Surfs Up!

One of the must-do things here in Australia to try out would be surfing. The best surfing beaches that I have come across are here in Australia. The sand is amazing, the water is warm, and hopefully the sun will be shining, but if it isn't it's still good times! Just remember the motto: Surf, Eat, Sleep.

Activity Board. Note the surfer's motto!

To kick off mid-semester break, a surfing trip was organized for the study abroad/exchange students at my school. We all jumped in a bus and drove three hours to Seven Mile Beach in Gerroa. It was the longest beach I had ever seen, and was perfect for us beginning surfers. We left on Friday night and we ended up getting to Surf Camp at around 9pm. We had a quick orientation, we got our rooms and we pretty much fell asleep because we had an early call the next morning.

7 Mile Beach, Gerroa

Surf Camp dining area

Saturday morning was cold and wet and waking up at 7am was no easy task. First thing we did was eat breakfast. Nothing fancy, just some cereal and toast to get us going. Next thing we knew it was time to suit up....in our wet suits of course. They were cold and wet, but no one seemed to care because it meant we were that much closer to hitting the waves. After carrying our surf boards all the way to the beach, and getting a quick lesson on surfing techniques it was time to get in the water. Although it was pretty cold just standing on the beach, the water was a nice comfortable 22 degrees. After a couple more hours in the water and a few more lessons we all were starting to get the hang of standing on the board and riding the waves to the beach.

On shore lesson

Once the surf day ended, we headed back to the camp to eat a delicious BBQ and get ready for the Fisherman's Pub. This is a bar up the road from the camp where we were able to go and reminisce about the day, have a few drinks and watch a dude sing songs while playing the fake guitar. It was so much fun, and it was a great ending to an awesome day!

Rocking out at the Fisherman's Pub

The next morning was another early morning. Awake again at 7 for breakfast then back on the beach for 8:30. We were taught different things to do while you are actually standing up on the surf board. This included things such as speeding up and slowing down as well as changing directions. On this day we had the option to change the size of boards we used.
Fun Fact: the smaller the board the harder it is to surf.

At first using the smaller board caused some problems, but after a little while and a little bit of direction from the surf instructors I finally figured it out. By the end of every lesson everyone had pictures and movies of themselves surfing. Unfortunately, we had to pay to get these pictures and we were unable to bring our own cameras to the beach so if you wanted evidence of this adventure you had to pay for it.

Surf Camp was definitely one of my favorite Australian adventures to date!

Success!