Surf's Up!

Surfing in Australia - well now I can check that off the to-do list. On Saturday, I hopped on a bus with a bus of friends from the village to head to Port Noarlunga - where we would spend three hours getting surfing lessons. It was a short drive - only about an hour away. I was quite surprised when the bus driver pulled off to the side of a street and told us that we had arrived because across the street was a river. I was under the impression that we would be surfing in the ocean and of course, I found out later that we were, but the SUP's (otherwise known as Stand Up Paddleboards) were too heavy to carry, so we would be paddling down the river on them.

We got a quick lesson on how to stand-up on the boards, before heading into the rather cold water of the river and paddling around for a few minutes. Now that's from a Canadian perspective - when I say rather cold, I mean that my hands felt like ice and were numb for a while before they adjusted to the water. We spent some time actually standing up on our boards in the water, becoming comfortable with paddling, and learning to turn. I am proud to say I didn't fall in the water at all at the beginning.

Having fun on the SUP's.

There were about six short surfboards and the small group that got to use them first got out of the water and started to head to the beach. The rest of us on the SUP's began to paddle downriver, where we even got to test our balance on some very small rapids and had to brave our way into the ocean past some small waves (which was easier than it sounds). We continued to paddle all the way to the beach where the other group was where a couple of us, including myself, got to switch and use the surfboards.

Waiting for a wave.

Unfortunately, I was a bit less successful with the actual surfboards than the SUP's. I spent a lot of time falling off, but I did manage to stand up completely once or twice. The instructor wasn't very helpful at all but took plenty of pictures with one of the girls' waterproof camera (sorry no pictures of me actually standing up). Although I had surfed once before in Hawaii about five years ago, the experience was completely different since I had used longboards. In my opinion, the longboards are MUCH easier to get up on than the smaller ones we had on this trip so next time I might try those out again instead.

The time came for us to switch back to the SUP's and paddle out to a small reef that was nearby. Our instructor warned us to keep together and not go too far out, lest we get pulled out towards the open ocean. We quickly made it to our destination as the wind was at our backs, pushing us along faster. We beached our surfboards on the reef, pulling them up quite high so they wouldn't get washed away with the tide. We spent some time exploring the reef, which was quite pretty, but rather painful to walk upon as there were millions of small black mussel and/or clam shells. Once again, it was a bit worse than I initially make it sound.  I would personally describe it as walking on pins and needles. At first I thought it was become my feet were so cold and numb that they were just amplifying what  I felt, but I accidentally pressed down on some with my hand and they were quite sharp. We decided to walk along the edge of the reef where the softer seaweed grew along the reef, which was a bit better. We also jump off the into the ocean and were able to see some fish swimming around. We didn't stay in the water for long since a seaplane was circling above us, which our instructor told us meant that the pilots were seeing a shark(s) nearby. We returned to our SUP's and circled around the other side of the reef, before taking a group photo and heading back towards the others. We also got the short end of the stick when it came to returning to where the bus dropped us off as we had to paddle upstream and past the rapids (which we ended up getting off our SUP's and pulling them upstream since we were virtually not moving when we paddled).

Near the reef on the SUP's.

I was quite frozen by the time we reached the bus, since I had fallen off the SUP a couple times getting back and even though I had been wearing a wetsuit, I was quite happy to get into some nice cozy clothes. I was the last one to change and get on the bus, but the group had saved me a couple cookies and some chips, which I gladly accepted. It's quite surprising how hungry you get after several hours of paddling and falling off surfboards. My arm muscles definitely got a good work-out!

The Village Surfers!

Overall, it was a good day and quite an experience. I learned how to surf and stand-up paddleboard, and most importantly, made a bunch of great new friends. I can't believe I only have 26 days left in Australia! Honestly, I am quite excited to come back to the warm weather and all my friends and family. But before that happens, I have planned a couple more adventures before I return home for the summer.

Next stop: Kangaroo Island!