Surfing

Moday 18th May 2009 - Berry Bay South

Today we met the three surf leaders, Longy, Mark and Jammo, before we departed from Wambana, and they gave a us a brief chat about surfing, some safety, and the essentials. We then lined up in order of heights, smallest to tallest, and they then distributed the wetsuits out. I received an extra-small sized wetsuit, which had short sleeves. I wasn't happy about the short sleeves, but I had a ripcurl e-bomb wetsuit, which is a high quality wetsuit, and I trusted it to keep me warm. We then departed on the designated buses with Wardli's 2 and 5 together, and 3 and 4 also.

When we arrived at the beach we were to line up and receive both a leg rope and a surf board. After this we walked down the steep and rocky hill, closely examining where we step trying not to slip with our board in our hand. After slowly lowering ourselves down the hill, we carefully placed our boards in the sand, sinking the fins in slowly making sure we don't bend or break them. Soon after we gathered in a group and began our warm up down the beach. The warm up consisted of a jog down the beach, with some short sprints, and some moderate stretching. We soon jogged back to where our boards lay.

We then split up into 3 groups, each with our own instructor in charge. We then practiced some padling and jumping up onto our boards while we were still on the sand. Soon after we straped our leg ropes on and ran out into the tides. We all tried our best to stand up on any wave we could catch. I managed this very well standing up on almost every wave I cought. We came back in to the shore after about 30 minutes and Mark gave our group some more tips about being able to stand up. We then ventured back out into the surf and kept up the good work until the end of the session.

Tuesday 19th May 2009 - Berry Bay North

We all woke up ready for a whole day of surfing instead of a half day. I was so excited about the day ahead after how fun the day before was. We soon arrived at Berry Bay North and we had a small talk about rips, because there are heaps of rips and this particular beach and we were to watch out for them. To take care of this problem we were to, after we had completed a similar warm up to yesterday, make massive sand markers in the sand, by making piles of sand so that we could see them from the water. When we were surfing we had to stay in between these two markers.

We soon straped our leg ropes on and jogged out into the water. The surf was even better than the day before, which brang a smile to everyone's face. We had to stay at no deeper than chest deep. Once again I had such a great time catching wave after wave, and having fun surfing next to Jimmy Shannon.

As the day came to an end everyone was completely fatigued. Surfing uses about every muscle in your body and after a day of it, it really takes its toll on your body. But I had so much fun over the coarse of the day, that the fatigue was only a small deflection of the day for me.

Wednesday 20th May 2009 - Berry Bay North

We once again travelled to Berry Bay North for our last day of surfing, and I determined to make it my best day yet. We once again went through our warm ups which was good because we were all cold and stiff after the cold bus trip.

We soon got out into the water and started catching some awesome waves. About half and hour into the session Longy called James Brownbridge and I over to him and asked us if we wanted to go out the back with him. So we went with him paddling out to the back break, but by the time we got out there we were in a rip, so Longy decided to teach us about rips and how to use them to your advantage. Soon after this we paddled over to a sand bar and caught a wave into shore and ran back to join the rest of the group.

Later on in the day a group of some of the better surfers in the class went out the back again with Longy. The group included Gavin, James Turner, Jimmy Shannon, and myself. It was a slight struggle to paddle out there against the waves but once we got there it was definately worth it! We caught some awesome waves and got some sweet rides all the way back into the shore.

Overall, it was the best day for me in the surfing program and in the whole extended stay program. Surfing was definately the best activity that I engaged in over the extended stay period and I am keen to keep surfing later on in life.