You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf them.

A story about Rita and Filipe, two surf instructors from Portugal who are giving more than just surf lessons.

Rita and Filipe’s story could be a script for a movie — a beautiful woman falls in love with her adventurous surf instructor and they decide to live a life guided by their own rules. They start a surf school called “After the Sun” and spend their days surfing and skateboarding. But can it really be that “easy” in real life? Didn’t our parents tell us to study, get a serious and stable job and save money for our 30-year mortgage? Isn’t that supposed to make us happy?

Let’s dive into Rita’s and Filipe’s story to learn more about how they approach life.

How did “After the sun’s” story begin?

We met while surfing a few years ago. Filipe was my surf instructor and yea, we liked each other and started dating. I wasn’t a surfer at that time, but I soon fell in love with surfing and Filipe. He showed me the life he was already living and I just loved it. Back then I was studying visuals and multimedia but I came to the conclusion that sitting in an office 9–5 was not for me. A similar thing happened to Filipe; he was doing management before he started to work as a full-time surf instructor for different surf schools. So we started talking about our own surf school, around 2 years ago. We wanted to be entrepreneurs, we wanted to work for ourselves, do what we love and schedule the day in a way that makes sense to us. So we started our company, a surf school called “After the Sun”.

It’s not only about giving surf lessons. We’re offering an experience for our clients; we’re kind of sharing a piece of our lifestyle with them. Our reviews are proof of this and we love that people feel this. We make videos and pictures of them while surfing, so after their holiday they can proudly show them to their friends and cherish a great memory. We think that’s what life is about, to make good memories, have fun and enjoy it. To us that doesn’t mean being lazy, it’s about finding your passion and living it.

What is it that makes life livable? It’s our experiences. The good ones are what we are soaking our energy from to overcome the bad ones. Rita and Filipe are giving their clients these valuable moments of joy, fun and excitement and they do even more. They are giving them memories to think of their whole lifes. The best part is that, while serving other people, Rita and Filipe are doing exactly what they are passionate about and creating moments of life for themselves.

It wasn’t like this from day one. Both of these freedom loving people dived into that world we are expected to live in. This “normal job” situation. But both of them decided that it’s not about having a safe job, it’s more about having a job that fills your life with passion and love. A job where one is responsible for oneself instead of giving this to a “boss”. With this responsibility comes obstacles one has to face.

What are the greatest obstacles you’re facing right now?

Winter. As surf instructors we are very dependent on seasonal changes. People always think it’s not possible to go surfing in winter, but that’s just not true. We know all the good spots where it’s safe to surf, so there’s no reason why one shouldn’t go surfing in Winter. The water has a temperature between 13 and 15 degrees, but honestly I never heard anyone complain about being cold. You know surfing is exhausting, especially while learning. You’re moving all the time, so there’s basically no chance you’ll feel cold. There’s not so many tourists in Winter, so that’s also a problem. And there’s many many surf schools, so the competition is quite high. Of course people that come here for the very first time don’t know which surf school gives the best experience. Most of them will end up in the big surf school, not in a small company like ours. Another problem we’re facing right now is that we don’t have a physical place yet. Obviously it’s an advantage to have a store and that’s something we’re searching for right now.

One has to have the right mindset to start a business. Being anxious and hesitant won’t let a business grow, on the other hand acting thoughtless and rushed won’t lead you anywhere. Rita and Filipe seem to have found a balance on this narrow path. Their goal is to live a life full of things they love: Nature, surfing, skateboarding, spending time with people and meanwhile earning their living. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it’s the same with a business. But actually, even in this process of building a business, Rita and Filipe are doing what they were made for already. They are serving clients, they are surfing, they are giving people an experience they will never forget. So, what could make their lives even better?

If a Genie could fulfill three wishes for you, what were they?

The first one would be a physical surf school. Even though we’re looking forward to building a place and making it our place, it’ll be lots of work and it’ll stop us from surfing for a while. So, if there was a Genie who could do that for us that would be awesome.

The second one is that we will always be healthy, so we would never have to stop surfing.

And the last one… I think we don’t need anything else. The last wish is that the Genie can be free.

Question yourself. How would you have answered the question? Ritas and Filipes lives are free from these needs most people have. Like a big car, designer clothes or jewelry. They didn’t wish for a million dollars. Because that is not what life is about for them. We’re living in a time where people’s thoughts are changing. May it be healthcare, environmental awareness or jobs. Being a self-employed surf instructor, being able to live wherever there’s waves to surf meets these new requirements for a job pretty well. Freedom counts more than money these days.

How long does it take to become a surf instructor and what does a surf instructor-to-be need to bring?

Filipe answers: “Well they need to know how to surf, but not on a pro level. I also started teaching shortly, mabe a year after I learned how to surf. But yes, obviously one must be surfing on a basic level. Also one needs to be patient, to be able to find a connection to the clients. They are often afraid and a surf instructor’s job is to make it a fun experience for them. Also a surf instructor needs to enjoy teaching. They need to be comfortable speaking in front of people and teaching them in a fun and trustworthy way. A good additional skill as a surf instructor is to speak more than one language. I speak French and English and I understand Italian. It takes about one year to become a level 1 instructor, which we both are. To open a surf school one needs a level 2 certificate, which I’m doing right now. This takes another two years.

Becoming a surf instructor requires lots of motivation and engagement, but it’s doable in a foreseeable amount of time and money. What we learned from Rita and Filipe is that it probably won’t make you drive a Ferrari and live in a castle next to the beach. But we also learned that that’s not what it is about. Being a surf instructor enriches your life with freedom, joy, and passion. And that’s what life is all about.