Surfing Safari!

Today, I decided that I could not leave Oz without saying Id tried surfing! And my buddies were now 'pros' (having been twice without me) so I thought why not!

Was expecting the sea to be freezing, too many weekends on the coast in Northern Ireland, but it was actually really nice, not cold at all. The wetsuit made it perfect, so I had nothing to complain about, even the seaweed was staying away! In the back of my mind was Jo's comment about me sailing by in the mouth of a great white shark, but I tried to put it to one side!!!

Just carrying the surfboard was my first challenge. They were nearly 9 foot long and when the wind catches them they just push you backwards! We got down to the beach and drew out our "sand boards" to practice how we'd get up when we were out there. Then we hit the sea. Getting the boards out through the break is quite hard, you seem to go backwards with every big wave! I body boarded in a few times to get started, the speed was unbelievable, the waves were quite big!!

Then it was time to try "popping up". I was up first time!!!.... and then fell over and got wiped out lol. Got up every time for the next few but then hit a dry patch where I just couldnt get up on the board at all, even suceeded in jumping straight over it one time! We moved down the beach to some bigger waves and I got completely flipped by one, its quite a scary experience as you dont know where the board is, which way is up and if there is another wave coming! But it didnt put me off :)

We had our fill after about 4 hours and headed home, poor Janette had to drive us 3 sleeping children all the way back to Melbourne, about 2 hours! I tried to stay awake for most of it but even I passed out at one point. Its an all body work out it just completely drained me. The next day I felt like Id taken a full on beating, every muscle ached and my ribs were soooo sore. But it didnt put me off! I was back out the next week and next stop for surfing Byron Bay and then Santa Cruz in California in March! :)