Surfin’ AUS

This past weekend held one of the things I have been looking forward to since I signed up to come to Australia:  SURF CAMP!!  About 50 of the exchange kids at Canberra went on a trip to Seven Mile Beach in Gerroa (Jur-OH-uh), two hours south of Sydney, for a weekend of surf culture.

Seven Mile Beach... because "11.3 Kilometre Beach" just doesn't have the same ring to it 

We drove three and a half hours from Canberra to arrive at night and were slightly concerned when our bus dropped us off in the middle of what seemed like an RV neighborhood/shanty town, but we were then lead over to the Surf Camp area, which was much more inviting.  We had only arrived with enough time to get acquainted with everyone, be told the schedule and then get ready for bed, so we headed to our summer camp-style bunks and crashed in order to get up for an early breakfast and our first surfing lesson!

Seven a.m. came quickly, welcoming us with a very chilly, drizzly autumn morning… which really makes you want to slip on a bikini and a damp wet suit and run into the ocean!  We all drug ourselves out of bed and onto the beach where we were instructed on the fine art of surfing, then hit the waves!  Much to our delight, the water was actually warmer than the air, so that made all of the very degrading attempts at surfing a little more bearable.

They constantly play surfing videos in the common area of “camp,” which gets you all excited about the awesome things the professionals do that look SO easy, but when you are actually out in the water laying on a skinny piece of plastic, you realize how difficult it really is.  The first morning was a bit slow.  We started with just trying to get the hang of actually catching a wave, adding the whole standing up part later in the morning.  I was able to stand up after a couple trys, which make me feel like a rockstar.  We broke for lunch and went at it again in the afternoon with sunshine, blue skies, friendly waves and heaps of confidence, so I did great!

After a full day of it, we were all feeling stiff and became acquainted with muscles we never knew we had.  The next morning, things were not much better.  It was rainy again and we all had a hard time moving in general, especially moving toward the cold, damp wet suits we had to squeeze into again.  We went over some helpful tips on the beach and went out for one last time, despite the rain. (But even though it was raining, we were excited when our lesson was interrupted by a HUGE double rainbow [Ooooohhhh, a double rainbow!!] which actually ENDED on the beach really close to us!  I had never actually seen the end of a rainbow, but there were no leprechauns or pots of gold… the Irish guys in our group rolled their eyes at us a few times.)

Surfing in the rain is not that bad-- with all of the waves engulfing you constantly, what are a few more drops?  I had troubles that morning, maybe because of being so sore and stiff, maybe because of the cold and rain, maybe because of trying a smaller board, maybe because I got stuck in the rip current for ages or maybe just because I am not a good surfer.  For whatever reason, I had a slow start, but after an instructor helped me to get a decent wave, I was good to go for the rest of the morning! 

I am kind of bummed now that the weekend is over- I was JUST starting to get the hang of surfing, and now it may be a few months/years before I get to try my hand at it again, but at any rate, I will at least be confident enough to try again one day!  It was a WONDERFUL weekend!  We all made the most of every situation, made lots of new friends and memories and everyone came away feeling that the camp was worth every penny.

Now, I get to try to do a bit of school work and then wake up to catch and bus and a plane tomorrow to Cairns, Queensland for a week!  Tropical rainforest and Great Barrier Reef- here we come!!