I had to be up early
again today as it was my first day of Surf Camp. I had booked 3 days with Surf
Camp Australia, so I had to be at Wake Up Hostel for 9am. James was dropping me off, but the traffic was really bad so I ended up being a bit late.
Luckily the bus was
waiting for someone else so it didn’t leave! I called them to let them know
just in case. We had to drive around
two hours South of Sydney to get to Gerroa. We would be learning to surf
there at 7 Mile Beach, which is what it literally was.
When we got there, we
were shown around the camp by Luke, who was one of the instructors, and we met
a few other instructors called Laura, Jordie and Hose. I got chatting to an
English girl called Charlotte, a German called Inka, and a Scottish girl called
Megan. We decided to share a room together along with another German girl
called Lillith.
The weather was really
cold and rainy but luckily our rooms had heaters which made them really cosy.
We dropped off all of our stuff, and then had some lunch and got to know each
other. I met a Brazillian girl called Amanda, who would start interning with the
company the following week.
After lunch, we each got
given a wet suit that we would use for the duration of our trip. Most of the
group were doing the 5 day experience, but I opted for the 3 considering how
cold it was and the limited time I had. The wetsuits were really
hard to put on as they were so cold. I tried to put my contact lenses in but
ended up getting sand underneath them. So I was a little behind the rest of the
group on the way down to the beach.
The beach itself was
lovely and we were practically the only people there. We had to walk up a track
to collect the surfboards, which were huge. I really struggled to carry mine as
it was so much bigger than me and my arms weren’t long enough to put it under
my arm and grip it at the bottom.
We got divided into two
groups and each had to choose a team name. We all stood in a circle and shouted
a random word, so our team name ended up being ‘the goaty schnitzels’. I met
another English girl called Lydia, who was living in Newcastle along the East
Coast.
Our first lesson was
about safety when surfing. We were shown how to check our boards and how to
properly attach a leg rope. We were taught about the different types of waves
and how to check for dangerous rips.
We were then shown our first surfing position, where you push yourself upright on the board when
lying on it. To practice, we had to draw ‘surfboards’ in the sand to lie on. To
catch a wave, you had to paddle really hard for 3 strokes as the wave touched
the back of your board. It was pretty exhausting just practicing on the sand.
We got into the water,
which was surprisingly warm, and started practicing on the small waves. It took
me a few attempts, but after some help from Luke I managed to catch my first
wave which was really exciting..
After around half an
hour, we were called back in for our next lesson which was how to stand up. We
had to get into a ‘chicken wing’ position, and then bring our front foot
forward ‘as if we were kicking an ex in the face’. Then you had to push up as
quickly as possible and stand in a squat position on the board.
We then had to go back
into the water to practice. After a couple of wipe outs, I managed to catch my
first wave standing up which was a great feeling! We stayed out in the water
for a couple of hours and after I while I was managing to stand up for a lot of
the waves :D
When we got out of the
water, we had to carry our surfboards back to the trailer, which I found really
hard, especially as our arms were so tired from paddling. It’s a lot more
physically intensive than I thought.
We then had to walk back
along the beach to get back to surf camp, get out of our wet suits, wash the
sand off them, and head to the showers. It was freezing so we all spent about
half an hour just standing under the warm water.
We had around an hour
till dinner, so a few of the Germans, Amanda and I went to the Bottle Shop to
get some wine. We didn’t realise to get there we had to walk up a huge hill,
but we did get an amazing view of the beach. I wish I had taken my camera.
Amanda and I walked back
together and then I sat with Luke, Megan, Charlotte, Lydia and Inka to have
dinner. We played Perudo for a while, drank some wine and then went to bed
around 9.30ish. We were all exhausted from surfing all day.
No comments:
Post a Comment