Surfsurfsurf and a New Toy

I decided to write a quick update even though there’s not that much news really. Just to keep the writing going and to introduce the latest toy I bought. Plenty of surfing and exceptionally good weather during the past weeks.

Surfing update

The surf has been really good except for the last two days. Strangely enough, it’s been really small, even too small yesterday and today. I still haven’t given up on the possibility of going for a short session later though. Last year at this time it was already way too big and also really windy. So far the weather has been summer like and so have the waves. I really don’t mind. This has given me a lot more hours in the water and I can really notice the improvement I’ve made. There are some signs of the fall visible in wave and weather forecasts now so this might not last that long.

A new toy

The Finnish guy I mentioned in my last post had a surf skate that he didn’t use much any more. He wanted to sell it and I was willing to buy. I tried the sport briefly last year and it was something I enjoyed, even though I found it hard. Many surfers have told me that it has been a big help with surfing too. The turning movement is similar to turning on a wave. You don’t get to practice it that much while surfing, since the time you spend riding a wave is not that long. With the surf skate you can have a lot more repetition.

Before I did any practicing I bought some protective gear as well. Now my wrists, elbows and knees are safe at least. A helmet might not be a dumb idea either, but it seems that the wrists are getting the most hits really. Actually so far even they have not been getting much action. It has been going much better than I expected. I can now manage going up a slight uphill for a while. But I still have a lot to learn.

Other news

I’ve been stuck at Baleal for four weeks now. It’s just been too good to leave. I’ve been changing my park every couple of days and I’ve been very careful about keeping my stuff inside Naranja. Other’s here on the parking lots that I’ve used have mainly been behaving too, so I think there will not be big issues with the cops if everything goes this smoothly.

I planning to go for a short weekend trip to Cascais maybe on Saturday. I will meet up with Ana for lunch there, or that’s the plan right now at least. The weather is going to take a turn for the worse tomorrow, so nothing is set in stone yet. I’d really like to see Cascais again. It’s definitely one of my favorite places here.