When in OZ...SURF!

This weekend was by far the best weekend I've had in Australia. I learnt how to surf. When I first got here, there were a lot of orientation trips. One of them was for surf camp. A friend back home told me not to go on them the first week because that's when you meet a lot of people, and they offer the trips all throughout the semester. Plus, it was really cold that first week. So I held off and my roommate and I decided we'd go in September when it would be a bit warmer. She had also heard of another company that does surf camps called MojoSurf. She said they sounded more laid back and how you would picture a typical surfer. So we booked our surf camp for the second weekend in September...hopefully when it would be nice and warm.

By the time we left, we'd recruited three more of our friends. On Friday we headed off to Sydney to meet up with the bus that would take us surfing. None of us really knew where we were going because there wasn't any information on which beach we'd be staying at. On the itinerary it said a 3-4 hour drive, so I was expecting to go a bit north of Sydney, one of my friends thought it was actually in Sydney and the others just didn't know what to expect. Turns out we were all wrong.



We get on this cool looking green mini-bus/van type thing and Jake (our drive, guide, surf guy?) tells us how the night's going to work. It was 5.15pm, we were going to drive 2 hours then stop to eat, drive 2 more hours, stop at a bottleshop and have a toilet break then drive 2 more hours. We wouldn't arrive until midnight...we left Campus East at 2pm. We all looked at each other with an expression that was a little bit like...what have we gotten ourselves into?!

On the bus we met the other guys from our group. First, I'll start off with the friends I came with. Wendy, my roommate from California, John from Idaho, Beth from Indiana and Abby from New Jersey; they all study in Wollongong with me. Onto the rest of the group; Duncan (20) and Adam (22) brothers from England who are on vacation from working in New Zealand and Sydney, respectively. Enrique (age unknown) from Verona, Italy who works as a bartender in Italy, his mother is Chinese and his father is Italian. Charles (19) from the french part of Canada who has been backpacking for the past year and a half. Conrad (21) from Michigan who's studying at UNSW for the semester and was on his last weekend of their spring break. Finally Patrick (30) from Minneapolis who is in Australia for 2 months for work as an engineer. The first part of the bus ride was pretty quiet and we watched a surf movie, but after filling our bellies with Maccas the rest of the way was fun with some great sing-a-longs!

As much as I would like to take credit...
 I did NOT take this

When we finally got to Crescent Head, Jake told us to keep out eyes our for kangaroos - I bolted up and peeled my eyes for kangaroos. There were two, but of course - I missed them! I was convinced this was going to be where I saw my first kangaroo, but that night wasn't the night. When we got to the surf camp, I felt like we were in the middle of the woods. There was a main house with lots of rooms of bunk beds and a fireplace downstairs, a separate building with the toilets and showers and an open kitchen/eating area. We met Ant ("Ant Man") who would be helping us the next day. We were tired, but before we went to bed we found a map showing us where we were...we were half way between Wollongong and Gold Coast!!!!! We had NO idea how far away we were! But it was getting close to 1am and Ant said he was coming to wake us up at 7.45am - so we went to sleep in amazement about how far away from home we were.

The next morning, I woke up before our wake up call; I was so excited! We were going surfing!!!!! It all seemed so surreal, but there we were, in what seemed like the middle of no where eating breakfast and getting the low down on how waves are formed and where abouts we'd be surfing. We then changed into our swimsuits and wetsuits and headed down to the beach. We walked through some trees and there was the beach! It was beautiful...and there was no one there! We got our board - huge green 9 footers and started our lesson!

Looks easy on solid ground... (working on rotating it)

We shimmied our boards into the sand, knelt down next to them and learnt how to move our boards in the water. One had by the tail and the other in the center of the board. Then we learnt how to get on the board; one hand on the rail (side) and jump (from your knees) onto the board with toes on the tail. Then came paddling - it's pretty easy and exactly how it seems, you just have to remember to have your body centered on the board. But then came the hard part - jumping up and standing on the board. I'll try my best to explain it but it might be one of those things that you have to be there for. You put your hands by your chest, drag your back foot to the side up to your front shin (your back knee is on the same level as your body but sticks out to the side). From there, you jump and bring your front foot to the front around the middle of your board and center your weight. Both feet point to the side of the board, not the front. Doesn't seem that hard, does it?

