Asturias en route to Austria

On the big trip home, we stopped by Asturias on the north coast to check out White Shark Surfboards. A couple of our guests had boards custom shaped by Miguel Fernandez this summer. André’s new surfboard seems a lot like mine, with less volume, and Felipo’s new surfboard is a lot like Flo’s, but with more volume. Interesting….

At White Shark's surfboard factory, we were served Asturian cider, “Sidra”. The tradition is a lttle bit like drinking Máte, you are served it, and you have to drink it straight away. I like.

A lot of man-hours go into custom shaping a board from plank to finish, and Miguel does it all by himself. Shaping is no doubt an art form and a science. I still don’t really get why I ride fish tail with quad fins, but I love my board. There is a lot of press with sustainable surfboards these days, but in my mind, if you take care of your board by making necessary repairs, and ride them as much as possible, then you are doing a pretty good job. When you ride a board to shreds, then ok, trash it, but if you’re just over it due to it’s shape or your own progression, then donate it! We're collecting used surfboards to be repaired by Flo and shipped to West Africa!

For 2012, we plan increasing Seeker Surf Camp's quiver. We're getting a couple of performance shaped boards in polyester, and other shapes boards in epoxy from Miguel. Epoxy generally last longer because it is harder (so tougher), and when the board is actually damaged, water does not fill the board as rapidly.

Miguel and our friend Felipo showed us a reef option called Peñarrubia (last photo). It was big for me (solid overhead) but the lefts looked like they ran slower, so it seemed doable. Big paddle out, and Flo and Felipo went for the fast right. The peak there was a bit shiftier and so more difficult. I went for the left and finally dropped one, but I fell before making it to the bottom for a turn. The wind changed to on shore before I caught another one, so I was outta there.

Better luck next time. It'll have to be late April in 2012, when we go back to Spain after our winter in the Alps. Hopefully this break will be on! I want a rebate!

-MP

Sun or Surf? Sun AND SURF!

We've been busy! We have had some amazing guests come through Seeker Surf House on Valdovino from mid-July to mid-August. Team Westerndorf were around for the beginning weeks of August, and for the last two weeks in July, we had some both beginners and advanced surfers stay with us at the house. Usually there are some down days through the summer in surfing but so far, we have been able to surf daily. Neiss! A way to avoid crowds and scored nice ways to you and your friends is morning surf! Some days we would get in the water in the morning before breakfast. And that also makes room for the possibility of 3 surfs a day!

Last weekend, we were all at the local beach bar, La Piscina on Saturday night, thinking that Sunday would be too small for surf. But we woke up on Sunday to light off-shore and it was perfect cure to a hang-over (or still drunkeness). Yr arrived late July to help us out through peak season. Flo and I (Marilyn) have know Yr for 10 years now. We met at SPC Hintertux in the summer of 2001. She is well-know for her Salsa Aerobic, Laughing Yoga, mini-ramp rampage and amazing lines on snow. As "water is only melted snow", she has been able to translate her on-snow talent into the surf. She surfed on the 6'10" Cortez for a couple of week, and now she is ripping on Dan's 6'1"! Ofcourse she feels that she should be doing better, but she's killing it!

Skate sessions have been a great diversion to the surf. The big ramp has been reinstalled at the Ferrol park. We were there yesterday for an afternoon session. Karin and Michel from Pumpwerk brought their BMX's along, and it was on! Claudia is back with from now until the beginning of September and this is her birthday week! We celebrated her birthday eve with a trip to see the Festival del Globo at Betanzo, part of the San Roque celebration. An old tradition of sending off a the most massive paper hot air ballon from our friend Jesuś' family, the sucesores de Claudino Pita. Such a wonderful tradition and if you ever get the chance to see this medieval town of Betanzo, GO!

We've also been up to Eume to climb once, when team Italia was around town. Some poker nights kept the shades drawn and surf and snowboard movies on rotation. Way more fun than a game of chess, especially because we seem to get a chessmaster in da house on a very consistent basis. Currently we have Sir Holger holding down the kingdom, under the hot Spanish sun on the balcony.

Tonight we're back to La Piscina for a concert of Ricardo's band. Should be interesting! Sunday comes the original team Swiss! Nils will be going on a 9-day trip towards West Galicia, and into Porto of Portugal in his VW bus, rejoining us in at the end of August into September! We still have a couple of spots for Pantin Classic week from September 13 - 18. Come and get some!

