On Friday, we left Sydney at 7:15PM; lugging wheelies, backpacks, pork buns, sushi, and too many bottles of water. We also brought Taboo, a deck of cards, a Frisbee, a volleyball, and a bottle of Ketel One. To take our mind off the 3-1/2 to 4-hour journey to Seal Rocks, we picked up a mixer on our first stop and, soon after, enjoyed the long drive.
We headed north, past the Central Coast and even further than Newcastle, all the way to sleepy Myall Lakes. Surrounded by coastal woodlands and long isolated beaches, it really sets the tone for a surfing trip. At the most eastern tip of Myall Lakes, just facing the Tasman Sea is Seal Rocks. There’s about 4 or 5 beaches surrounding the area, some with larger swells than others. This past weekend, an arctic front made its way to Oz and gave us several 3 meter waves. The great thing about the learning process though is that we only work with broken waves and it, more or less, followed the same sequence of events. You walk about 15 meters out to sea (or get as close as possible to the point break without being carried by a rip). Then, wait until the swell is just about 3 meters away before getting on the board. Finally, while on the board, paddle like your life depends on it and stand up as if you’ve already done it dozens of times.
Naturally, there’s all sort of issues that come up along the way… like getting carried by an undertow, getting caught or tangled on your leggie, paddling too close to where it breaks, falling off your board… a lot… but it’s so much fun!
Our accommodation wasn’t much (it was arranged by Wave Surf School): we had bore water (a.k.a. brown water), breakfast was a weird pairing of plain fried eggs and cereal, there was an army of mosquitoes in our “cabana”, and let’s not talk about what we discovered underneath the mattresses… but all these shortfalls counted for something… sort of. Let’s just say it was a bonding experience.
[on our way to the beach in the AM]
[our cozy room for 7 people - good thing we all knew each other]
[And here's our lovely, empty beach for learning - we tended to stay on the far left or the far right]