Azores – In the middle

Again I choose the Boogietrips Bodyboard Holidays on the Azores to enjoy a little bit of summer in the middle of the grey and cold transition between autumn and winter at home. To postpone the end of summer for a little bit. And what kind of a sunny trip it was.

Somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, this gem of an island delivers two weeks full of warm and often sunny days in combination with the ocean’s warm water. In numbers: a daily average of 20° Celsius air and 19° Celsius water.

The days flew past like a dream. A rhythm of getting up, surfing, snacking for lunch, discovering or surfing, cooking, dining together, laughing, sleeping. 

People from so many different countries, backgrounds and ages blend together into such an amazing party of surfers. We never ran out of jokes or conversations. One could hear chatter in Portuguese, English, German, French and Schwiizerdütsch. And especially the Boogietrips trademark cooking sessions resulted in a feast every time, thanks to the hospitality of our host Nic.

We surfed nearly every day and caught waves of all kinds and conditions. Small days at Moinhos, big days at Santa Barbara and a shore break day at Populo. Everyone caught his own wave of the day. Or just enjoyed floating a couples of meters away from shore and not giving a damn about the every-day hassle. And thanks to Nic’s coaching and Pipa’s video analyses we were able to improve our skills day by day.

From surf to turf. Among all the lush green landscapes, one of this year’s new discoveries was the fantastic garden and hot spring Terra Nostra. In the middle of the botanical garden is a big pool of hot water with strange brown color, because of the mineral water. And a stroll around the park reveals a lot of little, magical places.

Finally after two weeks of being centered in my own middle, the dream is over. I have to get up and pack my board back in its case and enter the plane, packed with lots of vibrant memories to survive the grey and cold days until the next surf trip.

Cheers, Thomas