The most memorable night in June has got to be the Noche de San Juan, which was on celebrated on the 23rd. We surf-bussed into La Coruna after dinner, amidst the hazy sunset sky for a night of bonfires on the beach.

San Juan is a tradition celebrated all over Spain, marking the beginning of summer. In Galicia it is also knows as the Noite do Meigas, the night of the witches, referencing its celtic roots. We arrived near the Torre de Hercules and found ourselves in a smaller beach with the sound of nice reggae sounds. We were welcomed by the party people with Sardines, cake, and shots. Yes! Jumping over the fire 3 times brings good luck, so we did!

We didn't stay out late as we wanted to have a surf in the morning. It happened to be Nils last night in Galicia, and he requested that next time he leaves, he gets a similar bonfire party:D hahaha! Klaus of Sempre Kaos aus Zillertal brought his guitar along for his week-long stay. Writing songs for his next album. Too-short Klaus! He definitely stepped up his surfing during his stay, and that was definitely a great end to June. 

Eve arrived after her 2 weeks away from Valdovino, and is now at Casa Seeker to help us out through the beginning of peak season. She is our guide to surf-specific yoga sessions. Yoga is a great balance to surfing! Try it! We also did a bit of slacklining this week between surfs, also great balance activity.

TG and Jenni is back in Valdovino for a week's stay. They were one of our first guests from season 1, back in 2009.... brave souls. TG went out for his first surf yesterday and went straight for the big sets. YEAH! 

We have had consistent surf since the beginning of summer. And no rain. My homegirl Janelle is visiting from the States and we are having too much fun playing out Blue Crush 2, in friendly summer-sized conditions. "It's firing out there!" Girls are definitely ruling 2011:D

We still have some availability through the peak-season as of now, but hit us up ASAP if you want to do Galicia right this summer! -MP

Muscle Cat and Ear Worm

Some words do not translate so easily from German to English and topping the list of funny mistranslation this month is:

Ohrwurm directly translates from German to English as “Earworm”. The song that is stuck in your head.
Muskelkater is “male muscle cat” which mean muscle ache/soreness. 

We had about 20 visitors in May and along with the good weather, it almost seems like summer is already in full-swing!

Flo went in for an early solo surf one morning after he had set-up our amazing daily breakfast, and met Matt in the water. He’s an Aussie who is cycling through Spain and Portugal with his just his necessities and a surfboard. They shared some waves and Flo invited him in to hang out with us! Sebi and Peter left Raindow Surf Camp in Moliet to join us enroute to Peniche, and also convinced Anna, Katrin and Maya to stop on by. With Julian, Sebi and Danni learning to surf all over again. Check out the pict. of Sebi from his last session! Nice one!

My birthday last weekend was celebrated with the inauguration of our basement bar. Maik put his crafty skills to work, built us a nice hang-out space for party hour! Schwarz Hot Zone’s Hubi and Hannes gave us a concert and I especially liked the impromptu punk rendition of a birthday ballad to me! Thanks Hannes! Hubi ended the concert with a bucket-smashing drum set. The bartender rotation included Maik, Pinti, and Flo on deck. We polished off some rum, whiskey, and also a peculiar bottle of honey liquor.  Maik took off the next day from A Coruna by bus towards Porto, for his flight to Germany, and we were soon joined by Stanzi and Kati, and also Molly and Marie-Claude.

Marie-Claude was on her way home from a few months in Oz, and Molly, the evo hook-up took some time out for a few surf days while touring Spain. They did part of the Camino de Santiago together, visited San Sebastian, and Bilbao before leaving Basque Country for Galicia! Thanks chicas for the good times and helping us with outnumbering the guys!

Our good friend Stanzi, Seeker Surf Camp's super sick 2011 flyer Designerin, is here to for a short 10-day visit with Kati. Kati has showed us her amazing style and is officially banned from surfing any more foam! She woke up to glassy small surf this morning and was in the water before breakfast! She was joined by the world's best surfers! No! Not Kelly Slater, RIP Andy Irons, Mick Fanning, Rob Machado, Donovan, or Dave Rastowich... The DOLPHINS!

