crossing things off my bucket list
The cool summer breeze, bronzed cheeks, and the rhythmic lull of waves are just a few of my favourite things about a holiday spent by the beach. Despite the sweltering and sometimes unbearable heat, it’s a time of year where I have the most energy. I’ve just arrived home from 5 beautiful days in the Algarve region of Portugal with three of my best friends and one thing we tried for the very first time was surfing! All my life I have loved the sea, whether it’s swimming and floating or paddle-boarding and cliff jumping, it’s never a dull moment spending time at the beach. However, I grew up spending my summers in Malta, which if you’ve ever been, you know it’s not exactly the most windy part of the Mediterranean. The sea is silent and undisturbed for most of the summer so surfing is one activity I’ve never done but something I’ve yearned to try. I don’t know what it is about a bucket list, an itemised list of goals one hopes to accomplish before they die, so putting ‘surfing’ on mine may seem… inferior. But truthfully, it’s linked to my prevailing want to travel and this was my first visit to Portugal. And it’s hard to deny that Portugal is a beautiful place to learn to surf. After all, while surfing is entirely possible at home, if I thought the Portuguese waters were cold, I can’t imagine the state of UK waters.
We were picked up bright and early at 7:30am to be driven to collect wetsuits, vests, boards and tethers before a further drive to Praia da Cordoama. We were split into smaller groups based on experience and thank goodness my friends and I were kept together. I do love trying new activities, on my own or with company I don’t mind, but in this case I’m glad I had Maya and Julia close by. In all the excitement it slipped my mind that it is, in fact, an intense sport. A sport that takes a lot of energy and patience and after our first few tries, I was resolved that this wasn’t for me and getting frustrated easily. But having familiar faces close by was comforting and made it feel just a tad easier. The longer the lesson went on; the more encouragement the instructors gave us; and the laughs and advice Julia, Maya and I shared, it was very rewarding to see the progress. We can proudly declare that we stood up and rode at least one wave!
