Student blogs

A Surf Trip to Newquay

It has now been a month since I went on my first Imperial Surf Society trip and, as I am missing the sea way too much, I thought that writing about it might help me cope with its absence.
Let me first tell you about how it all started. It was around mid-June and I was scrolling through the list of societies in the Imperial Union website. After seeing quite a few random, yet interesting clubs, I found it. I found a new reason to love the idea of studying at this university: Surf Society.
And so, I bought the membership in early October. A month and a half after that, I was in a bus surrounded by forty strangers and facing a 5 hour-long-trip to the West of England.
I won’t say that the journey flew by, but it was definitely a laugh. From fresher’s to oldies, we bonded together, we ranted on each other’s degrees and we played a few ice-breakers.

By the time we arrived at Newquay, it was already 2 am. Some of us went out, some others decided to stay in and get some rest before the surfing day that was ahead of us.
On the following morning, Lea, Harry, Alex and myself headed to the sea. Accompanied by these three new surf mates, I tasted the British sea. It felt beautifully freezing, purifying. Being distracted by the breath-taking cliffs, the ocean sent me a wave to wake me up, almost demanding me to get on my feet.
We surfed until the waves became too flat and we came back to the hostel. After a very deserved hot shower, the four of us headed to the city centre to grab something to eat. Having eaten wonderful pub food, it was time to see and capture Newquay’s charm.
Thank you, Lea, Harry and Alex, for accompanying me on what became one of the most pleasing walks I’ve ever gone for. I felt in peace, watching an ever-fighting ocean.
That night, we had a few drinks before undergoing the peculiar freshers’ ritual. A bit disgusting, yet quite fun. If you want to know what it was, come along to any upcoming trips.
The next day, we surfed a bit more and came back to reality: by 8 pm we were at Imperial Beit, it was Sunday night and we remembered that we were students, we had work to do and exams to study for. We had been in a three-day-limbo and now it was time to settle down our minds. We hadn’t opened a book for the whole weekend, which as an Imperial student, this is a very rare occasion.
Was it worth “wasting” three days of studying? Without a single doubt. I charged my inner battery and went back to classes detoxed from my first month of uni.
I am sure that I’ll have to do that from time to time, stepping out from reality, I mean.