Julian’s edit has also been posted on our Vimeo account. Do check it out!

Original Seekers Weeks

In the first 2 weeks of May we've seen a variety of swells, allowing us to surf in a variety of spots in the Ferrolterra area. Spots we surfed include San Xorxo, Ponzos, Campelo, Lago, Baleo, Villarube, Covas, and right in front of the house, the main peak of Valdoviño. DTM (Dan the Man) was here and whipped us into shape with his boot camp / surf-a-thon. He was determined to get barreled and land an aerial, and he managed to do both! He didn't claim his aerial, but I saw him get like 3 feet of air and land on his board. Yeah... NLS... Next Level Surfing!

The weather has been good, but the wind has been rather strong at times. Waves everyday so we're pretty happy. Hustling in the morning and getting out there early has always resulted in good rides! Sometimes being patient and waiting till the last couple of hours of the day to go worked to our advantage too. Mother-nature teaches a great deal, and everyone is happy to experience the beauty of the pristine nature that is Galicia!

Fenky and Mona just arrived yesterday. Tini Gruber from Zillertal, and Maik will be arriving tomorrow. eeeeöööö!!!! Maik has been here before and is no stranger to the surf, but this is Tini's first surf trip! We're excited for her to get her feet wet in the surf. Mona's prediction is that... she will be pissed off and happy at the same time. Tini rips on a snowboard, she is on the Hot-Zone team and podiumed in every competition she's entered. Once she gets up and riding, I bet she will catch the surfing bug and ............ come visit again:D

Next week we also have a couple of crews rolling in and we're pretty packed for the first 10 days into June, so check with us via the booking form before finalizing your flight plans.

Snowbombing just happened in Mayrhofen, Austria, Flo and I got a chance to catch up and party with the Seekers of the Zillertal Valley. With the amazing week-long line-up of musical acts and on-snow events, it was not only a "mythical, musical. Without Equal" week indeed!

As the original Seeker Snowboard Shop is rooted in Mayrhofen, the on-snow event of "Ride and Seek" was once again the on-snow highlight of Snowbombing. The funniest snowboard comp. in the world features a pro-am comp. A pro-rider picks a snowbomber and competes for cash prizes, bottles of black Eristoff, and in a months time, the grand prize of a week-long stay at the Seeker Surf Camp will be given to the team whose photo receives the most "likes" on facebook! Pro-photog. Eli via Hotzone.tv will post the qualified teams photos soon, and we will keep you posted via our facebook page!

Just as the Snowbombers look forward to coming to Austria, us localer peoples look forward to Snowbombing! To the musical talents that we got a chance to enjoy: Skream and Benga, Pendulum, Chase & Status, Subfocus, Prodigy, Fuzzbox Inc., Stanton Warriors and Krafty Kuts, "thanks for the music!"

Here is a selection of photos from "Ride and Seek" on Van's Penken Park.

See you in Galicia! -MP

We had a really consistent August, and it was an amazing time hanging out with old friends, and meeting new people! The home beach was going off, and not just one, 2, but really multiple peaks along the beach. It was mid-summer and uncrowd surf is there so long as you want it! We love Galicia! 

August started out with a group of Zillertal NextGen young guns here, mastering surfing in just 2 weeks! Ok, that's an exaggeration, but a stand out is most definitely Mogga! Yeah! Johnannes celebrated his birthday here, and it was definitely a yummy chocolatey cake with banana. Lucky for us Fenky came back from Portugal, and we had the real Yogi spirit around!

An old friend of ours came for a 2 week visit, which turned into 4 weeks! Stanzi y Stanti! Stanti was on average, in the water for about 4 hours a day, that's about 120 hours of surfing. Duzi and Suzi were also getting loads of surfing in just a short week long trip. In the midst of their stay Yr, came for a visit from Iceland! Another old friend from our SPC days! For those of you who are not in the know of snowboarding, it is a legendary snowboard camp in Austria! That's where I met Flo, and Henry, Stanzi, Yr, Fenky, Rudi, Sandy... and ofcourse Captain Kaos, the Klaus Marko! It was fun just sitting back in the midst of our busiest week, with some friends and talk about the good old dayz! We have to do a reunion next summer. I appreciate their understanding and flexibility. As we max out at 8 guests per week, we had to find alternative accommodation. Glad we got you out of the campsite, we are in Galicia! Camping is fun, but we are creatures of comfort!

