{"id":2270,"date":"2025-10-24T08:35:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T08:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/?p=2270"},"modified":"2025-10-23T11:44:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T11:44:50","slug":"fazer-as-pazes-com-o-atlantico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/fazer-as-pazes-com-o-atlantico\/","title":{"rendered":"Making peace with the Atlantic."},"content":{"rendered":"
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When we moved from Italy to Portugal back in 2019, our first challenge\u2014like so many expats before us\u2014was finding a place to live. I still remember the real estate agent asking about my \u201cdream home\u201d and then confidently adding, \u201c...and of course you\u2019ll want a swimming pool for the girls, right?\u201d
\u201cWhy would I?\u201d I thought. \u201cThere\u2019s a beach and an ocean\u2014who needs a pool?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, on the first Friday after school, fresh from a two-week vacation in Sicily, we packed our usual beach gear\u2014umbrella, towels, and snorkeling masks\u2014and headed to Praia de S\u00e3o Pedro do Estoril.
The experience wasn\u2019t quite what I had imagined. The waves knocked my youngest down as she tried to get out of the water; the ocean was freezing; and through the mask there was nothing to see but murky blue. Then the wind caught our sun umbrella and sent it tumbling down the beach\u2014I chased it, caught it, and, honestly, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve opened it since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That day I quickly learned why everyone insisted on having a pool at home. The seaside wasn\u2019t exactly a playground, and the Atlantic waters were far from inviting. It was September 2019, and after that first rough encounter, I wouldn\u2019t dip a toe in the ocean again for almost five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve always practiced yoga, but after a decade it started to feel a bit\u2026 predictable. I still enjoyed it, but the progress had stalled, and I found myself craving something more challenging
Then, at a female founders\u2019 gathering, I met Bibiana. She was talking about her new swimming school when it suddenly hit me\u2014I used to be a swimmer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in Italy, when I was thirteen, I was diagnosed with scoliosis, and my doctor prescribed swimming as the perfect remedy\u2014a gravity-free sport that engages every muscle and keeps everything nicely aligned. I joined a swimming team and trained five times a week for four years in the local pool right across from my home. I only stopped when I left for university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swimming had always been fun: the sound of my breath bubbling underwater, the feeling of pushing through the water, the lightness of my body floating on the surface. For years I had avoided the Atlantic as if it was liquid ice, and now here was my chance to finally make peace with it. Swimming in those waters was possible\u2014and I couldn\u2019t resist finding out if I still had it in me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first swim at Praia da Duquesa wasn\u2019t short of surprises. My heart started racing almost immediately, even though I\u2019d barely moved and the wetsuit was so tight I could hardly breathe. I managed a few freestyle strokes, but staring down into the depths didn\u2019t exactly feel reassuring. We started by swimming far out to the famous yellow buoy and back. Wasn\u2019t that a bit too far? And then, when it was all over, did I really have to strip in the middle of the parking lot?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, I didn\u2019t give up \u2014 and slowly but surely, open-water swimming began to grow on me in ways I never expected. I remember one day, gasping for air as I looked up to see seagulls soaring above me, then dipping my head back into the water to find fish gliding below. And somewhere in between, there was me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started to love the little ritual of showering after training \u2014 how the water felt warm against my skin, and how the sun\u2019s rays warmed me after a swim. I laughed when an Italian tourist stopped me: \u201cMa davvero Lei nuota in queste acque gelide?\u201d \u201cS\u00ec! \u00c8 bellissimo. Dovrebbe provare!\u201d.
\u201cMa davvero Lei nuota in queste acque gelide?\u201d
\u201cS\u00ec! \u00c8 bellissimo. Dovrebbe provare!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open-water swimming is such a dynamic experience \u2014 no two days are ever the same. The light in the sky changes from the start of your lesson to the end: sometimes more clouds, sometimes fewer, with the sun peeking through \u2014 and occasionally, even rain. The current is different when you swim in one direction and come back the other. Even the color (and sometimes the smell) of the water can vary greatly \u2014 from crystal clear to murky and mysterious. And let\u2019s not even talk about the waves \u2014 I\u2019ve already sacrificed one pair of goggles to their power!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With time, I learned to control my breathing, improved my stroke, and began my first little adventures: crossing Forte de S\u00e3o Juli\u00e3o da Barra, a night swim under the full moon, and my first competition in Sesimbra earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time being, I swim twice a week. I like to keep things varied \u2014 one day in Cascais and another at Praia da Torre in Oeiras. I\u2019m also thinking about adding a pool session to the mix. For my birthday, I was given a lovely watch that tracks my swims, which has led to my newest little vanity: I absolutely love seeing my swim routes mapped out, even if I still struggle a bit with tracking my progress in pace and workout balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With winter ahead, I\u2019m looking forward to longer swims and, of course, to joining the community in new competitions \u2014 testing new stretches of sea along the Portuguese coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anna Rinoldi<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quando nos mud\u00e1mos de It\u00e1lia para Portugal, em 2019, o nosso primeiro desafio \u2014 como tantos outros expatriados antes de n\u00f3s \u2014 foi encontrar uma casa. Ainda me lembro do agente imobili\u00e1rio a perguntar-me qual era a minha \u201ccasa de sonho\u201d e a acrescentar, com toda a confian\u00e7a: \u201c…e claro que vai querer uma piscina … <\/p>\n

Read more “Fazer as pazes com o Atl\u00e2ntico”<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sem-categoria-en"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-7.png","author_info":{"display_name":"Clube Swim4fun","author_link":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/author\/geralclube-swim4fun-pt\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clube-swim4fun.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}