to drag my surf board to the beach, I walked away.
Surfers speak of the energy of the water. It’s power of two forces that simultaneously propelling the surf board. It’s the outward pull of the tide returning to the sea. The angles change but the direction is always deeper. It’s the inward pull of waves rushing to shore. The velocity and frequency of waves amaze me. In water as shallow as 8-inches, I’ve been knocked off my feet. The sand beds change the depth of the water adding to the energy. When lease expected, feet jarringly drop into deeper sand beds as if stepping in a hole.
Rado taking a wave.
Afternoon Lesson:Review
“Paddle, paddle, paddle” we find ourselves repeating it like a song chorus. Outstretched arms paddle water backwards until the wave begins to lift the board. Now the wave carries the board. It is the moment to pop-up. Feet are parallel and center on the board. Eyes focused on where you want to go. The lead hand, with the deliberation of a magician casting a spell, point the direction. Torso and knees adjusts for balance. Voilá you are surfing.
Me surfing.
Green water is where the “real” surfers hang out. They appear like seals straddling on surf boards rolling on the waves. Here the water is calmer and patient is needed until the right wave comes. Meike is in this group. The good waves are great and it’s a long ride to shore. Caught in a bad wave is being in the “washing machine” tumbling, turning, twisting until you can surface. In turbulence the leash which attaches the board to ankle violently yanks the leg. The board can shoot straight into the air. Meike’s ankle is bruised from her time in the washing machine.
Meike our green water surfer. Many of the photographs in the Surfing Camp series are hers. Arrival day cappuccino on the beach with Meike. Meike enjoying sunset from our room.
After class: party
It’s not all about learning to surf, it’s about making friends and tonight we party! Music, Sangria, Piña Coladas, Mojitos, Port shots, dancing, ocean sunset, toes in sand, and endless good cheer. Dorian is the DJ mixing the most amazing music. We are Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Polish, Chinese, German, Luxenbourger, Indian, Russian, and American. Collectively we believe we are the best class of surfing students Baleal Surf Camp has ever had. When I share this with the receptionist Ulysses, he says all groups at surfing camp feel they are the most fabulous. This truly is a magical place.
DJ Dorion has us dancing. Receptionist Ulysses, “Everyone believes their week at Baleal Surf Camp was the best ever”Polina and Vishnu enjoying sunset. Party!
Morning Lesson:Cleaning up pop-up techniques. Video taping students.
Begin surfing by choosing the right wave, a wave with time before the next wave. Time to paddle, feel the wave carry the board, pop-up, and ride. Happy times are when belly-on-board you gently roll over the oncoming waves in anticipation for the right wave.
Not so gentle roll-over the wave. BloomBloom in place.
My learning zone is the white water where oncoming waves crash and rumble towards you at face level. It’s a speeding train of water. It’s a Hollywood film where the waves destroy everything in its path. At the brink of a white wave, place palms on the board and arch your back. You and the board go straight up and crash down the back side of the wave. I feel as if I’m a carved figurehead on an old wooden ship taking the brunt of each wave in my face and arms.
Ship’s carved figurehead taking waves head on like a surfer.
Afternoon Lesson: Review in slow-motion video of morning surfing. Dorian critiqued the best and worse we had to offer. He demonstrated how to take our skills to the next level.
Instructor Kaby from Africa tells me the abrasions on the top of my feet are because I don’t lift my feet when I pop-up. I’m dragging them on the board. My latest VISA opportunity is a $35 pair Neoprene booties. It makes walking on the beach, in the surf and on the board much more comfortable. Putting them on is a bit like like Cinderella’s step-sister trying to squeeze into the glass slippers. The same can be said about squeezing into a wetsuit.
Wetsuit mittens for my feet.Radoslav and Asen squeezing into wetsuits.
Though inspired by the video critique of morning surfing, I am too played out to do much more than tumble off the board. There is the occasional ride. Progress is being made by all. We show as much enthusiasm for other’s success as our own.
Linda Scandore 