“Oh shit, it’s cold in Belgium!” was the first thought that sprung to mind when I stepped of the bus we had just travelled in for about 12 hours. It was around 7 in the morning, it was really cold or it felt like that anyway. I hadn’t slept the whole night, had a terrible cold so had to blow my nose every 5 minutes and my shoulder hurt. Doesn’t sound that good, does it? I admit, I was glad to be back. I missed my internet connection and most of all I longed for my warm and cosy bed. But when I recall all the wild parties, drunk nights and amazing surf sessions, believe me, I can’t wait to go back.

I was staying at the Gran Camping de Zarautz in the BoardX camp. I was there for the first two weeks of September. The best time of the year to be there really. It’s still nice and warm most of the time, the chances for good waves are already a bit higher than in mid summer, there are no high school kids because their summer break has already ended and for the crew that runs the camp it’s their last two weeks as well so parties are extra wild.

My first week was more like an internship. I paid only a third of the regular price, got some clothes and a backpack and had a free pass for the bar and the kitchen. In exchange I worked a couple shifts during the week, but I had plenty of time left to hit the water and pretty much partied hard every night. There were lots of hot girls and they practically always ran around in bikini or at most some low cut tops and really short shorts, we had great waves for almost the entire week with just enough power for an adrenaline rush when standing up and a big splash after you whipe out, but not big enough to get you too scared to even try to drop in on them as a rookie. With BoardX’s big boss Joe V and surf teacher T-man behind the turntables as Les Miami Punque and, at least for me, an open bar, obviously the parties were pretty sick too. Unfortunately this meant I hardly got any sleep and I pretty quickly got a bit sick. It wasn’t enough to keep me in bed though, I could sleep it off when I got back home.

They practically always ran around in bikini or at most some low cut tops and really short shorts.

The second week I stayed as a regular camper. This meant I lost my special privileges, but I would have a lot more time to have fun. One of my best friends drove up that second week as well and that meant the party mode would definitely stay on full throttle. I surfed with him once the day he arrived and we had a second session together on day two, but that would be it for this year. The BoardX guys had built a really cool small mini ramp at the camp and we had been skating a little the first week, me and some other guys from the crew. I hadn’t been skating for a couple of years though and was still getting used to it again. My friend, who had been skating for a couple of years and still had his board laying around, brought it with him as well and we ended in the mini ramp after diner on sunday. We skated a little bit and I started trying some lip tricks.

I got a little overconfident because I could land a couple of them and kept going. One particular go I lost my balance though and the board rolled from under me and I came down really hard on my side and brutally dislocated my shoulder. It hurt like hell and I spend almost an hour driving to the medical centre in one of the BoardX vans and from there in an ambulance to the hospital in San Sebastian before they could put it back in on ER. Only the doctor who helped me put my arm back in spoke a little English so I didn’t got much information, but she told me not to move the shoulder and keep my arm in the sling they gave me for three weeks. After that I had to see an orthopaedic surgeon to see how it healed and to determine whether it had to be operated or not. Surfing was over, that was certain and the chance you’ll ever see me on a skateboard again dropped to zero as well that evening.

The second week was obviously way less crazy than the first because of that crash. I still went to most of the parties though, but I had to be careful because having some random drunk bump into me hurt a lot. My friend and me definitely clocked a lot of time on the Playstation 3 in the camp when the weather gave in a little a few times that week. And on the warm days I pretty much just lay in the sun for most of the day. I got the girls to help me put sunscreen on and made fun of the gossip magazines they were reading. So basically you could say that even with the injury, it was a damn good vacation. I had a blast and will be back next year for sure!

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