Note submitted by Quiksilver Argentina  - Cover photos by Christian Martínez, Mariano Serna and Omar Castiglielo 

More people in the water, more desire to surf and more caution once outside are some of the elements that this new normality brought to Argentine surfing.

This is what two young and two veteran legends of Argentine surfing agree on and express: Franco Radziunas, Juan Cruz Ruggiero, Maxi Siri and Martín Passeri in a round of questions that they answered to DUKE and that are presented below:

 

See this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Maxi Siri (@maxisirisurf) el 20's 2020 3 57: XNUMX PDT

Maxi Siri: “The sheer amount of people I see in the water is impressive, all the time!”

It has been a great joy to return to the water after several months of inactivity. We missed out on high-quality waves in the fall, but thank God the sea did not stop pumping throughout the winter.

One of the main differences I notice compared to surfing before the pandemic is the huge amount of people I see in the water, it's impressive, all the time!

I guess this happens because the lesson it left many is to take quality time for yourself, you never know when everything can go to shit!

It doubled the learning of understanding that we are all over-accelerated, living at an unhealthy pace.

Another thing I learned was that if you have small children, don't live in a three-room apartment because if you get caught in a pandemic, you could have a very bad time (laughs).

 

See this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Juan Ruggiero (@juanruggiero1) el 5 of Jul from 2020 to 4: 34 PDT

Juan Cruz Ruggiero: People “enjoy getting into the water much more than before”

Post-quarantine surfing was initially happiness and a lot of happiness to be able to be in the water, super grateful. Afterwards, as soon as I grabbed the board and was getting in, I couldn't paddle, everything hurt, like starting from scratch. But well, the first thing I felt was happiness to do what I like the most and what I enjoy the most, which is surfing.

The differences I notice are nothing surf-wise, almost everything is the same. What I do notice is that we missed the best time for waves and the weather here in Mar del Plata, which is March, April and May. We started surfing around June or July. It's not the same to go in with 3/2 than to go in with 4/3, boots, gloves and a hood. What I notice most about myself, about people, is that they enjoy getting in the water much more than before. It was very monotonous for me to get up and go surfing, now nothing, I enjoy it much more when I can go in with friends.

The lesson I learned from the pandemic is that the virus is here and will continue to be here for one or two years. We, the people, should take the necessary precautions such as wearing a mask, washing our hands, having alcohol gel and being careful, not gathering in public places and things like that to reduce the risk of contagion and be able to continue doing what we like the most, which is surfing.

Another lesson I learned was that no matter what you do, you have to enjoy it to the fullest, with your family, with your friends, you never know when it will end, basically that was it, you have to enjoy what you have and be grateful.

 

See this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by FR Δ П С О R Δ D Ζ Ι U П Δ S (@franco_radziunas) el 28's 2020 5 46: XNUMX PDT

Franco Radziunas: We learned to “value the things we did every day”

Surfing itself in the water did not change, what did change was outside the water, both before and after the sessions, with the issue of maintaining social distancing and respecting the protocol.

I don't notice many changes when it comes to surfing, I even see more people in the water than in previous years, probably because they chose surfing as an activity to get out of their homes. However, as I said before, outside the water, the protocol must be respected with social distancing and avoid large groups of people.

What happened in the world makes us stop and look around us, learning to value the things we do every day. I think we all have to learn to have empathy and respect for each other in order to take care of each other in this situation.

 

See this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by MARTIN PASSERI (@martinpasseri) el 10's 2020 5 28: XNUMX PDT

Martín Passeri: “I want to raise awareness that being locked up does not improve health”

The most significant thing that the pandemic had in terms of my perspective and my activity was changing some work patterns, taking advantage of the time at home during the first stage to study, review, organize things that I was not doing because I was spending so much time on the beach, training the kids, training myself, in the gym and everything. On the other hand, valuing what we have, reinforcing what makes us feel good and defending it.

So, in every place where I can, although before the commitment was practical, now it is everywhere, I try to talk to people so that they continue doing sports, people who cannot train, so that they train either with me or through some system that allows them to do some physical activity, once, twice or three times a week.

I want to raise awareness that I don't think being locked up improves health, I don't think it prevents anything, what happens is that people, to a certain extent, in places where there is viral circulation, are a little more aware of the minimum precautions to ensure that it's not crazy.

In any case, the pandemic brought many rebounds; from the economic, the social, I don't know if we are in a position to talk today, I don't have the information, nor the experience in that field, but I have seen the change in behavior in some people. Especially in children, where we have to be aware and sports leaders continue to push people to do physical activity, because we cannot control the economic, but the physical is our decision and that brings us, in some way, mental health.

Spending a lot of time listening to news or opinions is not going to do us any good, and spending more time worrying and taking care of ourselves, doing something good for our health and our physique is going to be much better.