Monday 8th Feb.
Surf school
Next stop Byron Bay! We headed off after checking on the water cooler in Kylie, it's needed topping up daily since we started (obviously when I say we topped it up, I mean Jay)- bit worrying. After reading reviews on line saying this was the best place in Australia and possibly the world to learn to surf we decided to book surf school here rather than surfer paradise (just up the cost a bit more). We did a quick recce of the area and chose our preferred school, we would start surfing that afternoon. On the way back to Kylie we got approached by a travel agent man trying to sell Whitsunday's and Fraser Island tours, we have clearly let our guard down since Asia because within minutes we were in his shop on the brink of handing over massive sums of money we actually didn't have to secure a trip, which was already fully booked according to him, thankfully we found our senses and made our excuses saying we would be back later. We later booked both trips on line for a fraction of the price. Before our surf lesson we chilled on the beach for a bit and noticed lots of excitement by one of the trees, as we walked past we saw the cause of the hysteria, a massive Python sat on one of the palm tree branches, guess we had to see our first snake in Australia at some point. We were the first to arrive for the lesson, obviously not yet in the swing of the laid back ozzy time keeping. We met our instructor, Kate, who incidentally was a surf structor who had moved over from her home in Cornwall, she was lovely and we felt nothing but excitement to get out in the water. We met the 2 others joining our lesson and with our wetsuits and surf boards we headed out. Once we got the beach we had a quick lesson on currents and rips. Before long we were laying on the boards on the beach attempting to master our positioning and the 'pop' (surfers terminology making the process of jumping up onto a moving surf board to catch a
wave sound much easier than it is). After only 10 minutes practicing on the beach we in the sea. We got straight into it and took turns for Kate to push us into a wave (way easier than catching your own waves for beginners), for the first go we just had to maintain our position on the board and experience the thrill as the wave catches you and takes you to shore faster than you would have ever thought possible without an engine. After just one practice run it was time to try and stand! Of course Jay took to it like a duck to water and managed to stand on his first wave, even if it was just briefly. After 5 waves of using all my might to stand up and falling straight off the board Kate said it was because I was looking at my feet, she said to picture an artist I wanted to see in concert (I chose Paloma Faith) standing and singing on the beach, I had to focus on Paloma the whole time. The next wave arrived, Kate pushed me onto it and I stood up and surfed to shore!! It was amazing, I was so happy and swam back out shouting I made it to Paloma!! Jay and I spend the next hour catching most waves and trying to better our techniques. As with any new skill you're so focused on your own progress you neglect to be aware of others around you, towards the end of the day Jay and I caught the same wave, it looked as though we were going to crash into each other, we both held out our hands to prevent the collision, we ended up holding hands and riding the wave to shore, now that's going to take some beating!! The 3 hour lesson flew by and we headed back to the surf shop exhilarated but exhausted.
We ate dinner on the beach and headed to bed early, aware we had 2 more days of surf lessons to go.

Tuesday 9th
For our second lesson we had a new teacher, Bret, if you were to picture a stereotypical ozzy surfer you would picture Bret, born and bred surfing. Helping Bret was a
trainee surf instructed called Gowie. Jay and I were the only students in the class that day so we had 1 to 1 attention, which I needed way more than Jay did. On the beach we recapped the techniques and headed straight out into the water. The waves were a little rougher today and it was infuriating that by half an hour in I was yet to catch a wave, meanwhile 'I am brilliant at every new sport I try' Jay was up and catching pretty much every wave, he even had the surfer look of straddling the board just chilling out and waiting for the perfect wave. I had to fight all my urges to go over and push him off. We had a similar experience to the day before that didn't end quite as romantically, in fact it ended with my totally taking Jay out, knocking him clean off his board, it may seem as though this was intentional but I can barley stand on the board let alone control it enough to knock someone off...just good luck