66
What’ s your opinion on social media in general? Generally, I sort of hate it and think we’ ll all look back( or future generations will) and be horrified at the way it has addicted most of the world. I hate the way I can’ t stop myself from doom scrolling, even though I’ ve trained my Facebook feed to show me mostly SUP surfing clips! Sometimes I do find it fun, though, if I’ m in the right mood where I’ m not taking things too seriously.
Talk to us about where you now live and what that offers paddleboarders and watersports riders in general. We moved to a town called Suances in Cantabria about three years ago. Coming from Bournemouth, it is frankly amazing. It’ s not the Spain that most people expect or know; high mountains cut off the north, so the climate is wet, more like Wales. And the coastline is similar too – rocky cliffs, with long, wide sandy bays that are very open to the Atlantic swells. The surf is basically never flat; it’ s much more common that it’ s too big to go in, and outside of July and August, when it goes crazy, it’ s basically empty. It’ s a dream come true on a SUP, and that’ s become my primary sport. I haven’ t done much windsurfing, though. The few locals who were into it have all gone over to wing foil. And although I have got one, it’ s not a great place for it. There aren’ t that many spots to do it, and it’ s just not a very windy area.
Do you find living in Spain easier than in the UK – what are the pros and cons? I think when we were looking at moving, I wanted to find the perfect place, but I’ ve come to understand that it doesn’ t exist. Cantabria is amazing for some things, it has its drawbacks too – like not being windy. And that kind of applies to everything; if you max out on one score, you inevitably cut back somewhere else. I’ m enjoying learning about Spain, though, and there’ s a whole Spanish-speaking culture that runs around the world parallel to the English-speaking one. I didn’ t really know about it, and I’ m just starting to understand that learning Spanish also means understanding the culture, which makes it much richer than just memorising verb endings.
Is this now your permanent home, or do you see yourself and the family moving again? When we came out, the idea was to do two or three years, to allow the kids( and me) to learn Spanish, and then
RAFA AND ALBA CATCHING THEIR FIRST WAVES