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Published: January 1st 2008
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Feet planted firmly on the board, I'm riding the wave into the beach! Finally! My previous wave ride in was 3 days ago and distinctly wobbly. This one felt good!
I arrived at 'Surfari Central', near Kempsey/Crescent Head, on the Christmas Eve afternoon, after a long bus ride from Sydney (full of getting to know you conversations and some surf DVDs). We were out in the water by about 4pm, having had little time to unpack - well, what more did we need than 'bathers' and a board. A brief lesson and we spend most of the session paddling out - hard work! We've got a load to learn about the boards/ocean, but let's just get familiar!
Christmas Day, after I've opened my present from Justine (thanks!), we go to Limeburners Creek Nature Reserve, find a bit of beach, and spend the morning tumbling in the waves (and watching the Korean boys bury themselves in the sand), as we try and learn what's a good strong wave, and which will just throw us around. I manage to catch a few in, and ride one in so close to standing it's annoying! We're not having an afternoon session,
it's back to the lodge after lunch/a scenic walk, shower, chill out and get ready for Christmas dinner - which did involve turkey, but cooked camp pot-style, no roasties. After, we all gather round the campfire for presents - we've all bought $2 presents, and we take a number each, then No 1 chooses the first (biggest) present, and everyone from that point has the option to take another parcel, or take an opened parcel off someone else. I'm No 7 and along with everyone else I open something new - it's a shoe - great! Soon after, the taking things off each other commences - particularly popular is a beach wrap/Australia flag - well, we are a bunch of tourists after all! Hilarious, and there's a few parcels left over - we vote the worst presents for another go! I end up with a magnetic darts set as the shoe was reclaimed by its owner - he nearly lost it again afterwards though! Enjoyable evening, accompanied by the Seppelt Grand Tokay flown in from the Barossa!
Boxing Day, Point Plummer (apparently the others saw dolphins here, I missed them - saw a Ray though). Plenko, our instructor, brings
out the big board and pushes us all into a wave from a standing position until we've all ridden in. We all look a bit wobbly, but even I eventually manage it! Someone's taken my board, the others look too small, so I continue with the instructor board, and even manage to catch/ride a wave on my own. Sam catches this on film too so you can all see this one day - I'm sure you can't wait! Another scenic walk to digest lunch and back in the water to keep trying!
Thursday, and it's off to Hat Head. A beautiful beach but I spend a frustrating day fighting to get out to the waves and I don't seem to be able to get up out of the knee position - everyone else is using a different technique, but I've been told to use this one, so keep trying. We go for a swim in a Tea Tree Lake afterwards - brown, but warm/soothing. Friday morning is similar, but waving off the 5 day trippers! I'm not seeing much of the evenings - I'm so tired - having dinner, a drink, a chat and crashing out with a book
(read a Georgette Heyer detective novel (in the stocks), John Grisham 'The Last Juror', and a time-travelling romance - all found in the lodge). Thursday evening did join in with the games though, then watched Lester's 80 year old mum line dancing as we waited for Sam to finish the video - looked well made but couldn't really see who was who as TV didn't work and laptop just doesn't cut it. Friday lunchtime managed to see on TV, may buy on Sunday!
After lunch on Friday just a few of us left so we get into the 4WD and head right onto the beach - this is great driving down empty beaches. Kyle is our instructor for now - we look at a number before finding one that's good (this is common for surfers - always looking for the next great wave!), then we get several tips which make more sense, and all re-try our pop-ups, I'm abadoning the knee-lifting style! By the end of the afternoon, thanks to a few pushes from Kyle, I'm getting to my feet if not staying on them!
Saturday, back to Limeburners in the morning (eventually, we tried Hat Head but
Look at that colour co-ordination!
Shame don't demonstrate such good co-ordination on the board! swell is too big for us!), and I continue to kind of stand sometimes but waves knocking us around a bit. Back to the lodge for lunch/relax, back out 5pm to catch the good tidal waves. Nice protected corner found and the efforts continue, and suddenly, all on my own, I've found a great wave, get to my feet, stay on my feet, nestle in and ride right into the beach. How good did that feel?! Everyone saw but no one had the camera out (don't think I have ANY photos of us surfing!) - shame! Head back, chill out and get ready for an early start!
Sunday, another 630am wake-up (best waves!), and we're heading for South-West Rocks - one of the few places shouldn't have too big waves at the moment! We go through Smoky Cove, take a 'wrong turn' to the lighthouse and Captain Cook's lookout, then see the early prison, before finding the beach. Another paddling day today, learn to swing the board round whilst sitting on it, catch a couple of waves, ride one after a fashion before we head in for lunch, via the Tea Tree Lake, and wait our bus back to
Sydney - which is on time - says the roads are busy but not too bad, so we hope to get there for 8ish. Unfortunately I'll miss my Contiki welcome/dinner but hey ho!
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