Given that Mike W and I were both going to be at the coast, we looked up surfing lessons so that we could complete #19. We even invited the other boys!
So it was that seven of us were ready to go at the Broulee Surf School at 10:30am. Believe me, this is quite an achievement on a boys coast trip weekend to get up and ready to go by this time! That's when they told us the surf was too lousy to do the class and... Could we wait a couple of hours? Great.
It didn't take too long to come up with a backup plan... Hang out at the beach. So we went down to the beach and chilled out, watching a group of would-be surfers going out for a lesson... Wait. What? Hadn't we just been told that we couldn't...? Oh well...
A couple of hours of beach cricket later and we were ready to go again. We were informed that the surf was still pretty lame, but we figured we may as well go out now.
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| Mike D and Adam celebrate their natural skill |
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| Quay paddles out |
The lesson started with us learning how to catch the waves while lying down on our boards. This was pretty easy.
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| The instuctor was "extremely" impressed with my board-standing ability |
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| Barnes shows how it's done |
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| A dainty dismount from Mike D |
In order to learn this difficult skill, we headed back to the beach, where we were put through our paces - lying down on the board, putting our hands on the side of the board, standing on the board.
Yes, it all sounds rather easy... and you know what - it IS easy. On the sand. As soon as we got out to the water, it was a different prospect.
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| Fergus gives it a go |
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| So far so good... |
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| ... Though this is how I usually ended up |
By the end of the day, most of us were able to catch a wave, then get ourselves up on the board; but we'd often fall off after that. We're giving ourselves the excuse that it was because the waves were so weak... Basically as soon as you got on top of the board you just sunk to the bottom because the wave couldn't carry you anymore.
That's our excuse and we're sticking to it.
It was a fun day and everyone enjoyed it. We even said that we should do it again (maybe next year's boys trip). I was extremely sore for a few days afterwards - I think I pulled some muscles in my back - but it was worth it.
Thanks Mike for suggesting one of my favourite items on the list - surfing is something every Australian should try once; and certainly makes for a break from all the silly challenging stuff!
(Oh, and thanks to Kishen too for being camera man for the day)
