The next major place on the Map was Noosa Heads, it seemed like a nice little place to stay for a couple of days so we checked into a Hostel and decided to find out what this little town had to offer. It didn’t seem like there was an abundance of activities there but something caught our eye, as it happened the next morning there was a surf school on the beach for some stupid fee like $10. We paid our money and arranged to meet the bus outside the hostel the following morning.
It turns out that the “school” was little more than a few tips on how to get onto the board and the hire of the equipment. We were taught the importance of tethering the board to your ankle as when you come off you can quite easily get separated from your equipment; we were given tips on getting out to the waves and the basics of “Catching a wave”.
After a few Minutes Ian and Kev were really taking to it and were quite far out and even managed to stand up on the board a few times. My lack of ability in swimming was causing me a few problems as I found I didn’t really have the strength to pull myself along very far but I did manage to get a decent way out and to lie on the board and ride the wave back in. When we got back to the beach I was surprised at how far we had actually drifted, our group were a good 5 minute walk back up the beach.
My last attempt at surfing didn’t go well. I was doing OK and was getting fairly far out when I looked up to see the swell approaching, we had been told that to get further out we needed to push down on the front of the board and to let the wave flow over us, basically, get under the wave. I pushed the front of the board down but was too late, the water caught the lip of the board and lifted the whole thing up, taking me with it and throwing me vertically back towards the beach, next thing I knew I was being pulled back into the water by my ankle as the surfboard was caught by the departing current until the water subsided. That was it, I caught my breath, emptied the seawater from my nose and decided to sunbathe instead.
A little while later some familiar figures made their way down the beach, Kev and Ian had decided to call it a day and came to join me with their tales of surfing glory. I was a tad envious that they were able to take to it quite easily even though they were both exhausted after the experience. They asked if I’d been wiped out and I thought they had seen me go but they just pointed at my chest. I hadn’t got a clue why but I looked down and saw a huge bruise running from my breastbone almost to my shoulder. It looks like the board must have whacked me during the takedown.
At least I had a memento of my day on the water.
I will never make a surfer but I am glad I had the chance to give it a try, particularly in such amazing surroundings, I am sure most surfers dream of taking a board and hitting the Queensland, I have actually had the Queensland coast hit me with a board.
No comments:
Post a Comment