Geschafft (successful/exhausted)

Still pumped with adrenaline, I stopped surfing that day when I felt an unexplainable irritation in my body. It later turned out to be an excellent idea – it was probably my body’s way to tell me that it couldn’t take any more sun that day. (In the evening, my hands were leathery as they missed a sunscreen-session in between. Gladly, the rest of the sunburns were much lighter.) That’s the newbie way to end such a glorious day.

The better way is probably to surf to the point were your muscles are just so able to carry you back to shore. If that’s true, these two brave siblings are pros. You can tell they are hardly able to carry their boards another meter. At the same time their faces carry the strength of true heroes who faced the test God/The Universe has put before them.

Their next test will be to use their tired fingers to peel out of their wetsuits and use their salt-soaked tongues to tell their parents about That One Big Wave They Rode All The Way To The Beach. But even if that doesn’t work, Mom and Dad will probably be able to tell from their beaming eyes.

I hope they slept well while their bodies were reliving the feeling of riding the waves.

(“Geschafft” is the past participle of “schaffen,” accomplishing. Geschafft thus means to have accomplished something. But it also means to be dead beat exhausted. The best translation to capture this double meaning is probably “I’ve done it” vs. “I’m done” – in a single word. Also – yes, I wish I’d have turned the camera a bit left, but I might have missed the two then, you can see they are already stepping out of focus. The disadvantages of manual focus I guess 🤷🏼‍♂️.)