Learning to Surf

So, this past week has been crazy with finals and I have been unable to really talk about last weekend. Last weekend I went to a surf camp and learned how to surf. I have never been surfing before so I thought it was a good idea to try to learn how to surf while here in Australia.

            I had originally planned the surfing earlier, but because surfing always seemed to get pushed back. Because of this, I ended up on a weekend with a completely different school, however, the good news is that the other school was completely American exchange students.

            The first night we were greeted by two of the most stereotypical surfers I have ever met. They laid out the rules literally consisting of being on time for dinner and no Justin Bieber. And then headed to bed. I met some nice people on the bus ride over and some of them invited me to share a cabin with them.

The New Friends I made 

            We went out on the beach that night to see the stars which were beautiful, some of the girls had never seen a shooting star so it was cool to see them get excited when they saw one.

            The next morning, we go up bright and early, had breakfast, and got into our wetsuits which were still wet. Getting into the wetsuit is the worst part of surfing in my opinion, however, it is winter here, so it is a lot cooler than it is in the summer.

            We got out onto the beach and they had us practice the motion of getting on the surfboard. We were taught by two guys from Britain, one looked exactly like Ed Sheeran and the other was obsessed with inappropriate jokes.

            After about an hour of practicing in the sand, we got in the water. The water in the 7-mile beach is warmer than the air in winter so getting into the water was a relief. I spent more of the first lesson body surfing but I was getting the technique but I still couldn’t stand up. After another couple of hours, they brought us In for a yummy lunch of pork burgers.

7-mile beach

Then we went right back out to surfing. The waves in the afternoon were harsher and I spent more time trying to breathe than surfing. One of the instructors noticed I was struggling to stand up still so he came over and I came close to standing up again but once again fell off, having a nasty fall and almost drowning. I was ready to be done by the end of the day.

            The friends I had made, Emma, Jane, Amanda, and I all decided to go to the pub/disco/liquor store/ casino before dinner to get some alcohol. We knew we were going to come back later with the whole group so we just got a couple bottle of wine and headed back to an amazing dinner of pasta and chicken.

Sunset walking back from the pub/liquor store

7-mile beach from above

 After dinner, the whole group of surfers and the instructors went back to the pub to party. There was live music, from this guy who could literally play any genre. We danced and had fun, I didn’t drink very much but it was fun to watch as literally, everyone else drank themselves silly. I knew I wouldn’t be struggling with a hangover in the morning.

The Pub

The group I was in 

  The next morning, we got back into the wet wetsuits, me being literally the only one without a hangover because I wanted to finally stand up. We got back into the water. The instructors started helping me right away, realizing that I didn’t have the right sized board and helping by stabilizing the board. After many failed attempts the instructor who looked like Ed Sheeran finally helped me to stand up.

I did it

I am a surfer now. It probably won’t be my newest hobby because I am covered in bruises and am content sticking to rock climbing, but I wanted to try. It was important to me that I stood up, and to conquer my fear of failing.

surfing hurts a lot

I ended up having a 7-hour train ride from hell trying to get back to Sydney but it was important to me that I did this, that I learned how to surf in Australia.  

I'm a surfer