This is a story about a girl who is wishing to go surfing. Escape from day to day routine and go on an adventure!
A new adventure
Sanne has made her decision, and she’s going for it. The wall of water is now so close that she has to paddle hard. Paddle so she can catch the wave, and not the other way around. She’s now on the edge of the wave.
Sanne paddles and paddles until her arms feel like they’re about to fall off. One last strong stroke and…
It’s 6 PM, and Sanne feels that she’s daydreaming and can no longer concentrate. She closes her laptop and walks outside as quickly as possible. “See you tomorrow!” she says to the receptionist of the office as she leaves the building.
Heading home, she takes a walk along the sea. How amazing it would be to have the ocean as your playground, like the surfers in the water. She sees a woman her age walking into the waves. “Mm, she probably won’t do much,” Sanne thinks to herself. The woman turns to the wave and paddles. In a split second, she gracefully rests her feet on the board.
Let the search begin
“Yewww!!!” Sanne cheers for the woman. The end of her wave approaches, and she leaps off her board into the water like a dolphin. “That was cool; I want to do that too.”
At home, Sanne immediately grabs her laptop and searches for the perfect place to learn to surf. “Fun and confidence through surfing in Morocco,” she reads on a website. “That sounds good!” A small-scale accommodation called Ilyana Surfhouse in Rabat catches her eye. “But am I really going to do this?! What if the waves are too big? What if I’m the only one at the surf camp?” There are too many uncertainties for Sanne, and she decides to send Ilyana Surfhouse a WhatsApp message first. Soon, she receives a response from Nina & Ilyass, a Dutch-Moroccan couple. After a friendly chat about Morocco, waves, and answering all of Sanne’s questions, her doubts disappear. “Let’s do this!”
Paddle Paddle !
“Yes, Sanne, this one’s for you.” She looks over her shoulder and sees Ilyass pointing to the wall of water that is slowly coming her way. Hesitant, she paddles toward the tsunami that Ilyass claims is hers. “Okay, Sanne, you can do this; you’ve trained for this. This is my wave,” she softly tells herself. Nina is also in the water with her surfboard, gesturing to Sanne with moving arms. “Paddle, look, stand, go,” she reminds herself… Sanne paddles and paddles until her arms feel like they’re about to fall off. Slowly, she feels the water moving beneath her and knows it’s really time to act. “But what if I don’t make it? What if I’m too late? What if the rocks come into view, and I fall?” Sanne thinks for a moment.
“May the force be with me,” she whispers to herself. “GO, GO, GOOOOO,” she hears Ilyass shout from the beach. “Okay, Go, Go, Go, Sanne. You can do this.”
…one last strong paddle stroke and…
…under she goes. Short of breath and overwhelmed by the power of the sea, Sanne surfaces, unsure of what is up or down. Before she knows it, Ilyass is already next to her. “All good? Come on! We’re going to try again.”
The next wave approaches, and Sanne is barely recovered from her previous attempt. She paddles and paddles until her arms feel like they’re about to fall off. This wave seems even bigger than the last one… She feels gravity pulling her down, as if she’s on a roller coaster, just about to go over the edge and then swooping down with a strange feeling in her stomach.
One last strong paddle stroke and…
…one foot in front of the other, looking up at the beach. “Wejoo!” With disbelief in her eyes, Sanne stands on her surfboard and rides the entire wave to the shore. “See! Don’t give up and trust yourself!”
Once home, Sanne rents a surfboard in Scheveningen and sends a satisfied selfie via WhatsApp to Nina & Ilyass: “Scheveningen, here I come!” To which Nina & Ilyass respond, “Look behind you ☺”.a