Week No 28 - Surf Lessons Mid July in Greece
Surfing lessons from 12 to 18 July 2021
Our surfing journey continues with surfing lessons on Wednesday, 14 July, after a brief interval with no waves. But patience pays off in surfing and the surfing week started with a blast! There was lots to learn in today's lesson and our participants were super happy when the maneuvers they wanted to improve worked out! On the menu was: paddling into waves on their own, choice of wave, optimizing the take off, having longer rides, turning left and/or right, and for Iris a mid-face bottom turn with the aim of riding along the face of the wave. Surf coach Andy is very proud of all!
Thursday, 15 July admittedly proved to be another difficult day when it comes to surf reporting. Should it be the climate change? It was hard to predict the right slot, but with a little bit of luck we managed to be just at the right time on the beach for a beginner surf lesson. Adrian and his family learned first catching waves on their own before they tackled the pop up.
On Friday, 16 July all Kalo Surfers jumped with joy. The early morning group were able to enjoy an empty Falassarna beach break with crystal clear waters and clean medium to bigger sized waves. The whole group made a lot of progress, each surfer individually! Andy was coaching very closely in the water that is why there are unfortunately no pics of this session.
In the afternoon strong winds way off the coast of Crete were pushing waves to our "secret" reef break and we headed out with our afternoon group. On the reef it is especially important to be safe and learn all about the reef circle. The point break on a reef allows for precise positioning and the potential of really long rides.
On Saturday, 17 July once again the conditions were ideal for our reef break on the West Coast. The waves were medium to big sized, in the morning with wind and later without wind. This allowed the swell to better organise and the size increased. The participants learned how to behave on a reef surf spot, to be safe and take turns while surfing. With and without Andy's assistant we paddled into the wave, caught many nice waves and worked on our skills.
On Sunday, 18 July we took our group for an early surf session to the beach break of Falassarna. The waves were big and rolled as whitewater lines to the shore. After introducing the safety rules and the exercises on land, we practiced first in the whitewater and later on tried catching green waves further out. Positioning and timing is key on a steep unbroken wave.
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