I spent the weekend learning how to surf at 7 Mile Beach National Park in Gerroa, New South Wales. It was an INCREDIBLE experience!
We loaded up on Friday for the 4 hour trip from Canberra to (hopefully) some warmer temperatures and some surfing. There were about 20 Canberra exchange students, including myself and the 5 girls I have become such good friends with. According to tradition, I put on the I-pod and slept the whole trip (that's for you Bethany). We arrived after a dinner stop at KFC-who knew?- and were put up in little beach cabins! After a walk on the beach, a few rounds of Scattergories and talking about scary Australian spiders we called it a night.
It was colder than I would have liked on Saturday morning, but we all bundled up for some hot tea and brekky before getting fitted for our wetsuits and heading down to the beach. 7 Mile Beach was absolutley breathtaking in the daylight. A cliff dotted with colorful little bungalows overlooked the beach that stretched on and on. I love going to national park beaches because there are no hotels and seedy tourist stuff.
We were all in the first group to surf and the sun was nice and bright. We spent about half an hour on the beach learning technique and drawing fake surfboards in the sand to practice on. If you know me, you have probably noticed my lack of coordination and balance at certain times. If you have seen me ski, you especially know what I am referring to. I literally had no idea of what to expect out of myself in a sport that involved so much standing and balancing...on a board-on the ocean. Which happens to be very unstable.
The first couple tries I got nowhere, but after being given a few pushes from our instructors I was actually able to ride some little waves into shore. I seriously surpised myself on this one! And it was my first time in the Pacific! We spent two hours in the water before heading in for lunch. Our second session involved less learning on the sand time, and we were able to be in the water a lot longer. The wetsuit was amazing at keeping off the chill because the wind really made it feel like winter. I would say I had an overall successful first day ever of surfing
Amanda, Ayla and myself hung around after our second lesson and sat under the sun and talked. We played 20 questions and my personal favorite-Would You Rather, until the sun had almost sunk behind the trees. It was a relaxing way to cap off some intense hours of getting beaten down by the waves. Our staying out later also turned out to be a plus when we got back to camp and all the showers were open-win!
Preface: There is nothing better than the exhausted feeling you have after a day of being outside hiking or skiing. You have exerted yourself all day, your body is tired and you are hungry. Now, multiply that by about 120. Because that's how many tired and starving people there were...and it was FEEDING TIME! I literally do not think I have ever taken in as much food as I did in that short of a time. I don't know how it happened, but I looked down and it was all gone. The sun sets so early in Oz, so by about 6:30 every night it is almost full dark. By the time we were done with dinner, it felt like 2am but was actually only about 8.
We all collapsed shamelessly into bed at a ridiculously early hour and somehow ended up STILL oversleeping for breakfast this morning! I don't think I have been that physically drained since the half marathon.
The weather today was absolutley wonderful. It was about 5 degrees warmer and the waves were great! Although today seemed to be a less successful day in the balance department. At one point, I somehow managed to end up under my surfboard and took a fin to the forehead. I have a massive bruise on my left side from getting hit with a rogue board and a bruised knee from falling repeatedly on it. What's new, haha/ Ayla and I also kept managing to get so incredibly tangled up with each other. We would be going along just fine, and then end up crashing into each other! You have a cord on one of your feet connecting you to the board and we spent about 10 minutes laughing hysterically and trying to untangle ourselves.
We had a free afternoon before heading back to cold Canberra so we went looking for shells and walked on the beach. It truly was a stunning place to spend a weekend. Now I am back and thinking about class this week, but very much looking forward to going to SYDNEY this Thursday!
The City to Surf 14k is a week from today! We are heading out on Thursday to spend some time running around Sydney before actually running around Sydney. The weather is supposed to be mid 60s and sunny-I can't wait!
I think I will put the laundry and unpacking off until tomorrow. Tonight I am going to sleep like a baby.
