Surf's up?

March 16, 2010

It was another beautiful day in Australia. The weather was perfect today - perfectly warm, perfect humidity, and perfect waves for beginner surfers.

We took the public transit ferry ($6.40 each way) across the bay to Manly. Manly beach is not only a highly sought out tourist area for shopping, beaching, and surfing as there are many locals who call this area home. The commuters to/from Sydney are plentiful as the ferry travels every half hour from early dawn to late night. It is quite an enticing little world over there - kinda makes me want to change careers, relocate, and open a boutique on the beach. but until then, I will just have to continue living on my motto of: work hard to play hard.

Manly Surf School here we come. I couldn't help but wonder how these professional surfers can stand their job dealing with clumsy novices like us all day. Having said that, I did get UP on the waves three times and Kate got up several as well. We were VERY hapy to have achieved some success during our first time surfing! Prior to going out in the water, we had a half hour lesson on the beach on how to assess the ocean, interpret the waves, how to handle the (heavy) board, and safety tips. I know it looks so light when those experienced surfers are walking with their board under their arm down the beach, but I'm here to tell you they are conditioned and it was not as easy as it looks. My upper half got a good workout today from pushing myself up on the board while catching the waves. We had a two hour lesson and were totally exhausted byt the end of it. I don't think I phsically could have lasted much longer without a break. Now I completely understand how Cameron Diaz has sculpted that rock hard body on the water.

And here's my souvenir from the day - a jellyfish bracelet sting bracelet.

We both got stung by a Blue Bottle Top jellyfish. It feels like a bee sting that just doesn't stop stinging. They were plentiful and there were announcements on the beach warning of them, but we were willing to take the risk for the experience. We had full bodied wet suits on but mine was a little big and my arm sleeve kept sliding up, hence the location of the sting. Kate got stung on her hand though didn't get much of a mark left behind.

I would definitely go surfing again. It was a fun, fun, fun experience!