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So today, after a week of being in Sydney, we headed out to surf camp!!!We all piled onto the coach (there is 75 people total going) and headed down the coast for two hours to the town of Gerringong and the location of Ripcurl Surf Camp Australia! We arrived about 11am and quickly dumped our stuff in the cabins so we could sit and eat lunch.
We were introduced to the surf coaches and the run down of how the week works, then had a quick chat on "wetties" (wetsuits), the right way to hang them up and that anyone that does it wrong was going to get a "hosing"! Interesting...!On came the wetties, still slightly damp, and we headed down to the beach. The beach was called seven mile beach, guess why :P, and was beautiful!We all grabbed a board and were split into groups of 7 or 8 and assigned a surf coach. Ours was called Matt, and he was a typical aussie surfer. Blonde, hot and tanned! He went through the basics of how to stand up on the board and the first step was "thumbs to nipples"...cue giggles from me and the four girls in the group. The rest of the steps are difficult to write without a demonstration but basically its thumbs to nipples, push up, back leg, front leg..STAND!Easier said than done and after practising on the sand for literally half a minute, Matt send us off out into the wild ocean.
Two hours, many crashing waves, nose dives and gallons of water swallowed later, we'd all survived our first surf lesson and all 7 of us in the group had managed to stand. Whayyy :) We were all feeling a little shattered and a bit battered from the waves and did the short walk back to camp a lot slower than we did the walk on the way to the beach! We washed our wetties (hung them properly), had a shower then had a yummy dinner of sausages, steak, salad and bread. Luckily, surf camp includes three meals a day so we didn't even have to cook after an energy draining day of surfing.
The next four days were spent rolling out of bed early for brekkie, waiting for the lovely vuvuzela sound and shout of WETTIIEEES OOON! from the coaches then heading out for two hours of surfing, having lunch, another two hours of surfing, showers, dinner, playing cards/games and socialising in camp before hitting our pillows feeling exhausted! I never knew surfing took so much energy, we were all in bed by 10:30pm every night and WOW did our muscles ache! (A couple us did decide to explore and did go to the local pub one night, which consisted of a Harry Styles look a like and the pensioner night out, so it wasn't really a wild night we were missing anyway).
By the end of the week, we had learnt had to stand, how to change direction, how to speed up the board and how to paddle properly to make sure we could actually catch a wave. We also learnt how to do a surf check (wind,waves, and tide) and the different types of waves and currents. It was a lot of fun and the surf coaches really helped us out in the water, helping us catch waves and tagging onto the boards to steady us in waves. This was really helpful, except when your coach is holding your board as you're standing on a wave, and a wave hits him, causing your board to rock and you to fall back pretty much onto his face then into his lap..!oops!Luckily he thought it was funny (I hope!) and told me about all the funny times he'd seen people fall (a lot!). All the coaches were so enthusiastic and would shout and holler whenever they saw someone catching a wave. They would often shout "YOUUUUWWW" which is aussie for "yeaaah!" or "whaayyyy" and sometimes they'd say "yeaaaah buddy!" or "chakara braaaaa" haha deff going to try and catch onto this lingo!
Thursday night was spent having our last supper together before heading to the wild (not) place that was the fishermans pub. A couple of the coaches came along and we all had a drink together. Friday was our last day and we went to the beach for our last morning of surfing, with those with hangovers watching those who felt alright to surf, surf. We were meant to have a competition and relay but due to the lack of people in wetties, the morning turned into playing on the beach. After lunch, it was time to hang up our wetties for the final time and head home :( back to the hostel in Sydney it is!
To anyone wanting to learn to surf, Ripcurl Surf Camp Australia was an amaaazing week and I would deff recommend it! I learnt to stand up on the first day, all the coaches are so friendly, and the experience of mingling with 74 other people all wanting to do the same thing was pretty fun. I made some new friends, learnt a new skill and had a week long holiday at the beach!
Disclaimer - I may be able to stand up on a surf board but I am a million miles from being a real surfer. Gonna need a lotta practise and help, it is so so so difficult!Remember to bring your upper body strength!
- comments
debbie sounds like I need to come over and do a surf camp or am I too old? Perhaps for the older people a 1:1 session? xxxx
Kim Bröker Really love to read your blog! Please keep me posted ;) Have fun!!
julia Hi Claire, sounds brilliant! glad you had a good time and made some friends. Love JULIA