My teenage love

Until two years ago I was a pale and skinny boy; the typical non sportive guy who prefers to stay at home playing computer games or having a beer with his friends watching a film than doing any kind of physical effort. But I fell in love with a precious girl of my class, and I had to impress her and go out with her! I decided that I had two goals to achieve: getting tanned and becoming fit by getting good at doing a “cool sport”, as surfing.

To get tanned, I spent hours and hours relaxing on the sand, under the sun-shines, with some friends or alone. Without knowing it, I was getting vitamin D, which prevents diseases as multiple sclerosis, hypertension, muscular pains and even breast tumors. The sun-light also provokes the secretion of endorphins, so, without knowing why, I started to feel happier and less stressed at the same time I was getting tanned.

The warmth of the Canary waters, with their natural beauty and a broad offer of water activities, creates the perfect conditions to do any-kind of water sport, as surfing. But I was lazy and I had never liked any sport though I had tried several in my life: I didn´t like playing football, basketball, tennis… So I delayed the day of starting with my second task.

Finally I borrowed a surfing board and went to Las Canteras Beach…That afternoon, for my surprise, I had a good time; the next afternoon was better; and since the third day I started to love it! The marine breeze on my face, the shining sun above my head, and the immensity of the Atlantic Ocean, mixing with the beauty of the beach before my eyes changed my way of facing the life. Immerse in this paradise, I would listen to the sound of the ocean and breathe deeply the marine air, charged with minerals, which clean the lungs and the whole body and nourish the peel, and though this last is not scientifically proved, I think it also cleans the brain; at least it did that with mine! How can they be called water-sports? Why not calling them water-pleasures or water-delights?

I understood then why so many people, young and old, come from every part of the world here to practice sports as sailing, canoeing, scuba-diving, wind-surfing, surfing, water-skiing… I got why so many canary water-sportive men are so world known and has won even world-championships!! They don´t train; they enjoy!!

After one month, me and other guys that I knew in the beach started going to some of the myriad beaches in the island. When I got physically tired of surfing, I used to dive and observe the fabulous vegetation and multicolored beings of the natural underwater world.