Cooking My Way to Surf #1: Getting There
Imagine you wake up on a sunny island, surrounded by sandy beaches and ocean, an inexhaustible source of surfable waves. You get up and go for a morning run just before the sun gets up and people start to wander around the streets. After breakfast and stretching muscles that got sore from surfing, you drink coffee with your team on a terrace near a pool, talking about surf sessions and checking surf forecasts. Middle of the day is reserved for surfing, training, and chilling. In the evening, there is a dinner, and socializing over a beer or a movie. And maybe a skate session if there’s any energy left.
Well, that’s quite easy to imagine because it’s reality in a surf camp, and I just described my typical day. The island mentioned is Fuerteventura, one of Canary Islands, and the surf camp where everything happens is Kohola Surf Camps. People come here to surf for a week or two, but I am here for almost a month, and will be for two and a half more, after which I’m going to Portugal, again in the same surf camp for month and a half more. Sounds a lot? Too much? It isn’t, it’s impossible to get too much surfing.
But how do I get to be here for such a long time? The answer is in the title. Every day I prepare breakfast and dinner for the guests and the team of the camp, with occasional other chores. That includes planning, shopping, preparing, cooking, washing dishes and cleaning. Since I am the only one cooking, I proclaimed myself a head chef, which is cool, particularly because I didn’t go to culinary school and didn’t work in restaurants for more than a few days. I like to cook and I like to surf, so you guessed it, it’s my perfect combination (obviously 🙄).
It all started in Spring 2017 after I graduated from university and decided I want to try surfing. I came to Kohola surf camp as a guest, and when I caught my first wave, those waves caught me as well. I was hooked on surfing. After those 10 days I found a job and started working. For my first vacation I went surfing, and continued to think about it. Then, I started to dislike my job, wanted a change. When I saw that Kohola Surf Camps are looking for a cook, I applied immediately and got the position. I quit my job and flew to Peniche, Portugal.
I volunteered for 6 weeks in Peniche and 7 weeks on Fuerteventura (the whole duration of the camps in Autumn), surfed almost every day, became a happier person. Then I came back home, thought about what to do with life, and decided to go for one more round of cooking and surfing. This time a month more.
So this post is a start of a series of posts about cooking in a surf camp. It is my story, but focused on cooking. I will share things I learned through cooking here with some additional info/stories/photos/thoughts/comments.
