I started learning to surf/drown about two months ago on a road trip down the west coast of Europe.

My tutor was my best friend, a Canadian, and all round good guy. I had tried to surf a couple of times before. Once in the frigid Pacific waters off Vancouver Island and then a year later in Indonesia – yes I did it all backwards.

In the Pacific, I was still battling with a regularly dislocating shoulder and couldn’t paddle past the first line of white water. In Indonesia, I was eight months post shoulder surgery, still useless at paddling and, with only the best waves on earth to play with, way out of my depth.

Maybe surfing just wasn’t for me.