Why surfers wear clothing

February 28, 2011 § Leave a comment

We only stayed in Florianópolis, Brazil for 3 days, and surfed only a portion of that time, but we learned some invaluable lessons in the meantime.

#1 – It’s not easy on your own. It was the first time surfing for both of us, so we took an afternoon group lesson. It could have been easier since we snowboard or because we are both pretty athletic, but we found it easier than expected at first. We took that confidence and tried to go on our own for the rest of the day, but found it verrry difficult to judge the waves ourselves, and to keep the board balanced while standing up. We realized how much of a difference the instructor steadying the board had made, and how our education severly lacked in ¨selection and timing of waves¨. Unless you have tons of patience or natural ability, I think more than one lesson is necessary – or at least 2 days of observing the good surfers.

#2 – The water is warm in November. This means you can beat the summer rush (December and onwards), enjoy some off season discounts, and still be comfortable surfing the waters. Unfortunately, as Kasey learned, this also means the water is warm enough for jellyfish.

#3 – The importance of a good hostel cannot be underestimated. We loved our hostel for its beach views, hammocks, wifi, and best of all for surfing – free equipment we could borrow. (shoutout to the BBC, woo!)

#4 – Wear proper surfing clothing. Questions we should have asked ourselves at the time include ¨What exactly are board shorts for?¨ and ¨Why do surfers wear those funny tight shirts?¨. Along with the free surfboards our hostel offered, we should have taken advantage of the wetsuits lying around as well, no matter how ugly or ill fitting. As Joe painfully learned, surfing wax is really good for rubbing your nipples raw, giving you a rash from knee to neck, and preventing you from wearing a shirt comfortably for days.

And, despite the misadventures experienced to learn the above lessons, a final parting lesson we learned, was that if you find a beautiful place with a good place to stay and fun activities to keep you busy…by all means STAY! Looking back, Florianópolis was one of the places we probably should have stayed an extra day or 2. We ended up hurrying on since we were still at the beginning of our trip, didn’t realize the gem we had found, and were so looking forward to Iguazú Falls.

Enjoy our pictures from Florianópolis a few other Brazil sites here.

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