Our first retreat: Terceira Azores
This the first creation of our own freediving group trips. We partnered with our friend André, local to the Azores, expert spearfisher, freediving instructor, captain and top guy, to deliver a week packed with special ocean moments.
The photos we’ve used here are just from our film camera, candid captures of the weeks highlights - hopefully you can feel the vibe we created, just through these very special photos.
We built this trip as a pilot (a practice run), which meant we priced it low, at cost and recruited some trusting ocean-lovers to join us and test out our programme, before launching it officially. We wanted to make sure we could deliver what we envisioned, turns out, we absolutely could!
So Joe and I, plus 6 guests of ours flew out to Andre’s island - Terceira, Azores and the freediving ocean adventure week began.
The group itself was a diverse mix, which could have gone any way. A huge age range, different countries, freediving experience and abilities and personalities.Luckily for us, we couldn't have designed a more interesting, fun and positive group of people, who all came together in the most beautiful way.
Lets just say this week was jam packed with activities. I’m not sure what retreats you’ve been on before, usually there's a lot of idle time to yourself, but we went all in to deliver a schedule that gave the maximum island experience in just one week. (and boy were we tired but fulfilled by the end of it!)
Each day was filled with activities, mostly freediving of course, either on the line with training and coaching, to fun dives on shipwrecks to exploring underwater volcanic formed caves.
We had so many firsts, big wins and special moments in and on the water. It’s hard to explain them if you weren't there but think along the lines of:
A super comfortable PB for Giada on the FIRST DAY of diving, when Immy taught her how K-lock could unlock new EQ depths for her
Lucy learnt to spearfish and caught her very first fish - a forkbeard, under a rock, INSIDE a cave. Badass momentum to witness.
Practicing under water photography around the shipwreck
Mini fun dive adventures in small groups, like Xu and Douglas exploring an underwater cave together, in which they swam all the way through and out the crack at the other side
Lucy came with a 20m PB and left at 27m FIM! A huge jump in just a week of coaching.
Between dives moments on the boat, the most perfect cove picnic spot where Andre jumped from a 12 metre drop into the water, as Camilla captured it all on her drone!
A thrill seeking rainy morning of coasteering - no-one had tried it before and the conditions were far from easy. But we all came together to cheer eachother o
The dramatic, volcanic landscapes of this island literally took our breath away. The azores should absolutely be in your radar if you love raw, rugged coastlines, easy depth access, abundant ocean life, warm days but not too hot, authentic local life and culture and the greenest fields and beautiful forests.
There was more life in the water than any of us - included Andre, expected. It felt like the sea was just putting on a show for us this week. A pod of over a hundred common dolphins found us one morning, the babies leaping clear of the surface as they chased the bow, when we slipped into the water they swam right past us and one curiosity one even circled back to take a look before shooting off again.
There was more life in the water than any of us - included Andre, expected. It felt like the sea was just putting on a show for us this week. A pod of over a hundred common dolphins found us one morning, the babies leaping clear of the surface as they chased the bow, when we slipped into the water they swam right past us and one curiosity one even circled back to take a look before shooting off again.
Later in the week, on our last full day, a bigger pod surrounded the sailboat as we headed back toward the harbour, leaping under the bow and along the sides for what must have been fifteen minutes while every one of us leaned over the boat, laughing, in awe, feeling that the Azores was giving us a send off.
We saw a Bryde's whale on the one morning we set aside for whale watching with the local boat provider. the first any of us had ever seen. On the very last morning, a small group of us found hammerheads near the harbour, an adult and a baby, and even André, who has spent his whole life diving this coastline, told us afterwards that he had only ever seen one before in all his years here.
Giada took her personal best on the first proper session of the trip, sixteen metres constant weight, and said afterwards that she felt entirely comfortable the whole way down, which had been her only real goal for the week. We coasteered on a rainy grey day where the sea was particularly fierce, waves breaking hard against the volcanic cliffs. I watched our guide visibly weigh up whether to call the whole thing off before deciding, in the end, to trust us - “you guys are freedivers” was his reason for trusting us to stay calm in there. None of us had ever done anything like it, and that shared unfamiliarity, everyone equally out of their depth for once, is what actually turned a group of strangers into something closer to a team by the time we climbed back out.
Lucy speared her first fish that week, a forkbeard she found tucked under a rock in one of the sea caves, missing her first shot and landing the second cleanly. We brought it home and prepared it together the next day, and there is something about spearfishing done properly, choosing a single mature fish rather than pulling up whatever a net happens to catch, that feels less like intentionally choosing something from the sea, in a sustainable way that doesn’t go beyond our means. Cleaning that fish as a group, cooking it slowly, sitting down together to eat it, felt like the best way to honour her achievement and the fish.
It is hard to explain that feeling, but everyone at that table understood how special this moment, and sea to table food was! And that’s not all, we also foraged a couple of sea urchins to try (which poor andre painstakingly prepared). Another local delicacy was limpets, foraged by Andre, cooked on the bbq grill, covered in butter, garlic and chilli. In case you cant tell - good food is a bit part of our trips!
Beyond the water, we experienced local cultural events, had a BBQ night with Andre’s local friends, ate Alcatra his mother made, explored inland volcanic caves, sampled local cheeses, picniced on top of Mount Brasil, hiked in the forests and explored the heritage town.
On land, we walked for two hours through pine forest thick with ferns and honeysuckle André taught everyone to drink the nectar from, on the first day, this helped our group to bond, and what came next even more so. We sat down for an opening ceremony in a clearing on the first full day that went far deeper than any of us had planned for, cards laid out with quotes on them, people choosing the one that matched where they actually were in their lives right then, and more than one person in tears by the time everyone had shared. We believe that if we can go through a few minutes of vulnerability, we are able to understand and therefore connect to one another on a deeper level.
There was a barbecue night with André's local friends, one of whom arrived with a piece of amberjack, spearfished by him, that will be certified as the largest ever caught in Europe, and foraged sea urchin and limpet cooked simply in garlic and chilli,
We ran workshops too, from painting to equalisation. And other organic moments came up, as this impressive group of humans shared their talents. From yoga and acro yoga, to thai massage and some energy-shifting healing from chinese healer Xu, to beautiful guitar playing and singing into the evenings. Having a group of diverse people, each sharing their own gifts with everyone, was really special to experience.
The evenings were where we unwound. (And ate delicious food - every meal was prepared by Immy - a huge undertaking but so special to share cooking her with everyone). There was music most nights, someone always finding their way to the guitar. On the last night we ended up doing karaoke at a bar. afterwards, someone suggested a midnight swim, and not one person said no, so we ended up back on the boat and in the sea under a full moon, laughing at how completely unplanned the whole thing had been.
Testament to how special and bonding this week was, is how hard it was to say goodbye! Nine people who had not known each other a week before, and ending it with tears, heartfelt words and the promise to see one another again.
In the next post, we want to talk honestly about what it actually took behind the scenes to make a week like this happen, the parts that were hard, and what we would do differently before we run it again properly.
If you want to be first in line for the next one, join our mailing list. You will see the booking page before it goes live anywhere else.
