Surf Camp!

Me, Vickie, Chris and Helen had booked a 4 day Surf Camp which would take us from Sydney to Byron Bay, stopping at places in between to Surf!

We arrived at the agreed meeting point in Sydney and was greeted by a couple of guys called Bry and Dillon who were to be our instructors, bus drivers, cooks and whatever else for the next 4 days. They were typical Surfers with the long blonde hair, cap on backwards and really enthusiastic at 8am in the morning! We set off on our journey to the pace we were to be staying for the first night.We arrived there at about 11am.The place was in no mans land! It was really nice though with a bar, swimming pool, volleyball court and acres upon acres of land to explore.We didn't stay for long though just dropped our bags off and set off to head for our first surf lesson! We arrived at the most beautiful beach, deserted with just our group there ready to hit the waves.Dillon sat us down on the beach, briefly explained what we had to do, eased all our worries that we were NOT going to get eaten by a shark like we all expected, and them we headed with our surf boards to the sea.I think it's safe to say that everyone of us (about 20 in the group) were absolutely rubbish and fell straight into the sea! After a couple of hours practice and hints and tips from the instructors, I managed to do a basic surf move, albeit sat down all the way through! By the end of the day at beach it got a bit frustrating as more often than not I was falling off the god damn surf board. I was defiantly ready, and deserved, a beer!!That night we stayed in the place I mentioned above, drank lots of beer and played lot's of drinking games.One particular game was musical chairs which I got volunteered to take part in. (Thanks guys!) No problem I thought, walk round some chairs until the music stops and then find a seat……not quite!!The first round the DJ asked us to run off and find a piece of grass, I managed t get through that round.The second round you had to get a cigarette of someone.This I found slightly more difficult not having one to hand but luckily someone threw one my way, another round I survived! The third round you had to get a condom, open it up, and put it on your hand!! Again not having one to hand…….. I somehow managed to get one and into round four I go! The next round you had to get a piece of women's clothing and put it on over your clothes…. Well this girl said she knew this one was coming and passed me a piece of her clothing!! So into the final round I go. It was me and a girl in the final and the DJ said we had to go and find the wet suits we had worn today, put them on and head back to the chair where the winner will be announced! Me and this girl set off raced to the wet suits, hurriedly put them on and headed back. Now she was slightly in front as we approached the chair. Now as you know I don't like losing so I had no choice and did what everyone would have done in my situation….pull the chair away just as she's about to sit down!!! Now I know this sounds bad but I did manage to catch her before she fell so all is not as bad as it sounds!! The DJ said that it should be a tie.So came the tie break…… we each had 10 seconds to do a dance in front of everyone. I went first, did a silly dance, tried to do a headstand, failed and banged my head, and my time was up.The girl (who we later found out was a professional dancer) happily danced away for the full ten seconds.Surprisingly I didn't win musical chairs, but did get a big cheer for my efforts!!

Day 2 and we were somehow awake at 7.30 for breakfast. We headed to the beach early this day for a real good days surfing.I did better today, just managing to stand up before falling flat on my face, but had a good day surfing nevertheless.At night we stayed at a different place had just a few beers and watched Point Break whilst tucking into Lasagne.

Day 3 and we were up again at the crack of dawn ready for another full day Surf.This was my best day surfing wise as I was standing up more often than not and really enjoying it.At night was what I was dreading the most….. Camping!! Werocked up to this camp site which was just by the beach, we was given the option to Surf again which some people did but I declined instead getting a nice warm shower!After food we had some drinks and played more drinking games.This time it was Simon Says! Not much I can really say about this, we all got in a big circle, someone would stand up as Simon and shout out a demand that the rest of us had to do, i.e. drink the rest of your drink, swap flip flops with the person next to you, just silly things like that, but it was fun especially after a few drinks! Thankfully the instructors and helpers had already assembled the tents so we could just head straight in our homes for the night whenever ready!

Day 4 and this wasn't the best day for me.I woke up with stinking pains in my throat and a banging headache. I threw some Strepsills down me and headed to the sea to surf thinking I just had a sore throat.I managed an hour or so but then that was me done! I had done enough surfing to last me a life time over the 4 days which I enjoyed thoroughly but I wasn't felling good and just wanted to chill.Most of the guys carried on for a few more hours before we had to head to Byron Bay where the Surf Camp would officially be over.Before they left, the instructors, four of them by now, said a few words about our group which was nice and then we left and went our separate ways.

All in all I really enjoyed Surf Camp, met lot's of people who were great fun (2 of which me and Chris traveled to Brisbane with) and enjoyed the Surfing.Next stop Byron Bay……..