Final Day of Camp

It was freezing this morning!! When we awoke, Carla showed us the pictures she took of us during the photoshoot before heading to the beach for our final surf lesson. I was dropping f bombs all along our ten minute walk to the beach. There was complete cloud coverage and it was very cold and windy.

When we arrived at surf shop, Servano and his wife Claudia yelled at Kris that she had left her wetsuit in a bar down the street yesterday. She said she did not remember doing that, or even being at the restaurant where they found it, but she apologized anyway and she said she would have paid for it if it went missing. They would not let it go though and they yelled at her for a while. Finally, I said, let’s go get some coffee and come back to give everyone some time to cool down. 

We all huddled up and drink hot tea, hot coffee, and I actually had two shots of espresso. I could tell Kris was very bothered and she kept running through the events of yesterday through her head trying to figure out how she left her wetsuit in a restaurant where she doesn’t even remember going to. I think it is very possible someone stole the wetsuit and then left it there. Either way, Kris was pretty upset and refused to go in the water today.

Climbing into the sandy cold wet suit was a lot like fingernails down a chalkboard this morning, and the only way I got mine on was that I kept repeating to myself that I would never have to do this again. However, once the suit was on, I was feeling much warmer and I actually felt better. We did a very quick warm-up in the sand, Servana gave us some additional instruction which was a lot more complicated then the three steps he had already taught us, so I quickly dismissed it and decided to stick with the guidance he had been giving us in previous lessons. He came out into the water with us and I was walking out past the break of the waves with him when he yelled. He was in tremendous pain and I asked him what happened. He said he stepped on a spider fish. He push me off on one wave and then disappeared. It wasn’t until we got out of the water two hours later that I learned spider fish are poisonous and he had to get his foot treated. He never returned.

I was pretty happy with today’s surf session because while I did not stay out very long in the fringed water, I caught a wave all by myself and got one good ride into shore. The waves were much calmer today compared to the hurricane waves we first learned in! I think Sarah was right when she said we learned on the black diamond waves. I laid out in the water for several minutes just waiting for a wave. As I was floating there on my board I realized, all of my friends were closer to shore. I was really far out and with two other very experienced surfers. As I could hear the water lapping up underneath my surfboard, I suddenly imagined being followed by a shark. I was determined to catch the very next wave! And I totally did! It was an amazing feeling!

I didn’t stay in the water much after that. I joined Kris in shore while the other girls played around in the surf. Without our drull Sargent instructor, they quickly became board and were doing handstands on their boards until a wave would flip them.

It wasn’t until we all got tired and brought our boards back to the rental place that I learned that spider fish are venomous! Servano was bleeding all over and he has to soak his foot in cold water to open his pours. the pole guy. Since we didn’t get any real instruction for class, Claudia offered to let us surf anytime we wanted today before they closed at 6pm but honestly, I think we were all relieved we survived The five days of lessons.

Although it was freezing outside, we had crepes with ice cream for lunch! The waitress at 3 House, who has served us over a half dozen times in the last week, brought out blankets for us! So as I sat there and shivered under my blanket, I also enjoyed my ice cream crepe!

Brian and Vegemite came to Peniche! While I was in my classes, they took a bus here and met me at the beach house! I introduced them to the girls that were here and they then attempted to mail my beach clothes home but the post office was closed. So instead, they came with me to the beach and we had drinks with Sarah in the afternoon sun. Once camp was completely over, all seven of us walked to the Sushi Fish place for dinner and enjoyed our last night together. The girls were very accepting of Brian and Vegemite joining. Then of course they found a bar on the beach and we danced for hours as the bartender kept serving us free alcohol. By 2:30 in the morning though, I had my fill of fun. Only Sarah was interested in leaving before the bar shut down so I asked Brian and Vegemite to look out for the others and make sure they made it home safely. It was a great way to end our fantastic week together.