Friday night the bus came to pick us up and as usual, we broke out the boom box and took the liberty of DJing the 4 hour trip for the 40+ people on the bus. Although I'm not totally sure everyone appreciated it, we had a good time! By the time we arrived at camp, we were exhausted. They showed me, Alex, Christy and Rachel to our hut, in the opposite direction from where they were leading everyone else in our group. I say hut very literally. It was literally 4 tin walls with a few windows and a door, a tin roof and a concrete floor. Inside there were 2 small bunk beds and a trash can. It was so tiny and because there was no air conditioning, everything was a little damp and warm. We got into our beds and were pretty grossed out by the soggy feeling everything had but fell asleep, ready for our big day ahead!
We were awoken bright and early by one of the hottie instructors (I swear it must be a rule that you have to be incredibly attractive to be a surf instructor there) and headed to breakfast. It was super dark when we had gotten there the night before so we got to see the place for real, and it was so cute! The entire place is like its own camp site with a ton of huts like ours, super cute decorations and then some teepees that people live in. At breakfast, we were reunited with the rest of our friends who's cabin was right next to the ocean! After eating my super nutritious peanut butter sandwich, we went to surf school! First we just had to sit there and listen to them tell us all about what could go wrong. Rip currents and sharks and wiping out and every other possible scary event was covered and I started to get nervous. I'm all about that 'don't mess with the ocean' life because, as I've said before, I'm very good at getting totally clobbered by the waves. We put on our wetsuits/rash guards and headed to the beach where we practiced our paddling and actually hopping up onto the surf board. Before I knew it, we were divided into groups, given our instructor and board and sent out! First of all, let me just say how awesome our instructor was. Jan (Juicy J as we started calling her) was a champ and put up with our annoying, loud struggles! My first few waves I would get half way up and then fall but wasn't too discouraged. We were in shallow enough water that I could just grab my board and walk back out to catch another wave.
After lunch, we went back out and Jan led us out past the wave break point so we could catch some bigger waves. Getting out with the surfboard was much more difficult this time. The waves were bigger and there were some places that I couldn't touch so just picture little Maggie with a 9 foot surfboard trying to maneuver these huge waves without getting hit in the head by my board or anyone elses. Once we got out there though, the water was super calm and I could literally just lay on my board while I waited for my turn. I got progressively better and was able to stand at least a little bit every time! The waves just kept getting bigger though and after one particularly bad wipeout, every time I went to grab my board and head back out, I got hit by another wave, sending me and the board spinning in opposite directions which would then end in me getting dragged by my ankle. In that brief period, a wave caught my surf board sideways, came up and nailed me square in the face, leaving me with a nice busted lip and bruised nose.
That night, there was a big beach party and we taught all the Australians and Europeans how to do the classic American party dances like the wobble, wop, dougie, etc. Then someone came along and changed our music and put on techno, which is horrible to dance to, so we left. The gross damp hut smelled and was even more damp with our wet swimsuits and towels but we managed to sleep until our lesson this morning! The waves were even worse, but thanks to Juicy J, I finally managed to get one good wave in where I stood for more than 3 seconds! Then we packed up, covered in sand and salt water, and got on the bus for the long trip home.
Surfing is an incredible workout between actually surfing and simply maneuvering the board in the water, so I am very very very sore! It was disappointing that surfing isn't my undiscovered talent, but at least I had the chance to try it and learn a little bit!
There will be pictures at some point, I promise!! The surf school hasn't posted them to their website yet so I'm still waiting on them! As soon as I get access to them, I'll post them all, there's some quality ones of me mid-fall!
How I thought I would look after surf camp...
How I would actually look if I got onto a surfboard...
A picture of my surfing injury because it makes me feel more legit. I know, that surfboard really got the best of me, its clearly a huge wound.
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