Ciao, mi chiamo Stefano and today is my second day interning at Star Surf. Because surfing and camp holidays have been filling my summers since I was a child, I’m super stoked to be spending my next five weeks with the office crew here in England, learning about the essentials of running a surf camp company, getting tips on how to improve my surfing… and on how to make English tea, ha!

Growing up in a big city like Milano, my family spent most of their holiday time close to the sea and that’s where I also fell in love with the ocean and, of course, with surfing. Being Italian in heart, I also love music and couldn’t live without it. I’ve been playing the piano for more than ten years now, also play the oboe, the bodhrán and the tin whistle, and started studying music history and music technology four years ago.

To some, music and surfing might seem like completely different worlds but, surely, since the Beach Boys rocked the 70s on their surfboards the two cannot be told apart anymore. I remember once finding one of their albums, “Surfin’ USA”, among my Dad’s records. Not just the cover of a surfer riding a big wave smoothly stuck with me, but also the beginning of one of their song, “Surfin’ is the only life, the only way for me. Now surf, surf with me!”

But, of course, today I’ve extended my music tastes slightly. From classical 70s surf music like The Surfaris or Dick Dale & The Del-Tones, Three Days Grace, Mussorgsky, Zucchero all the way to Genesis, my tastes in music are as different as classic longboarding is to modern high performance short boarding.

Although both music and surfing are such different hobbies of mine, there’s one thing they have in common: It’s the felling I get from both of them. What I’ve always loved about surf camp holidays is the social atmosphere about them. Sitting around a campfire after a long wave sliding, talking story, playing music and singing songs is just as good as it gets! And when I’m on the beach with nobody else around, I hear a very different kind of music. The one without a sheet or notes, but with it’s own, very distinct melody. It’s the sound of something even the best music player cannot “riprodurre”: the beautiful sound of the sea roaring and fading like the waves  – the sound of my surfboard cutting the water – la musica piú bella al mondo.

I will keep you updated on what I’m doing here!

Ciao, Stefano