The Surfing Competition

Enjoying the last weeks in Paradise

Relaxed Morning

Even if I couldn't wait until I would finally be able to return to Germany the 10th of February, I tried to enjoy that place as much as possible during my last weeks. I knew that I would miss that place sooner than I believed at the moment and wanted to have it as a good memory in my head and in my heart. After the shopping trip the day before I decided to start the Sunday a bit calmer - I slept in and had a long and lazy breakfast in bed while I was watching my favorite series in TV: wedding dresses, finding new houses and the criminal series Castle. At about lunchtime I finally got up and took a shower. Afterwards, I had to go to the supermarket and buy some fresh fruits and some chicken meat - it was a large advantage of tourist villages that important shops like the supermarket were also opened on Sundays and you really didn't have to think a lot about when to buy groceries or when to go to the pharmacy. But sometimes you rely on that and suddenly they decide to close on Sunday without having announced that before, that was one annoying fact about Spain. Everyone was doing whatever he wanted. But most of the time the large supermarket next to my appartment was opened and everything worked out.

Walking around

After having brought all the things I had bought back to my appartment I needed a short break - it was incredibly hot outside even if it was the beginning of January, and I had bought water and other heavy things. Even if the way wasn't that long between the supermarket and my appartment, it was still exhausting to bring everything home. After my short break I had a light salad for lunch and decided to enjoy the afternoon outside - walking around a bit and sitting down at the beach, bronzing a bit more. So I took on my bikini, packed a towel, a book and some sunscreen and left the appartment. I didn't go directly to the beach which would have been not even three minutes away, but I walked a bit along the promenade and into the city centre. I saw all the tourists walking around, too, and buying souvenirs or having a calm coffee in the pedestrian's zone. I was a bit jealous of them everytime I saw them - out of three reasons: they didn't have to stay here for six months, they had a lot of freetime to relax and enjoy the island and they had come here with their beloved ones, most of the time their family or their partner. I would have loved to be here with my boyfriend, but it hadn't been possible for more than one week, so I "hated" everyone I saw together with his or her partner - taking selfies next to the beach, running into the cold water together, enjoying dinner together etc. There were so many things I would have loved to do with my boyfriend again that I tried not to think about it.

I had a frozen yoghurt at my favourite frozen yoghurt shop at the promenade and sat down next to the sea to enjoy the sound of the waves and the sun (and not to see the couples passing by and taking pictures). Even if I couldn't believe that I would miss that place one day because I had had enough of it in that moment, I knew deep in my mind that I would wish a lot to come back soon. Maybe not during the first few months, but after a while I would wish to be there and be almost totally free for a second time. But for the moment I just wanted to return to Germany and start my university life again. After I had eaten my yoghurt I decided to walk to the small beach next to my appartment to relax a bit in the sun - I still had to gain some brown skin colour before my flight back; who knew when I would have the possibility to be that brown again in my life! When I arrived there I saw a lot of people, I mean, really a lot. It was normal that there were many people because it was a nice place with a fantastic view, but I also saw a stage and people sitting there in chairs - something absolutely not normal. Curious, I went to that place and saw that there was a Surfing Competition going on.

The Surfing Competition

Surfing was kind of a big deal in Tenerife - almost everyone who was living there was doing it, some of them just for fun and some others really professional. Furthermore, at the beach I saw surfing courses for tourists almost every day, everyone wanted to try it. But in my almost 6 months there I had never seen a Surfing Competition and I had never tried surfing, because it was too expensive and the courses were only when I was working. Furthermore, I didn't like to have salty water all over my face and when you learn how to surf you fall down almost every minute. I preferred scuba diving, it was calmer and you didn't have to be that sportive.

So I went to the beach and deided to watch the competition a bit, because it seemed to be interesting and I had never seen something like that before - in Germany you can only surf in the "Eisbach" in the English Garden in Munich and as "Eis" means "ice" you really don't want to do that. I found a free spot in the black sand and sat down on my towel. Unfortunately there wasn't any shadow and it was 2pm in the afternoon - one of the hottest moments during the whole day. I knew that I wouldn't be able to stay there for a long time as I couldn't cope with sunshine on my head too long, but I wanted to try it and relax a bit. I put some sunscreen on, took off my dress and sat down & watched the young surfers fighting for the best wave.

There were always four surfers competing against each other, wearing tshirts in different colours. The referee was sitting in the sand with a megaphone and telling them and the audience the different scores of the different colours. It was interesting to see them catch the waves and doing incredible tricks while they were trying not to fall down. I was fascinated by the skills of the young girls - I had seen them before they had entered the sea, they were younger than me, about 15 or 16 I guessed. One could see that they were living here and invested a lot of time into training and doing sports. I would have liked to know surfing as they did - it looked like so much fun! But I knew that learning it was a hard challenge and as I already said - expensive. And as I already had a very expensive hobby - scuba diving, I wouldn't start another one, even if it looked funny.

I continued watching the competition for a while - the groups changed after about 15 minutes, there were the "smaller" ones, who were about 15 or 16 years old, at first the girls and than the boys. Afterwards, the competitors became older and older. The last group I saw where the adults from age between 20 and 35 I would guess. It became even more interesting to watch because, of course, the older ones had more skills and one could see even more tricks and jumps. The audience also became louder and more enthusiastic. The Spanish were quite loud people and they showed their excitment in quite a loud way. It was great for me to watch them and I felt like being at a really important international event - it reminded me a bit of public viewing during the world championship. But after a while I had to leave, even if it wasn't finished yet. But due to the intensive sunshine and in spite of the sunscreen I started to become red, and I didn't want to go to work as hummer the next day. I hadn't had one single sunburn during the last six months, and I didn't want to start with that now because it hurt a lot and I didn't want to lose my "teint". So I packed my towel and all my other things and left the beach.

The rest of the day I spent cooking for next day's lunch and relaxing in front of the TV. As there was nothing interesting to watch I did some Arab learning sessions via Youtube for a while and uploaded the pictures from my phone to the computer - you never know when one of the two devices might be stolen or broken, and I didn't want to lose all the pictures I had taken with my phone. It had been an interesting but also relaxing Sunday and I would have liked to have another day like that the next day and not having to go to work. But life is something serious, so I had to prepare for work if I wanted or not.

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