Surf Camp!

Immediately after I arrived at my apartment and unpacked, I started packing for surf camp.  I leave Mac Uni a few hours after Mom and Dad headed back to Sydney on a coach bound for Seven Mile Beach in Gerroa which is even farther south than Wollongong.  In Friday rush hour traffic, it took us about 4 hours, but I met a lot of really fun people on the bus who made the ride go by a lot faster.  

Once we got to camp we divided into our bunk cabins and hung out, talking and getting to one another.  Almost everyone who was there was either from the States, Canada, or Europe.  After a few hours of chatting we all headed off to bed - I have no idea how some people made it so late as there were a few who had just arrived that morning!

Our first day of surfing started out bright and early with breakfast at 7 am!  We all got fitted for wetsuits and a board and headed down to the beach for an 8:30 lesson.  Chris was my instructor and he was pretty awesome, as was the rest of my group - The Seven Mile Shredders!  We learned on the beach for a while, talking about conditions, rips, and our boards.  After a lot of practice in the sand we headed out to the ocean, feeling really awesome about ourselves with our suits and boards attached to leggies!  Chris pushed us all into our first wave, and I stood up on my first try!  From that point on, I couldn't get enough.  We all alternated from catching our own waves, getting some help from Chris, and crashing.  The crashes were often the best part since we had some really good ones.  After a 2 hour session we headed in for lunch and we all inhaled it.  

We went back out to the water at 1:30 for another 2 hours.  Chris moved me down to a smaller board which I wasn't too happy about for the first half hour as it was filled with nose dive after nose dive, but I got used to it.  Near the end of the lesson, Chris helped me catch a wave.  Apparently he did a pretty good distracting me because I never realized how far away we were getting from the shore.  Pretty soon he was behind me screaming at me to paddle and push up.  Before I knew it I was riding a green wave (we had all ridden white water to begin because it's easier) which we weren't supposed to learn until the next afternoon!  I passed by some random guys who were surfing and they were all cheering me on.  I rode it all the way into the shore and it was amazing.  I totally understand the high that surfers get now, it really is an insane experience to be on top of a wave when it's breaking.

We all ate a huge dinner and headed up to the nearby pub afterward.  We all had a great night getting to know one another, breaking language barriers, and dancing to the HORRIBLE version of live music that was being played.

We started off day 2 at the same early hour and all got new and smaller or bigger boards depending on our performance the day before.  I went down again and had to do some more adjustments, but I had another great day.  It was pretty gnarly (I'm a total surfer, haha) the second day, which bigger waves and lots of injuries.  I was stung by two jelly fish, bitten by sea lice (similar to mosquitoes), and hit by 3 surfboards!  You have to understand how much I enjoyed surfing since NONE of that even phased me!  I was so sad in the afternoon session when they told us to catch one more then to head in.  After a 2 hour journey home, we were back at Macquarie and all headed in our different directions with a great weekend filled with memories and new friends.

Surf Camp Hangout

Seven Mile Beach 

Stretching it out.

My group - The Seven Mile Shredders! 

Catching one of my first waves!

SO FUN!

That's the face of concentration!

Blue Board = Smaller Board = Much Harder!

Jelly Fish/Big Wave Day.

The whole group of Mac International Students with our Instructors 

I have decided that it is necessary for everyone to try surfing.  It was just too much fun to miss out on!  Even if you don't like it, at least try it to find that out.  I had no idea what I was missing out on!  I have been terrified of the ocean for most of my life.  I've never liked the waves crashing over me and getting trapped under them has always scared me.  Also, the animals that live in it have always made me a little weary.  But, none of that seemed to matter on this trip.  I got completely pounded out there, especially when paddling out to try to catch the bigger waves.  Chris said one minute he saw me and the next I was halfway back to shore all because of one wave.  It was amazing to see how much of my fear I could overcome out there on that board.  It was like it had some special power over me to make me brave.  

I am so happy that I went on this trip both for the extraordinary experiences I had out in the ocean as well as the awesome people I met.  I could not imagine a better way to start out my time at Macquarie.  

Hope that you're all happy and healthy.

Love you,

Anna