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Traveling around South America for a year I decided that I needed to have something to show for it, an accomplishment. So, I set two main goals for myself learning Spanish and learning how to surf. As I started out in Brazil the Spanish had to wait, but I wasted no time with the surfing, as my first destination (as many of you know was Itacaré) is known as a surf town.

I’ve tried surfing before, however not with great success. It hasn’t only been too long between the times I managed to arrange a trip to the ocean, but there is also the cold climate and the thick wetsuit that is quite discouraging. My skill level was therefore at the beginner stage where one is able to stand up but falling straight down again.

Staying in a surf town like Itacaré for a while I decided to not do a surf camp but get single lessons instead. When the waves were that accessible you could easily do some practising on your own between the lessons, which I figured would get me further than having an instructor watching me practice day after day for five to seven intensive days. Because in the end it’s going be about the quantity of time in the water more than the quality to be honest, especially when you’re learning.

I ended up surfing with Local Surf School Itacaré, partly because of their prices and partly gut feeling after asking around at the different schools. It was a well made choice. I could feel a whole new type of control and balance from day one! Where other instructors had just told me to jump up into standing position, this instructor was very particular about how to get up with a step up technique. To me, that made all the difference. Also I was made to repeat this technique in the sand before every lesson, making sure I still got it. It also made a huge difference that he was a little strict and very precise in his feedback on every single wave. So my advice, if your instructor is only pushing you on waves not really making any comments you can work with, get a new one!

During the first three weeks I got around six lessons, surfing maybe three-four times a week. By the end of the second week I could catch a few waves on my own. However it takes time building those paddling muscles, so it was around the third week I felt like I could really go out surfing on my own. But it was scary!

My first scare actually came during a class when my teacher took me to a new spot with bigger waves. This was probably around the beginning of the third week and it was my first time trying to surf the outside waves. It was fine whenever the regular size waves were coming through, but then you’d have a set of bigger ones, and I completely freaked out! There was no escaping them! When I am on my way paddling out, probably not fast enough as my muscles weren’t that trained, and suddenly there’s a huge wall of water towering over me and aiming to break straight on my head. My instructor yelled at me to do the turtle roll, and I tried, but the board got torn away from me, and I was tumbling around under water. I remember thinking “this is normal, I’m going to pop back up every second now, just go with it”, and I did. But then there was a new f-ing wall of water towering over me, and this time I can’t even get hold of my board. So there I was, caught in the middle getting pounded again and again. By the time the setwaves had passed I was totally stressed out and almost shaking. I don’t know why though, I hadn’t even been close to drowning. But it was a stressful situation where I had no control and I didn’t know how to handle it. So I got scared. And then I got really upset by the fact that I got scared without anything dangerous actually happening. It only made it worse when my instructor saw this and said “yeah, the outside is no good for you”. And there it was, on top of everything else. FAILURE! I felt like I had failed miserably. Not ready for the outside after all. He had overrated my skill-level, and I had failed.

After that I couldn’t even catch a small, inside wave. That was what you’d call a bad day. And they are absolutely heartbreaking. It strange how you can want something so bad, yet you’re scared to do it. So I took a day back in the kitty waves, rebuilding confidence and luckily it came soon enough. And again quantity was the key here. Spending lots of time in increasing waves, getting used to being smashed in the impact zone helped me not to get stressed out. And then the increase in muscle strength would help me get through that middlezone of hell and misery quicker as well.

And so it goes, you have good days where you feel like you’ve really progressed. And it’s the best feeling in the world! All your hard work paid of in a 5 sec moment. And then you’re expectations of what is a normal day in the waves increase and the let downs increase with it.

My fifth and sixth week I was expecting to catch every wave I aimed for, and not doing so of course, I felt like I had a lot of bad days again. Until my instructor suggested to try another surf spot again. Instead of sticking to the two same waves close to town, I tried a longer, bigger beach break while the swell wasn’t too big. And it was amazing! Suddenly I realised surfing a funboard at 8ft cannot simply not be done easily in every wave and that the conditions can make a huge difference. And this new, full, long left was perfect. And it really is that simple. After a period of trying and failing, having an ok day at best, there is that one day that makes it all worth it.