Learning to Surf in Byron Bay

I don't know if any of you guys remember the bucket list I found the other day with the things I wanted to do before I was 30? Well one of them was learn to surf. I have had one failed attempt at this before in Cornwall and decided that seeing as I couldn't really count that and the fact that I'm in Australia I decided to give it a real go.

If I am honest I didn't hold much hope of getting up and riding a wave - probably due to the amount of sea water I had consumed last time I tried, but it turns out that in Australia - failing to stand up surfing was just not an option! 

However the idea of being able to surf kept me going - I was going to be that cool person who could just grab a board and go. Then again the whole thing is easier said than done and I can't say that when I was surfing that I was completely calm and at one with the ocean...Instead I was thinking something more along the lines of....

1) be better than the sexist boys (not too hard seeing as I seemed to be battling egos as opposed to skill) 

2) stand up, stand up, STAND UP....oh no I missed the wave again....

3) ok I'm up - now BALANCE!! 

4) make sure someone gets a photo as proof that I did it (please refer to photographic evidence in this post) 

5) look at me I'm a surf legend (this went through my head every time I stood up) 

I have to be honest with you here - I swallowed a lot of sea water. And despite the blatant undertones of sexism by my instructor "now I know the boys can do it without a wetsuit but are you sure you can?" and the tedious names he called me "princess, good girl and darling" being just a few, I was up and surfing in no time, and I'm pleased to say I was just as good as, if not better than most of the boys. 

I definitely need some more practice and I can't wait to grab a surf board when I finally reach bondi beach, but safe to say that his is definitely something I can now tick off my list!