My Blake Lively Surfing Moment

I saw that shark film recently with Blake Lively in, The Shallows. It’s not the best shark movie out there as Emma, the biggest shark fan I know, would tell you.

But there’s one scene in it that I loved. The surfing one.

And I remember her awesome surfing skills and how amazing that part looked.

I want to do that!

So I frantically started Googling surfing in the North as I know Chris from Backpacker Banter once mentioned something about surfing either in the North or even Wales. No way I can go to Cornwall just for a surfing trip when I’ve never surfed before.

Had to get some serious research done.

And after a bit of time trolling the internet I found it.

The place where you can actually surf in Wales.

Surfing in Wales

I guess I should’ve thought better about the Wales part.

Surfing in Wales and surfing in Lord Howe Island, Queensland is a bit different.

But I wasn’t going to let something like weather stop me from having my Blake Lively moment.

I kept searching until I found Surfsnowdonia. They do like man made waves.

Office for the day at @surfsnowdonia #surfsnowdonia #northwales 🌊🏄🏻⛰

A post shared by Matt Lee (@mattlee18) on Mar 23, 2017 at 8:32am PDT

Instagram from Matt who was with us. 

It’s a technology they use to create waves on demand. Which is quite cool actually.

You can read more about the technology bit on Wave Garden if you’re into that stuff.

What it is not cool though, is the temperature of the water. The wave garden is powered with water from the mountain. It’s like 100% pure water but f**k it’s cold.

It was like 3 degrees when I went, at the beginning of March.

Apparently, it gets warmer in summer but still.

The cool bit…. literally

The one hour session was epic but at a certain point my gloves split and the water was filling my hands. I could not feel a thing and was shaking with every fibre of my body.

And every time a wave came I was falling off my board and water would go underneath my wet suit.

It was NOT pleasant after a while.

With 15 minutes to go (about 12 waves) I was about to give up. If there’s one thing I can’t handle it’s the cold.

But I didn’t. Just a quick look at the guys next to me and their huge smiles and I knew I couldn’t be that person who quits and leaves friends.

I pushed through and to be fair, at the end I was pretty proud of myself.

The instructors

The instructor was really good.

He’s been surfing since he was a kid In Portugal and defo knew what he was doing. Super nice and helpful as well. Dealing with all the whining from us lot.

After the session, we all took a shower which again was pretty cold and then met the instructor for lunch and a hot beverage in their dining area.

It was lovely.

I didn’t get to have my Blake Lively moment but I am not giving up.

Had so much that I want to go back in summer – August preferably. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I wasn’t paid to write this, I genuinely like the place. Cause it’s cool and I had a good time, despite the cold temperatures that they can’t really control.

Liked it so much I am genuinely considering to have my hen do there.

I’m sure my hens wouldn’t mind going on this

In the meantime, I developed a bit of an obsession with surfers and got some really cool recommendations for badass surfers to follow from Reddit.

Surfer goals – Bethany. Kickass badass surfer. Soo cool.