Passion Meets Profession : Alex's Surfing Internship Journey

On the website of Students Go Abroad, I found an internship in a surf camp and I soon figured out that Tenerife is the place I wanted to go. Although my idea of Tenerife was only as deep as tourism, I decided to go for this internship.

When I arrived at Tenerife, there were 25 degrees, sunshine and a light breeze was touching the palm trees. I was in paradise. My very friendly contact person of Students Go Abroad picked me up at the airport and took me to the camp. After that, we kept in touch anyways.

The camp is as beautiful as in the video on the website and the camp crew is pleasant as well. The camp contains a pool, a skater ramp, indo boards, hammocks and palm trees. The bedrooms are furnished sparely but the common room is outstanding. It has a big sofa, a TV including a hard disk with a lot of movies from all over the world on it and yoga mats. Surfboards are all-time present features of this room and decorate the walls.

Unfortunately, the camp is located a bit offside. There come a lot of advantages to this, but one can feel a bit isolated. Playa de las Americas, the city where we surf and where you can party, is located 20 minutes from the camp and only reachable with a car. This is why I recommend everyone who decides to do an internship in this area to buy a car and sell it again at the end of the stay.

The camp crew is very pleasant. There is the head of the camp, which founded the camp 5 years ago, a surf teacher and a handyman for little repairs and the transfer from and to the airport. Furthermore, the head of the surf camp’s father helps in the kitchen for 6 months a year.

After a short period of time, I had a certain routine in doing my job. I usually start between 8:30 and 10:00 depending on the tides. Within the next 2 to 3 hours I clean the houses and fix little problems around them. At 1:30 it is time for some delicious lunch, which is a big advantage of the camp. After lunch, I have a short siesta and then go back to the beach to surf. In the evening there are always some small camp parties and sometimes even bigger ones ;)

My tasks are pretty simple and are limited to cleaning and tidying up the camp. But I have no reason to complain at all. The main reason for me to come here was surfing and the working hours are limited to three hours a day.

The waves, which were the main reason for me to come to Tenerife, are pretty good. Playa de las Americas has seven different breaks, whereas two of the best ones are reserved for locals only. There are all kinds of waves, right and left-hander, slow and fast, long and short waves. There is a wave for every level, for beginners as well as for professionals. Unfortunately, therefore, a lot of surfers are at the beach and you have to be lucky to have a spot for your own. Furthermore, there are very few additional places to surf along the coast. The only exception is Punta Blanca, which is located 15 minutes northwards of the camp. Apart from that you need need to drive to the North of the island where I recommend Bajamar. All in all, I was satisfied after all. In the first two months, September and October, there were very few waves but the surf conditions improved more and more and so did my surfing skills. I even got my own surfboard.

If the sea is flat, there are a lot of other leisure activity opportunities outside the camp. For example, there is El Teide, Spain’s highest mountain, with a breathtaking view and great hiking trails. Close to the camp, you can also find Siam-Park, which is Europe’s best water park, at least according to Trip-Advisor. Personally, I really liked the slides, but it was pretty crowded. You have to have pretty good timing to not spend as much time on queuing up as on sliding. Furthermore, I really recommend a visit to the island’s northern part. It is cooler and more likely to rain than in the South of the island, but it is much greener and there are fewer tourists. I would like to especially recommend Garachico with its natural pools and La Orotava and La Laguna.

Overall, I really liked my stay in Tenerife, because I had the opportunity to surf a lot, met a lot of interesting people, improved my language skills, got more self-dependent and had a lot of fun. I can only recommend an internship like this!