I'M SURFING!!!

When we got into the water it wasn't as cold as I thought it would be and it was pretty dry, until the water slowly trickles into your wetsuit...then it gets a little chilly. We got into the water and although it was a little chilly it was so nice in the sun and you soon forgot about the cold. The water was perfectly sandy underneath and it was amazing. I was a little too chicken to try catching a wave at first so Ant helped me out and although I didn't get up the first (or second time), I did manage to get both feet on the board. It's hard to get your balance right because the board is kind of slippery so even though you can have both feet on the board, it's really easy for one to just slip off. But it was still such a rush and so much fun. My third time was the charm - I got up! It was amazing!! Soon I was catching my own waves and I, along with everyone else, had a smile plastered to my face the whole day (sometimes people had looks of deep concentration on their faces, but those soon turned into smiles).

I think over the weekend I had two big wrecks. The first pulled my pony tail straight out - it didn't last for long and it didn't really shake me up but I surfaced from the water and my hair was all over my face! The second time I was under for a bit longer and I was nervous for a little second (I think 2 waves hit me so I didn't have time to recover), but they taught us well so I covered my head, surfaced and it was all good.

On Saturday we had two surf sessions. The first was fun because it was new and exciting and it was great. But surfing is tiring! So after a couple of hours we went back to the camp and ate some sandwiches because we had built up a nice appetite. We laid out for a while to rest and before we knew it, it was time to go out again. The tide had gotten really strong during lunch so we went to another beach by Goolawah National Park, again, we were the only people on the beach! It was so beautiful! When we got back out we learnt how to turn; lean on your back foot, look and move your arms/body in the direction you want to go. It's definitely not as easy as it sounds. At first I was happy to just catch waves because I knew how to do it at that point, but then it was time to learn something new. I was probably able to turn maybe 1/5 of the time. I would try, but not have my body right so I'd just keep going straight with my weight too far back. When I first got it though, it was the greatest feeling ever! It wasn't a fast turn but slowly I'd be facing across the beach rather than towards it.

We surfed for another couple of house, apparently missed a dolphin that was swimming right next to us, and then headed home. By the time we left I was parched! At first I was drinking and inhaling (through my nose) a lot of salt water, eventually I learnt that whenever a wave was coming to close my mouth and breath out through my nose. But it's still thirsty work! As we were driving back to camp guess what we saw...A KANGAROO!!!!!!!! I was SO excited!!!! They are weird looking animals - with really long, thick tails. But I finally, after 2 months in Australia, saw a kangaroo! Even better than that - we saw two!

Back at camp we showered, changed and sat in the eating area where they were showing a picture slideshow of us surfing. It was so cool to see, even though we don't look as cool as we felt actually on the water. The slideshow kept us entertained for at least an hour...even though they were on repeat and I'm pretty sure we watch it on a loop at least three times. But then it was dinner time and it was delicious!!! Eating caf food everyday makes you really appreciate good food and we ate until we couldn't eat any more! Then we sat around the bonfire and just hung out for the rest of the night. At 10.45pm we were so exhausted and it felt like it was 2am that we all started trickling off to bed, ready for an early start the next day.

On Sunday, our bodies were sore. But we were all loving it so much that even though we had to stop off on the shore every once and a while everyone had a smile constantly plastered to their faces and we just kept going. The waves were bigger on Sunday so at times it was a little nerve-racking and hard to get out far but Nat and Ant helped us out and we caught some nice waves! Eventually though it was time to head in, eat lunch and head back to Sydney.

We said bye to everyone at the camp and loaded the van. Heading back to Sydney was a pretty quiet journey because we were all thinking about what a great time we had...or because we were so tired that we fell fast asleep on the bus. We arrived in Sydney, said bye to everyone, got some Hungry Jacks (aka Burger King) at Central Station and headed back to Fairy Meadow. When we got back, it was raining. We had so much fun and it was such an amazing experience that I want to do it again and again!

I only came home with 4 bruises - there's one really big, cool looking one!

I forgot! So when you get up - it's great, but sometimes you catch waves that are going so fast and instead of getting up on the board, it's just so much fun to stay with your belly on the board and ride it in! You go so fast! It's amazing!

Not getting up, but still having so much fun!