Surf's Up

My second and last day in Portugal was awesome for one reason and one reason alone; I went surfing!!!  I knew before leaving on Semester at Sea that one of my "must-do's" was to go surfing in Spain or Portugal.  So, I picked a surfing school, found friends who also wanted to surf, and spent a day at the beach taking a surf lesson!  Our day started at 10am when we met our instructors, Rui and Yugo, from the Epic Surfing School in Lisbon.  From there, we drove about an hour away to a beach where national and international surfing competitions are held!  After struggling to get into our wetsuits and picking up our surfboards, we headed down to the beach.  Rui wanted to give us the most authentic surfing experience possible, so we weren't allowed to wear any shoes while we climbed our way down this rocky, muddy cliff, to actually get on the beach.  It was a little terrifying!  But once we finally touched down on the beach, I almost lost my breath. 

The beach was the most gorgeous beach I've ever seen.  The water was so clear and so blue, and all around the beach were these beautiful, picturesque Portuguese houses.  The waves were rolling in just right, making for an even better view.  Once all of us got over our initial reaction to being on the beach, our lesson began.  After warming up, Rui and Yugo first taught us how to carry our surfboards, how to sit or lie on the boards, and how to catch a wave. We then got in the water to try it out, but I was not expecting it to be so cold! I was very thankful for my wetsuit because everywhere the wetsuit didn't cover was freezing for the first five minutes or so!  After getting used to the water and the waves, we started to learn how to stand up on the boards.  And let me tell you, surfing is a lot harder than it looks!  Although I was in the water for close to 3 hours, I never managed to completely stand up on the board!  I was able to crouch in a half standing position, but that was the closest I got to actually surfing.  I was all right with that though because I had just as good of a time catching the waves lying down and sitting on my surfboard in the middle of the ocean!  I was having such a good time that I was considering getting dock time (having to stay on the ship for a certain amount of time in the next port) and arriving back at the ship late!  But we decided against that, heading out to eat at an amazing cafe/burger joint that Rui and Yugo took us to, and making it back to the ship around 6pm.  

I honestly can't think of any better way to have spent my last day in Portugal than surfing with Rui, Yugo and my friends, Erin, T'keyah, Melody, and Rebecca.  If I can, I am definitely coming back to Lisbon, Portugal to vacation and surf with Rui and Yugo!