Early in the Water

I've been swimming competitively since I was eight years old. Pool swimming first, then open water, then ocean swimming for the last sixteen years or so. It's the one constant. Wherever I've lived, whatever else has changed, I've always found my way to the water.

Arrifana is where I swim when I want to feel the Atlantic properly. It's a bay on the southwest coast, about forty minutes north of Lagos, enclosed by high black cliffs that shelter it from the worst of the north wind. The swell comes in clean from the Atlantic and the water is cold year-round. On a calm morning it's one of the most beautiful places to swim I've found anywhere.

I met Marco through a mutual friend. He was training for an Ironman, already a strong cyclist and runner, and wanted to add some open water confidence before his race season. Someone mentioned I swam at Arrifana regularly and he asked if he'd be welcome to join me one morning.

We got in early, before the surfers were out. He was fit and unafraid of the cold, a triathlete's pragmatism, but the ocean moves differently from a pool or a lake. The first thing I showed him was how to read the water before committing to a line. Where the swell was running, where the rip pulled toward the rocks at the southern end, where the needle rock that stands offshore gave you a fixed point to sight against on the outward leg.

We swam for about an hour. He was a natural once he stopped trying to fight it and let the water do some of the work. There's a particular moment when that clicks. You can see it in how someone's shoulders drop.

Afterwards we drove down the coast to Burgau for dinner. It's a small fishing village about thirty minutes south, steep whitewashed streets running down to a sheltered bay, the kind of place that still feels genuinely Portuguese. We sat outside, ate well, discussed our race seasons ahead and what the training meant to him. A good evening after a good morning in the water.

I still go back to Arrifana as often as I can. Some places just suit you.