The Alaroni Big Trip: Surfs up

Last week my blog post focused on all the aches and pains associated with surfing but I couldn't really contribute too many action shots (i.e we weren't riding too many waves then). We'll, it's amazing how much progress can be made in a week (see action shots below).

For most of the past week we surfed at the same beach called Edava, where we shared the space with the local fisherman. We would arrive at 7am for our morning session and would usually help the fisherman pull in their boats with ropes before even getting in the water. Most of the boats would have been out most of the night fishing and it takes up to 20 people to pull a big wooden boat up onto the beach so the extra manpower we provided was always welcome.

Maya really excelled at learning to surf this week. She picks her waves carefully and would usually catch the waves she chooses. This is in contrast to my style of trying to catch every wave that comes down the beach, getting continually pounded by the surf, and only catching 1 of 10 waves. Mira really picked up later in the week also and had some long rides. Nadia prefers boogey boarding over surfing so she had a blast catching the same waves we did but she regularly enjoyed much longer rides on her boogey board.

We had such a great time in Varkala. The staff and guests at the Soul and Surf retreat where we stayed were really exceptional and having time to get to know them made all the difference. We've now just arrived in Goa, a former Portuguese colony on the west coast of India, and look forward to good friends from RI arriving soon to join us at the beach.

Cheers, Rob