Surf Lifestyle

This weekend was spent embracing the Australian surf lifestyle to the fullest. Literally. We weren't quite sure what to expect for the trip this weekend. The info was quite vague. We were picked up from Bond Uni by a pretty fancy looking bus.


We soon realized that the 1 and 1/2 hour trip we were expecting was actually going to be 5 hours! (half way to Sydney!) Whoa. And one of the surf instructors started off the bus ride by having everyone on the bus introduce themselves with their name, where they're from, and...their turn ons and turn offs. We were wondering what kind of trip we signed up for...and it would only get more interesting as the weekend went on.


Saturday morning we woke up at 8, had breakfast (canadian bacon and beans....but luckily they had cereal too), and at 9 headed off to our first lesson. We were fortunate enough to get the two less sketchy instructors, Jimmy and Rob, who were actually pretty cool and very helpful. The other 2 instructors, Dan and Shannon....a little more on the crude/crass side I would say. After quite a tiring morning Missy, Lauren, and I spent a couple hours laying out on the beach. At 3 we had another lesson. This one did not go as great for me. The rip tide was exceptionally strong, and I just couldn't do as well as before. It was a bit frustrating.


But then after our lesson, the night got a lot more interesting. The Australian surfers are more open and have fewer inhibitions than most people we soon found out. As we were lining up for dinner they all came out in very scandalous cross dressing outfits. Throughout the entire day most things that came out of their mouth were very inappropriate things to say to women. Some even pretty offensive at times. They were just very crude. At dinner when they were all dressed up in their outfits some things weren't covered and there was alot of flashing of things going on. It was bizarre. And they were quite proud of it too and overly friendly. We all just kept looking at each other like is this really happening?! These people are crazy! These surfers live quite a different lifestyle then the rest of us we found out. But we did listen to a lot of Jack Johnson throughout the weekend which was pretty sweet.



On Saturday we had our last surf lesson in the morning which went really well for me. I stood up everytime. I felt like I accomplished alot this weekend. After leaving the surf camp we stopped in the town of Byron Bay on our way back. Missy, Lauren, Kerry, Courtney, and I all decided to rent bikes and ride up to the Byron Bay Lighthouse which was on the most eastern part of Australia. We finally made it up there... after a few wrong turns. The whole way up we did hear some thunder in the distance, but it started to pour just as we reached the top. So the entire way back down we had to ride in the storm, and of couse we were soaked! It was quite an adventure, and we had the best time! We finished our adventure with dinner eating burgers and chips (fries)! It was a fabulous day :)