Out of Hibernation

Spring is in the air, the mimosa is in bloom, the Madrid is serving rosé, and the Mamas are coming out of hibernation. We should be rubbing our sleepy little eyes, waxing our boards and getting out into the ocean.

We don’t stop in the winter, but we do slow down. Now it’s time to get serious again, but it’s not easy. I went round to see Taryn last week.

“I don’t know why, but I just don’t feel like surfing at the moment.” She said, sounding a bit disappointed in herself.

“It could be something to do with... that ” I pointed out of the window. There was about six inches of snow on the beach - if you’d added a few Reindeer, Guethary could have passed for Lappland.

“Yes, but there’s a guy surfing out there and he’s not even wearing gloves or boots. Wouldn’t it be cool to be out there all alone, with snow falling all around you?”

If you were a walrus or a penguin. I don’t think cool quite covers it, I’d go for glacial, freezing, or frostbitten.

But two days later the snow has melted and I’m walking along the beach thinking, yes, maybe today. Until I turn the corner and the North wind cuts through my fleece jacket and I think, or... maybe not. But I feel quite brave just for having had the thought, and give myself a pat on the back. 

Then I see a woman about my age jogging along the beach. She stops by a rock, strips off and runs into the sea naked. I’m as impressed as the Russian lorry drivers walking in the other direction. I feel like she’s thrown down the gauntlet, along with her Nikés, her shorts and her sweatshirt.

I get home and phone Taryn. “We have to surf, I saw a naked woman swimming at Uhabia.”

“What? Why? Are there waves?”

“Err, not many. But who needs waves when you’ve got sunshine, an empty ocean and a bracing onshore gale blowing?”

We meet Johanna at the beach, and she doesn’t need too much persuading to join us.

“It’s not snowing any more.” Is enough of a reason. She’s spent most of the winter in Verbier, where she’s a ski instructor. There hasn’t been much powder snow this year, so she wasn’t very amused to get home last week and find herself surrounded by the stuff, and nothing to do with it but make snowmen.

We paddle out together, it’s not perfect, and it’s not warm, but there are a few waves and we’re out there all alone. It’s definitely worth the ice cream head for a 100% Mamas session at Guethary.

Posted by Wilma