Doc Snyder stayed with us for 3 weeks, he surfed the orange fish most days, and really stepped up his surfing each week! Days before he left, he picked up a scaled down version of it from Kirra Surf Shop, our favorite shop in Ferrol! He had an epic surf the day before he left, but unfortunately, he damaged his board. The fin hit him in the should and luckily, the board broke and not him. I'd be bummed but he just had this super-grin on his face when he showed me the damage. Flo also said that it was WORTH it, conditions were so epic! The FCS fin plug broke out, but luckily Flo is very handy, and took care of it within 24 hours, talk about a fast fix!

Before Doc Snyder left us with his new stylish fish, Team Swiss had arrived in the house. A group of friends who are all studying sports at Universität Basel, the pleasure was all ours to host them. Especially true because of Claudia's magic touch as a stretching aid, and giving of messages! Dani's GoPro cam definitely got some interesting footage. I love Jess's picts from their hike to the light-tower! Lucas was the only true beginner in the group, but he was up and surfing on day one! This is probably a rough situation for our surf teacher Felipo. Judging from his surfing, I can tell that he must be a really good freestyle skier. Interesting would be to see Mogga and Lucas on the hill together! -Marilyn

Mid-month we were joined by Simone, Georg and Laz! Unleash the Zillertal dialect! German is not hard, it's the dialects that make it near impossible. Simone sprained her knee on her second day out, what a bummer! She took her down days like a champ! Going on huge walks, including going up the hill on the side of the home low-tide break for the artsy camera angle. Thanks for sharing your picts with US! Some epic funny shots posted! We had some massive days, when it was straight up mandatory to walk to the south side for the smaller breaks. Surfing the home beach was so amazing because we didn't all have to get in the van to go surf a certain break at one time, and get out of the water at another time, everyone just vibed off each other, and kept the surf motivation super high.

Pantin Classic was in the last week of this month. We witnessed some really amazing next level surfing by the visiting pros who came over to Valdovino, for the more powerful beach break. You will eat your words regarding surf condition when you see what magic these guys and girls can work on a fast closey wall. We checked out the event one day but we pretty much opted for going surfing on our homebreak! http://www.pantinclassic.com/en/fotos-videos.html?tstyle=style4

Just as Pantin ended I left to come back to the states:( Wilma came for a short stay, and we both flew out of Madrid at month's end. It was such an amazing summer. I want to thank everyone who came for the support. I have started an e-mail list, and will let you know as news and booking info. come up for next summer. Welcome to the Seeker Surf family! Salud! Marilyn

    Well its been a close to a month since our last update, and we shouldn't have to tell you why! Surf's been consistent for a month solid, and we had a flat day yesterday, with no winds. It was a great day to relax and catch up with work. Who wants to do work in the summertime? Well, nobody, but everyone seem to have something or another that they are busy with at our smarty pants surf camp:)

Yesterday Fenky set off to snorkel around the island. He was joined by Doc Synder, Markus, and Martin. Another team set off to do some paddle training when the lagoon and the ocean was connected during high tide. Some of us just enjoyed people watching while eating at the Piscina, our neighborhood pool/bar. Milena and team Zillertal set off for a mission to Ferrol, and returned just in time for dinner:) Some of our camping friends joined us for dessert.

Now I'm looking out from our front porch, tide is pretty low, but Lukas already enjoyed his surf, his last day here with us:( Flo's still in the water... ofcourse. We're having a chat with our cute old neighbor Atilone... he reminds me of my dad... hehe. He hates it when people park on our private street. Allegedly he pissed on some cars that are parked here yesterday. But he loves us, and feeds us with lettuce from his garden. We must be like a soap opera show for him.   -Marilyn

    The other day our friend Jesús invited us over to their windsurfing school. None of us had tried windsurfing before. When we arrived Jesús had already the equipment lined up for us in front of the school. He briefed us about wind directions, where to stand on the board, how to hold the sail and so on. It sounded easy when we had both feet on solid ground...

