Surfing, Day 1

I've had an amazing beginning to break so far! Such an awesome time!

Per Tyler's advice, I signed up for a surfing camp. The cheapest option available was one that offered individual day trips, and booking multiple days at once came at a discounted rate. So I booked a three-day surfing camp (each day leaving for the beach at 8.15 returning home for the evening).

The first day, we were picked up at the McDonald's at the nearby Coogee Beach (a half hour's walk east). When the bus pulled around, it was completely hippie! Spray-painted to resemble a zebra with thin black-and-white stripes covering the entire fairing, a fake Mercedes-Benz emblem at the front, the interior stripped of any seating but a few seats at the front (replaced instead with giant cushions on the floor on both sides), an amp in the back that you could connect your phone to, and a random ball-shaped plant hanging from the back of the bus. We had no idea what we had signed up for...

There were five of us there from UNSW, plus another couple who were just traveling, so seven in all. It turns out we were on our way to pick up an entire European bar school, or if (like me) you may not know what that is, a school of students training to become bartenders (all the students were from Europe). So they were a very extroverted, people-oriented bunch! Lots of energy, and a lot of fun - made the day really entertaining. The first guy I met was from Leuven, Belgium - exactly where I had spent my summer in Belgium a couple years ago. What are the chances?! So I chatted with him a bit about how awesome Belgium is, Leuven in particular.

We were going to head to a particular spot on the coast, but the waves were over 10 ft, which was a bit too high for beginners (just a bit...). So instead, we found a picnic area that borders a river, which branched off the ocean. That way we still had some waves from the ocean, but the crooks and bends of the river acted as a dampening system. But since we weren't on a beach, it involved a lot more swimming (getting out to the middle of the water, finding the area where the waves were breaking, gaining enough speed, etc.), which tended to make it more exhausting.

So the day began with a lesson on land. We learned how to paddle out, the proper form for your back and arms and shoulders, how to stand up once you've caught a wave, and how to ride it! Then we strapped in and headed out - just like that, with only twenty or thirty minutes training. It seemed like we were way underprepared! But after jumping in, swimming around and getting used to being on the surfboard, things start to feel natural.

We all headed out at more or less the same time, so roughly thirty of us were all in the same area. Of course, thirty unexperienced surfers, the majority of which are in their twenties and reckless, all aggregated in open water seems like a great idea. So the first wave comes, and half of our class fell on the other half, which was hilarious. But I was out in front, and rode the wave so well! Not only did I get on it, I rode along the wave (vs. just perpendicular to the wavefront)! It was spectacular!

But since that first wave, I didn't catch anything else nearly as well. And since everyone else was underwater, no one saw it and therefore no one believed me. So according to anyone else that surfed that day, it never happened. But it did! And it was my best wave of the day, on my first attempt ever.

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