Byron Bay!

Monday morning was an early one, as I had to catch my mojo surfbus at 7 in the morning. After meeting the guy driving us to Crescent Head, a 23 year old surfing dude, we headed off. The drive from Sydney to the surfcamp took about 6 hours. We arrived at the surfcamp early in the afternoon. After a big lunch we got us all a wetsuit, brand new ones, they had only been worn once before. We got us all a surfboard as well and off we went to the beach. The beach was a 5 minute walk from the camp, which was really good. We first got some instructions about how to lay on the board and how to catch a wave. We then all went into the water to have a first go. It was quite hard to find the right wave and then to peddle for it with your arms.. Quite exhausting as well. We kept on trying all afternoon until dark. We then headed back to the camp and had some good food, it was great to have someone cook for you for once again and finally some proper meals as well instead of all the pasta and rice I’ve been eating lately.
After dinner we did a surfingquiz, and the loser had to do the dishes. Unfortunately that happened to be our team, but it was all good fun. We then had a few beers around the campfire, which was really fun as well. Afterwards we headed of to bed as everyone was really tired after the first day of surfing.
The second day we got up around 7 to start a new surfing day. We headed off to the beach again and we got instructions how to get up on your board once you’d catch a wave. We went trying all morning until around 12.. We then headed back for a nice and big lunch again. After lunch we had a siesta. As surfing is quite tiring. After a little afternoon nap, we headed back to the beach and started to surf again. At that point I was finally able to get up on the board and ride my first wave. Although it happened to be a very stable and easy beginners board, it was still really cool to actually surf. Later on we had some food, did a game of jenga to decide who had to do the dishes and then we were off drinking. We went to a place near the beach. We made a campfire and we played some drinking games. Everybody got really drunk, but it was great fun. Especially since we got to know the group a little bit better.
Wednesday we had to get up early again.. around 7:30 for another day of surfing. We headed to a different spot on the beach, since the waves happen to be bigger overthere. It was quite hard to surf in the big waves, but practice makes perfect.. By the end of the day I was able to get up on the board and ride my first big wave. That night everybody was just too tired, so they all went to bed quite early. The next day we were all fresh and full of energy again. I couldn’t wait to catch a few waves again. I got me a slightly lighter board, which is harder to balance on, but easier to steer with. We surfed all morning, went for some lunch. That afternoon we had a surfing competition, which was great fun. Our team got in second which was pretty good too. After the surfing competition we started to party on the beach, since it happened to be the birthday of our instructor. He had brought beers down to the beach, so we all started to drink on the beach and did some beersbee (frisbee but with a lot of beer drinking involved) and some were also playing some cricket. Everybody was really drunk already at around 5 in the afternoon, including the instructors. It was great fun and everybody was having a great time. We stayed on the beach until the sun went down. We then headed back to the camp. We all sat in the trailer of the car with all the surfboards in there. It was great fun. We headed back to the camp and had some dinner. We kept on drinking and everybody was truly wasted at around 8 already. That night was total madness, but we had a really great time. I think some of the pictures I took tell the whole story. Since we were all very drunk early in the evening already, we headed to bed quite early as well.
Friday we got up at around 7 again, most with a big hangover. We had some breakfast and headed to the beach to do some final surfing. After catching a few waves and it was time to move back to the camp to fresh up and get ready to get to Byron Bay. Still laughing about the stuff that happened the night before, we had some lunch. After lunch we hopped on the bus and headed to Byron Bay. It took another 6 hours to get there. We arrived early in the evening. After a nice BBQ and some beers we headed to a bar together with the bus driver of MojoSurf. We had a great time and we all got very drunk… again.. Byron Bay is a great place, it has a really nice and laid-back atmosphere to it and it’s full of surfers. I’m planning to do some more surfing the next few days, just to practice a bit more. But for now I am going to chill out on the beach and enjoy the excellent weather today!

I’ll get back to you all soon with more stories!