    Already when carrying the equipment down to the beach we ran into our first problems. Half of us were about to be dragged away by the wind with the sail above our heads.  Once we managed to get all the equipment down it was time to hit the water. And we topped Jesús expectations in our skills big time! His healthy Spanish tan faded as he watched us run each other over, get buried under the sail or just fall off the board after less than 2 seconds. An hour later we managed to stand on the board and even sail around a bit. But we were far from looking good: Grown ups on children boards struggling to get the sail out of the water - leading to very inhuman positions. We looked like people with no bones, dancing to trance music. „QUE MALO!!!! QUE MALO!!!!!!“ was Jesús’ comment to our talent.
Once I felt stable on my legs my upper body was bending in all directions struggling to hold the sail. When stabilising the upper body, hips knees and ankle started twisting in every direction possible. My style got me an „FATALLLLL!!!“  from Jesús.

    By the end we felt a bit more stable, but then, unable to steer, we just went wherever the wind took us. In our case the wide open river mouth of Ferrol. Poor Jesús then had to go after us in order to save us from sailing over to America. Basti our strongest swimmer developed the most effective technique to come back into the save harbour: He simply crawled back dragging the surfboard behind him. WINDSURFING IS HARD!
As if our confident was not suffering enough, Seeker Surf camp Boss Flo arrived. Straight jumped onto a windsurf board (the grown up version not the kids stuff we had) and sailed away as if it was the easiest thing one can do...

    Even we struggled, look like retards and gave Jesus some grey hair – WE HAD A LOT OF FUN!

THANK YOU JESUS!!! WHEN U HAVE RECOVERED FROM THIS SESSION – LETS DO IT AGAIN! -MR

Happy 4th of July! Happy Independence Day! I don't care what y'all think, but the USA is #1.

Now that I got your attention... A recap of this past week here. Our guests for this week were an even split between Austrians, Swiss and Germans. Along with the World Cup going on right now, and me being a competitive-minded American, I insisted on making everything a competition, and no one seemed to have minded. Except maybe Team Swiss (shrugging my shoulders).

Team Austria were a couple of very talented athletes and beginner surfers. Team Germany consisted of a beginner and a very experienced surfer. And Team Swiss had an intermediate surfer and a vicarious surfer;)

Flo transported us to Ferrol in our Surf/Party Van for the Spain vs. Portugal game at Plaza de Espana to start off the week. Una fiesta muy grande, and that's when the drinking part of the competition started. Team Germany started the week earlier than the others, so right after the Spain-Portugal game, they were going for "rock star" status. Going out until day break, and having beer before coffee in the "morning".

Team Austria signed up for surf lessons, but even before lessons started on Monday, they were already in the water on Sunday with our mini-mal boards. The swell started off very user friendly on Sunday at home on Valdovino, but Monday morning we bused it to xx, my personal favorite beach. A quick session turned into a 3 hours, and then we were rushing to Pantin for the beginning of the lesson.

Team Swiss got some sun on the beach and a good day of getting back in the game. They arrived the latest out of the 3 teams on Saturday, and the last time they were in the water for surf was in Portugal, where they met Fenky and Tommy G. This is how they came to know about the Seeker Surf Camp, welcome to the Seeker Family:)

So while Team Austria were getting along with their lesson.  Everyone enjoyed the Sun and had a quick sample of Pulpo at the Saina, our favorite local restaurant. It overlooks the rocky side of the beach, and they serve up famous galicia seafood dishes.

We had a small day on Wednesday. We had dinner soon after the surf lesson, a top notch Spagetti Bolognese a la Milena, and headed out for a night out at the big city of La Coruna! A delayed bedtime makes for a late start the next day, but nightlife is definitely the best way to adjust to Spanish time.

I went for a surf with Team Austria at Pantin. Pablo of Escuela de Surf Pantin Classic was definitely put to the test as Team Austria had some high expectations of their own surfing/learning curve! Crossing over from other board sport, as they both wakeboard and snowboard (they also do downhill mountain biking), it's hard to leave the high expectations out of the water. But with the sheer force of determination, they were up and riding on the user friendly beginner boards! I brought my shorty and I almost regretted not taking out the Cortez, but I worked on my pumping skills as there were definitely waves to be had.

