Byron Bay

It's not as glamorous as the pictures may have suggested. We both ache all over. In particular, Susan's arms, shoulders and back are aching and she has a big bruises on her arm and thigh and I have bruised ribs which are sore when I breath. At the time we didn't feel the injuries in our enthusiasm to become Byron Bay surfing dudes.

After some yoga exercises to warm up muscles that may not have been used in a while we had a demonstration and some practice on mounting our boards, getting to kneeling and then on to the standing position. The waves were reasonably big for beginners - if you were standing in the sea with the water up to you waist then the waves would crash over your head. So you can imagine that hauling a board out to the starting position was quite hard work. The secret to caching a wave is to lie on your board and paddle as hard as you can towards the beach in the hope that the wave will pick you up rather than pass you by. When the wave has got you then it is all about keeping balance and perhaps lifting your head out of the surf so that you can breath. It's not until the wave slows down a bit that a beginner can think about getting to their knees never mind standing. About one try in four you get a great ride all the way to the beach. The rest of the time your board turns over and you end up rolling over and over until the wave lets you go. It is exhausting. After 4 attempts, only one of which was successful, I had to take a short break to get the water out of my lungs and get my breath back. Then it was back to work. After an hour or so we were all much more proficient - managing to catch most waves and sometimes getting to our knees. All of us were given a shot on 'Tinkerbell', a wider, more stable board, and some of us managed to get to our feet on that.

It was great fun. The pain didn't kick in till a bit later and after a nice lunch we could have been ready to go again. Instead we had a lie down on the beach for a while then we walked the length of the beach watching the experts show off their moves.

In the evening we had traditional fish and chips on the beach while we watched the sun go down Then we watched a little bit of Andy Murray play Roger Federer on a giant screen.

Another 'Super Awesome' day.