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Published: June 17th 2009
Surf camp, otherwise known as Spot 'X'. Down the coast from Byron lies a small caravan park situated next to a beach. This beach currently smells to high heaven of rotting seaweed due to the incredible weather that the East Coast has experienced in the past month. Still for learning to surf, nowhere I've been can boast better waves for it.
Surf camp is run by a company called Mojo Surf, founded on the principles of the Duke (the hawian guy who brought surfing to Australia) that is to look cool and have fun. On the OZ bus to Spot X, we were shown a film that introduced us to 2 different callings in surfing. One is the competition side dominated by complete dicks on boards, the kind of guys who still have tantrums aged 25 and are in only for the money. The other side is the free surfers, these guys work for the likes of Billabong and get paid to go to their favourite places and have photographs taken of them while they surf. To me this second way of surfing sounds ideal, these guys are complete hippies, they are in it for the love of surfing and
thats how it should be.
On to Surf Camp itself. The surf shack that makes up the camp is right next door to a village of grey haired caravaners just waiting for their next coronary. Still, they didn't really emerge from their caravans that much, anyway, the camp is comprised of the main shack (complete with kitchen and shop) and portacabins for sleeping quarters. The guys who run it possibly have the hardest job in the world. Every day or so a tour group comes through, the instructors take them through the basics of surfing, when they're not teaching they're either hitting on their students or catching some surf themselves.
As to the instructors, they were good at what they did, though you could tell that they were just going through the motions of instructing. What they taught was the theory behind waves and rips and how to get yourself rescued should the need ever arise. The emphasis was always on looking cool and having fun. Once we got down on to the beach it was time for the practical. This is where I suspect they started to take the piss a little. With the sun beating down
Dont Hassle the Hoff
Trained life guards equipped with beer patrol this beach...they had us practice paddling and standing up on our boards on the sand. After 5 minutes in a wetsuit, the heat and sweat were nigh on unberable, still they had a good laugh while making sure everyone had grasped the basics.
We then rushed out into the surf and spent a rather pleasant afternoon drinking various amounts of sea water and narrowly avoiding concussion. Spot 'X' is a place that I definitely regret not having enough time to do properly, I would have dearly liked maybe a week there. They guys were brilliant, the surf was nice and easy and the atmosphere was just so relaxed even Jon McEnroe could have enjoyed a peaceful game of tennis, (providing there was a court, which there wasn't).
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