Team Swiss and Team Germany went out to the break on the right on Valdovino. I wasn't there to witness it, but tales of ride, and surf tech talk always follows a good session. I cooked up a stir-fry with black bean sauce and the sunset was beautiful.

OK I will just admit that I am bias, but all in all, Team Austria WON:) Does this make Austria #1? - Marilyn

    Our home break in front of the Seeker Surf Casa is working! Thanks to the past two weeks storms, the sandbank adjusted itself - resulting in nice, open waves. Now instead of driving off for surf check and surf, we just take a quick look out of our windows in the morning. And then either sleepwalk down to our breaks before or after having a rich, healthy breakfast. And surf multiple times a day whenever we feel like it.
    Beginners like myself prefer to stay in the more easy spot on the left while the more advanced find their perfect and bigger waves to the left of the little island. -MR

    Not only do we have a beamer now, we somehow managed to get the Dolby surround installation going. Waking up campers for early morning surf was never that easy. 6 am and some mellow tunes like AC/DC’s Thunderstruck throughout the whole house. No excuses anymore for missed surf sessions. (Every room still got the possibility to switch it off) In time everyone had a coffee and the Van is loaded. Sounds evil? Wait until I get my hands on the latest Celin Dion album...
    Meanwhile Ahhhh-ahhhh-ahhhh-ahhhh-ahhhh... -MR

Note: It's actually not Dolby surround, but it's a stereo-speaker sound system. -Marilyn

    Some of us are looking forward to the upcoming Sonar Festival taking place in A Coruña from the 17 – 19 of June. It’s mostly electronic music and the great lineup is too long to list it. Check it out yourself here.
    Also Ben Harper & the Relentless 7 will set foot on Spanish soil at the 14 of July in Santiago de Compostela.
    We will be back with the full story if no memory loss occurs. -MR

    This past week our Seeker Surf Casa was taken over by Austrian guests longing for some sun after 4 weeks of heavy rainfall in Austria. It almost seemed like the rain followed them to Spain. This last week weather was a mixture of sun and rain.
    On one of the sunny days we hung out at one of our favourite beaches the whole day. And we all got to surf some pretty good waves. Surf sessions followed by picnic, sleep, beach games and surf again.

    The indoor activity of choice for rainy days was chess. It seemed like a never-ending battle between the “Lokalmatator” and Seeker-Mastermind Fenky in one corner and Maik with his repertoire of disturbing techniques in the other. Countless bottles of cerveza didn’t really help to improve the game...
    The less smart people like me found joy in the simple game called: Stadt-Land-Fluss (City-Country-River). Our added categories: food, body parts and drugs gave us headache. But you do learn a lot.

    As the men where outnumbered by the ladies we all did a trip to the shopping mall in A Coruna. While the girls were hunting for Spanish clothes the guys killed their time with gambling (It’s not a cliché…). For Maik it turned out to be his lucky day. He won about the same amount of money he spent for his whole vacation. This was celebrated with the most amazing sushi buffet I have ever had.

    We also pimped out the house a bit. There is now a proper surfboard rack in the cellar. AND as the world soccer championship is about to kick off, Flo surprised us all with a beamer! Of course the beamer isn’t only for entertainment, it is also for Spanish learning purposes. Is there a better way to learn Spanish than to watch telenovelas?

    There was obviously enough sun this week to send our camper’s home with a healthy suntan and sore Biceps and Triceps. Right after her vacation at the Seeker Surfcamp Johanna won the Casting of the "Tiroler Adlerin"- a fresh, Tyrol based fashion label. Congratulations Johanna! (Let’s say thanks to our healthy cuisine, hard yoga workout and the tan she got here, the other girls had even lesser chances)

It was great having you guys! Gracias for the 5kg Jamon. The dogs are still standing in the kitchen starring at it. –MR

Our Zillertaler hommie came all the way to Galicia! Mario found great deals on Ryan Air, and got a crew together to come to Seeker Surf Camp! It just happens that his birthday is on the same week, coincidence?

Direct flight from Frankfurt (HHN) to Santiago de Compostela (SCQ) were purchased for 60€ roundtrip! The group of 5 drove up in one car in the night, and got on a flight at 6:45am in the morning, which takes them directly to Santiago de Compostela, instant camino!

