Surf Camp

This past weekend I went to surf camp at Seven Mile Beach, about two hours down the coast from my residence. It was basically a perfect weekend. Nice weather, nice waves, nice setting... and most importantly I was able to get up on the board and ride some waves to shore. It's a great feeling to catch a wave and let it take you in. Once you're up and balanced you let the wave do the work. It's like using a power lawn mower. We had two two-hour sessions each day. We woke up at 7, had breakfast, got into our wetsuits and hit the beach. When we returned we viewed all the photos taken by one of the program leaders and laughed at ourselves. Then we returned to the beach in the afternoon for another session.

On Saturday, the waves were tiny - Lake Michigan tiny, for the most part. The conditions were perfect for us beginners. By the afternoon I was able to get up on the board at least 50 percent of the time. Mostly, however, I caught waves right after they broke. What I struggled to do - like just about everyone else - was to catch a wave from its peak right before it breaks and then ride the swell to shore. But for now I'll leave that to the experts. It is still a lot of fun catching them right after they break. You need a few big paddles and then push up with your hands, simultaneously bringing your feet up on the board. For three of the sessions I used a 9-foot board, which I felt most comfortable with. I tried an 8-foot pink board - yes, pink - Sunday morning and struggled to get up on it (although I was doing pretty well by the end of the session, which featured bigger waves than Saturday - Sunday afternoon's waves were, apprpriately, the biggest of the weekend). Generally, taller boards are easier to ride. Overall, it was a great weekend - a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I hope to do a little more surfing while I'm here. I think you can rent boards for $20 or so for a few hours. I'd also like to buy a wetsuit. I swear, you could stay in the water forever with those things - even cold water, even pothole or Amanoosek (sp?) water. I'm hoping to find a deal for one, because the suits I saw at the surf shop we visited after camp were about $150 - too expensive for me. So we'll see.
On a less bright note, last night I totaled up my expenses so far in Australia - after just a little more than two weeks - and they totalled almost $1,700. Granted, that included surf camp, my gym membership, books and my mobile phone (which I can return at the end of the semester for a refund) and my spring break trip, but it was still a scary number. I'll be cutting down on expenses here at least for a little while.

That's just about all for now. I have to get back to my film production class, in which we are learning to edit film. I don't have much planned for this end of the week. On Friday some friends and I are going to an Australian Rules Football playoff game and then early Sunday morning we're heading to Melbourne for our group trip. If anything interesting happens in the next few days, I'l blog it, but I might not write again until Thursday or Friday.

Peace,
Jake