Surfing Trip!

22.02.2007

Feb 23: After a day at the beach on Friday, I needed to start getting packed for my surf trip that weekend at Crescent Head. The Mojosurf bus was picking up a group of about 30 AustraLearn students around 8:30pm. I geared up with a hat, sunscreen, some bathing suits, and flip flops, and headed to the bus station with 7 of my close friends here. When the bus arrived, Ian (a surfing instructor) explained that it would take about 4 hours to arrive at our destination and we would be taking a few stops along the way, including a stop at a bottle shop. These Aussies are really all about partying and having a good time! =) Anyways, after listening to some music and watching Family Guy on the bus, we arrived at the MojoSurf Shack. We unloaded our things and picked our rooms throughout the lodge. The lodge was in the middle of the woods, literally, but was kind of cute. The 6 of us girls got a room on the 2nd floor. Now, this wasn't a nice cabin by any means...but it was decent. The floors were made of a thick cardboard substance, and the bedsheets were nice and mismatched. =) After making our beds, we headed towards the beach. The beach was amazing; you could see about 1 billion stars in the sky and we even got a glipse of the milkyway. I wished on a shooting star, and just talked on the beach for about an hour before it was bedtime. Getting up at 7am the next morning, we headed for breakfast (consisting of toast and some cereal) and then geared up for the beach in our wetsuits. Walking about 2 miles along the beach towards the best waves, and after about 10 minutes of instruction, we were off hitting the ocean on our surfboards. It took a few efforts of me standing up the surfboard with the instructors help, before I was able to catch my own waves and start surfing on my own. The waves were rough, especially with a huge surfboard, and I got beat up by them pretty bad. It was worth it though, as the feeling of getting up on a surfboard and standing for about 30 seconds on it, is amazing! =) Surfing for 4 hours gets you pretty tired and HUNGRY, so everyone headed for lunch. We had some good sandwiches and pasta salad, and then headed to our rooms for siesta. I took one of the four hammocks on the deck and layed there with my IPOD and slept for 3 hours. After siesta, we headed towards the waves again and surfed for another couple of hours. The afternoon waves were bigger and tougher, but I caught a few waves and enjoyed myself! The instuctor even gave me a shorter board in the afternoon (the smaller board, the harder it is to surf) because he said I was learning well! =) It was then dinner time, and we had a big BBQ. I ate a steak, a hamburger, and a sausage! We then played a game (Mojo Jenga), and the group who lost had to do all the dishes. Of course, my team lost, and I ended up drying about 100 plates. We then headed to the campfire for a night of fun and games. I was super tired, so I went to bed around 12:30 to wake up the next day for a morning of surfing at 7am. The next morning, I stood up on a wave on the first try! After about 2 hours, I was really tired and relaxed on the beach in the sun. We headed back around 12, ate lunch, and packed up to go home! Overall, my surf trip was AWESOME! Additionally, I complied to the number 1 rule of surfing: Look cool and have fun! =)
Pictures:

Ash, Kathryn, and I are Crescent Head