They check out youth hostel possibility and there is one right at Frankfurt-Hahn. Flights depart and return on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and Seeker Surf Camp offers airport transfer for 60€, for up to 8 people. (Our surf bus pictured, by Dani A.A.:)

    Nach 2 wellenreichen Wochen, 2-3 Surfsessions täglich, blieb das Meer einen Tag lang einfach flach und ruhig liegen. Ein willkommener Break um Wetsuits und Haut mal komplett trocknen zu lassen.
    Vom Meer aus betrachtet sind uns immer wieder die zerklüfteten, steilen Felswände entlang der galizischen Küste ins Auge gestochen, perfekt zum Klettern! So haben wir gesucht und gefunden  ...und auch noch gleich ums Eck vom Seeker Surf Camp!
    Die iberische Halbinsel besteht zu einem großen Teil aus solidem Granit. In 3 verschiedene Himmelsrichtungen führen Pfade vom Mittelpunkt des Kaps zu den 7 verschiedenen Spots. Um an den Einstieg der Routen zu kommen mussten wir erst mal steil in Richtung Meer absteigen. Zwischen 5 und 11 verschiedene Routen pro Spot. Insgesamt 60 verschiedene Routen in einem Radius von cirka 200m! Und das ist nur eines von 3 weiteren Klettergebieten hier in der Nähe unseres Seeler Surf Camp.
    Die Schwierigkeitsgrade der meisten Routen und Mehrseillängen liegt im Bereich 6a – 7c. Gut gebohrte Routen und für alle Vorlieben ist etwas dabei: Platten, Überhänge, Risse, usw.
    Den ganzen Tag waren wir unter uns. Keine Menschenseele weit und breit. Nur wir, der Fels und das Meer. Keine abgespeckten Griffe oder verräterische Magnesiaspuren. Der Grip ist immer und überall gut. Während des Kletterns hatten wir einen unbeschreiblichen Ausblick: Atlantik so weit das Auge reicht und  auf selber Höhe mit den Möwen um uns. Beim Sichern schlug uns hin und wieder die Gischt um die Füße.  Als wir am Ende unserer letzten Route oben ankamen sank die Sonne gerade glühend rot ins Meer.
    Am nächsten Tag kamen auch wieder die Wellen. Summa summarum war es ein genialer Tag. Es hat gut getan auch andere Muskelgruppen zu quälen. Ein guter und trockener Ausgleich zum Surfen. Die Tage hier sind lang und es gibt noch zahlreiche Felswände die wir noch nicht probiert haben. We’ll be back......-MR

We've been busy! Milena and Flo have been working on the new logo and flyers, as well as major revamp of the site. A lot happened before Milena and Flo picked me up from Madrid Airport to come straight to Valdoviño at the end of April.

      They drove from Zillertal, Austria, by way of: Innsbruck (to give Mati a lift and to bring Vevi's her super-rad Rad); Switzerland (which was "shit" Milena said, "no food as the petrol stations were closed in the night"; then France (which was "OK", she said. They got food, and she speaks some French.)

    Mati was driving while Flo and Milena were sleeping. Mati "missed an exit" and they found themselves on the way to Andorra, just in time for the end of the season party! Merlin invited them to a BBQ on the closed ski area via Skido. Lots of beer, lots of dogs, and lots of sausages, and lots of park shredding. The locals were really friendly, but Flo and Milena were in sleepwalk mode at this point.

     At the Spanish border, every car was checked as there is a limit to how much duty free booze and cigarettes one can take from the tiny country of Andorra. Border patrol opened the sliding door to the packed 9-seater Ford Transit bus and said, 'Go on.' They couldn't be bothered.

        Flo and Milena kept on driving to Vevi's. She spent the winter in the Spanish Pyrenees' resort Val d'Aran and welcomed the Seeker Surf Camp Drive Thru! They crew checked out Lluk's studio, and a local girl Yoki invited them for sushi night at her hotel, Iori Hotel. Would have loved to been there, but the Volcano delayed my flight.

       Henry and Nita showed up the next day. A mini-ramp session at the Val d'Aran skatepark. Vevi also lead the crew on a nice hike to a waterfall. That night, Flo and Milena started driving after dinner to pick me up at the airport. When I saw them at the airport, they looked so tired! I was so glad to see them and that's where my surf camp summer began! -Marilyn