09 Jun My salty life
How did it all started? How did I get to live a salty life by the beach?
Here is my story.
Well, to begin with, I grew up spending my summers on the beautiful virgin coasts of Portugal. Yep, that’s where I’m from, at least 50% of me.
My mom is still a very big fan of spending all day by the beach. The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree, that’s what they say. And so true in this case.
I remember the cold Ocean water, let’s say more like ice freezing cold. I remember not wanting to get out the Ocean even though my lips turned blue and my fingers were so mushy by being there for so long. I remember dreaming to be a mermaid. I remember waiting for the vendor guy passing on the beach screaming “bola de Berlin” (which is a typical Portuguese sweet) so I could have one. I remember spending all day there with my family and my family’s friends. I also remember getting a fever every year during the summer because I have had too many sweets and spent too much time in the Ocean. I never listened to my mom! I prefered getting sick then eating less or not enjoying being hours in the water.
I grew up with my mom best friends and their family. They even had their kids in the same year. Therefore, we spent a lot of time together.
In Portugal, the surfing scene was already established during those times. My childhood friend, whom he was born only a month a part from me, started surfing at a very early age. He was obsessed with it. I never really did, I was just playing and body surfing.
Since when I was back in Italy I was in a swimming team, back in the Ocean I felt at home.
At some point, growing up, me and my friend we fall in love. I recall once he told me that I had to know his first love was the Ocean. Surfing was the expression of this deep-seated connection, respect and love for it.
He really did cared about me. And at the time I couldn’t understand it all of it. Nor either the love he had for me. I got scared. I now know I wasn’t ready for all that he had to offer.
I had to find it in my own way, as always.
So I harshly let him go. I did not know how to handle it. I did not know any better.
In the years that followed, I tried to be in line with the city like society I once thought I wanted to be part of.
And one cold day in December 2008, while I was walking back home from a local market, I was feeling I couldn’t fake it anymore and I ask my self if I was happy where I was. And my inner voice answered very powerfully NOOOOOO!!!
The next question that just popped up instantly was what is it that makes me happy then? And the answer was the OCEAN. So there it was, my truth. Loud and clear. I wanted to be salty again.
Finally I knew what was that made me happy. I heard the call.
So I left the city in 3 weeks and found a way to travel to beautiful tropical places by working so that I could start my search for my place to live by the Ocean side. That was my goal!
When I arrived casually to Fuerteventura, because of a friend of mine, I thought I would stay just for a well deserved holiday before I went back on my work journey around the globe. Two years had passed since I started my so called search.
But destiny had other plans for me. I fall in love again and he was a surfer of course. I decided this time, to give myself a chance to love and to be loved. So I did and I stayed. I made my home in my beautiful island with him. I absorbed everything I needed to know about surfing even though it was not my intention. And out of the blue, one hot afternoon by the beach while I was seeing all the guys getting out of the water after a surfing session all happy and smiling, I thought what the hell! I want to be one of them, I want to be that joyful and so full of good energies. There I decided I was going to start surfing! So I did.
I started with body boarding first, so I could have fun right away but learn also how to read the waves and how to behave into the Sea.
Then I switched to a foam board and with a girlfriend of mine, we started from zero, again. The first few times I was warned out. It took me time, passion, early mornings wake ups, patience, motivation, soreness and it all came back to my mind. The words of my long time childhood friend. It’s a commitment you make with the Ocean. The connection is so profound, it just runs into your veins, like a rush, it is rooted deep in your soul. It’s a feeling of belonging, of being one with Nature. Freedom. And there, you make the decision to keep it alive, to nourish it, to respect it. It’s the purest form of love. I now truly and fully comprehend the real meaning of it. I now know because it’s part of my life and without it I simply do not exist.
If you would have ask me years ago, I would never ever even imagined I would be a surfer. But hey, that’s life! Never say never! Be open to possibility and let your heart guide you through it. No matter where you will end up, be truthful to yourself and the Universe simply will show you the way.
Trust your power! Have faith all is going to develop as it has to.
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