Surfing in the AUS!

Today, we went surfing.

A small group of us met at Paul's office, and we piled into a maxi taxi (small bus) driven by Paul (which I thought was funny). Our group was mostly Clarkies (there's another group going tomorrow) which was fun. A few beaches north of Cottesloe beach, the wind was pretty strong and the currents were especially strong. After slipping on wet suits and getting (longer) surf boards (made of a lot of foam) we trudged along the beach to find a good spot.

We started out on the beach, practicing paddling on the sand. Boy were we a strange sight. Paul, who had my camera, got some video of us looking ridiculous. I'll have to make a video to put on YouTube later. After more instruction which Justine (who was next to me in line and is from Clark) and I didn't pay much attention to because we were posing with ridiculous faces in the background as Paul was taking pictures, we went in.

Man, was it difficult. Paddling out against the waves and current was a real challenge. The currents change the sand levels a lot, so you might be walking in a step into a sudden drop off or a hole. Or you could be way far out and notice you can stand up because there's a sand bar.

Like always at the ocean, I managed to swallow a lot of sea water at first, which always really hurts. Besides a short run by Jesse, we didn't have much success as a group surfing. I feel like we didn't have enough time out there to figure it out by ourselves. I got up twice on my board, only to have the wave die out from under me. Even though we were all getting tired, I feel like if given another hour by myself I could have gotten the hang of things. I'd like to try it again sometime if given the chance.

Paul took us to this pie place for lunch, and I had two really good spinach and feta pies. Puff pastry makes everything taste good, I swear. I also tried a mocha milk shake thing (which comes in 600mL cartons and can be found anywhere in Australia) which had 20g of protein to my amazement. It was pretty good, but tasted too much like chocolate milk to me. I'll have to get their iced coffee version next.

Overall, it was a fun experience and I'm glad I went (even though I almost didn't sign up for it). Our instructors were both good, cheery, and funny blokes. Not having a car will make getting out there again a real bother, so I don't know if I'll get to have another go.


Check out the video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vah7MDdabEw

I'm editing this post with a new YouTube link (the current one fixed the old one, which didn't load properly because my internet sucks) and discussion of this evening. Everyone's going out tonight (my American friends) to clubs and bars, mostly clubs. Not only am I extremely tired from surfing, but I find clubbing extremely juvenile. Are clubs the typical hot spots for intellectuals? You can make an argument, but I would so no, definitely not. I find no appeal in going to clubs whatsoever, and I think they're slightly detrimental to society. Why? Because they put overwhelming influence on physical appearance in the social interaction aspect of clubbing. Is this fake? Hells yes it is. The whole idea of it is fake. I understand why some people like it (it's fun, etc), but I think it's absolute rubbish. Tell me I'm no fun all you want, tell me I should be going out and having fun all you want, but I still think it's an immature way to have fun. Really.

Today: 4 (If we had gotten to surf a lot longer or if I hadn't been so damn tired, I'd be feeling better.)