Take Surfing Lessons

#61

When I first put this item on my bucket list, I never thought I’d be crossing it off in Australia and at first, wondered when I would be crossing it off at all. But as part of the study abroad program I did, in Melbourne, Australia, we were given the option to sign up for surfing lessons at Bells Beach and the experience was incredible.

We were all given matching wetsuits, though they ran out of blue wet suit shirts, which we were told were to identify us in case we drowned; I wound up being one of the unidentified in my black wetsuit. We first started out on the sand, where we practiced critical moves we were told we’d need to surf, such as “the chicken.” Our instructor was a riot and often lifted us of the boards if we were not situated correctly.

As someone who is so clumsy a friend once asked if I was tripping so much on purpose, I didn’t expect to catch any waves. While my expectation proved true, I did manage to stand a few times toward the tail end of a few of the waves. Even so, the experience was the fun part.

We surfed for a few hours, then had lunch, and some of us, me included, went right back out there. When we tired of surfing, we started playing games in the water, put all of our surfboards together, and tried to see who could run across all of the boards without falling. We also had a few “survival of the fittest” rounds with America vs. Australia. Unfortunately, the Australian girl, who was one of the coaches, knocked me down first, despite the motivational cheers of USA, USA from my peers!

While taking surfing lessons in Australia was one of the best experiences of my life, I would recommend taking them anywhere. Despite my lack of coordination, surfing is something I definitely want to try again.

So does anyone surf/has taken surfing lessons before? I’d love to hear about your experiences!

Apologies for the long hiatus, but I have just returned from my trip! Hope everyone is well.