Surf Camp

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The surf camp bus was about half an hour late showing up and took another half an hour at least for the staff to get breakfast before we were on our way. The surf camp team consisted of Stevo - the driver, Dillon and Nass - the instructors, and a couple of helpers who just get free accomodation and food for helping with the surfing.

Both Dillon and Nass were still drunk from the night before, Nass sporting a cut eyebrow and chin from a scuffle he had had with a bouncer in Cheeky Monkeys which had started with Nass mistaking the curtain in the main club for a urinal. For the first hour or so aboard the bus, I was wondering what we had let ourselves in for, having found a new level of Aussie non-professionalism. But you should never read a book by its cover, and the next 5 days would turn out to be the best 5 days of my world tour so far!

We had a huge 50 seater coach, and seeing as there were only 10 of us, we had loads of space. The 10 people in our group consisted of us 3, 3 English lads called Nick, Greg and Andy travelling together, a Canadian called Ali, another English guy called Nick who sounded and acted exactly like James Martin, it was uncanny! There was another English guy called Gaz, and a French Girl called Adele, who had been surfing for 8 years and was amazing at at.

After a few hours drive, we arrived at our first surfing beach, which apparently had good 'beginner' waves. After a quick into about the board and how to paddle, we were let loose on the white water (broken waves) to get a feel of body boarding. There are two types of wave breaks, on shore and off shore. Off shore is more desirable as the wind blows from the shore onto the sea, increasing the height of the waves and creating a generally more consistent surfing environment. Saying this though, by the end of the 5th day, I still didn't have a clue how to spot good surf, rips, currents and bad dumps, I just went with what the instructors said. Anyway, we were surfing off shore waves and the next challenge was to catch white water and then try to stand up, which is not as easy as it looks, but by the end of the first day we pretty much all had it sussed.

We then drove for another few hours to a place called Coffs Harbour, where we had a Dominos dinner, and checked in to the dirtiest place I have seen so far, which had a huge cockroach on my bed when I got there, lovely. After watching Point Break and an extreme surfing video, it was time to recharge the batteries for another full day of surfing.

An early start saw us driving another few hours towards Sydney to find another beach to practice what we had learned on the first day. What we weren't told about before the trip was the agony our hands, arms and knees would experience whilst surfing. Pro surfers use shortboards made of fibreglass, but beginners have to use Malubu boards made of foam, or in my case, sandpaper. By the end of the 2nd day I had cuts and grazes all over my forearms and knees, and blisters on the palms of my hands. I vowed never again to be last out of the bus and have to use the ancient, half broken (probably from a great white attack), rough as anything longboard that I was issued with on the 2nd day.

After enough surfing (or falling off the surfboard) for any man, we headed to the actual surf camp where we would spend the remainder of our trip before heading to Sydney. The camp itself is situated in the middle of nowhere on a 100 acre plot near Seal Rocks (about 350Km north of Sydney) and apart from the instructors, everyone else working there is a traveller between the ages of 18 - 25, working for food and accommodation, and you can see why, other than surfing, the place is just one big party. We also found out that Nass was an original Bra Boy and featured in the documentry we saw a few days ago!

The third day was probably the most satisfying day in Australia for me. We were learning how to catch unbroken waves with an new instructor called Ben, who was actually having his Bra Boy Tatoos removed because he came out, and the Bra Boys told him to leave! The waves at this beach, which we visited on the 4th day as well were massive, and the current took you really far right if you weren't careful, where the waves would dump you on your head, and pick you up again like a washing machine. This happened to me and Will a few times. The waves were so powerful that i found it really hard to paddle out past them, and almost gave up at one point. If you don't paddle past the impact zone (where the waves break) you are in danger of getting boshed by the waves and taken right back to shore. With aching limbs and rashes all over, knackered from the past few days surfing, this is not a pleasurable exerience, and happened to me on numerous occasions. After a quick rest, me and the Force decided to give it one last bash at catching an unbroken wave. We waited for a lull in the waves and paddled out in the channel and made it to the back of the waves. After about 10 minutes of getting my breath back, I spied a huge wave building on the horizon, and me and Will decided to go for it. I started paddling harder and harder and found the wave was much bigger than I originally had thought, and it was just beginning to break. The next few seconds were a bit of a blur and I was expecting to get boshed by never before, and swallo a load of water, but by some miracle, I found myself on my feet turning on the wave against the way it was breaking, and I rode it all the way into the shore!

Dan was on the shore at the time and actually came running into the water to shake my hand. Ben later said it was incredible how I had managed to stay on my feet, and I agreed, and he said it was very good for a third day of surfing. If I'm honest, it was a complete fluke that I ended up facing the right way, and I didn't come close to catching anything that good again all trip, but everyone agreed it was the best wave anyone had caught all week, and I had a beaming smile for the rest of the trip.

One of the guys had driven back to the camp at lunch to get another board, and had managed to crash the land cruiser into a ditch. It wasn't until it got dark that it became apparent that the lights were no longer working, so the drive home was a bit of an adrenaline rush to say the least.

The 4th day was spent at the same beach as the third day, but the waves weren't quite as impressive, and my aches and pains were worsening by the minute, despite the duct tape I'd taped my wounds up with.

For the 5th day, we went to another beach, where I managed to catch a handful of waves successfully, but after 5 days I was ready to hang up the board and wetsuit for a while and recover. I will definitely be hiring a board in Manly and Fiji though, and try to catch another big wave.

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