And last on our list for the day is the world-famous Bells Beach. Bells beach is home to the worlds longest-running surf competition, the Rip Curl Pro Surf & Music Festival, running since 1960. The competition takes place every Easter. Yes, I am definitely going to go watch the end of the competition once I get back from Cairns. [Spoiler Alert] Additionally, the final scene in Point Break, where the character played by Patrick Swayze dies, is set in Bells Beach. It was actually filmed in Oregon, USA though.
Anyway, the day started early but not too early, boarding the bus at 9 am. We were heading first for our two hour surf lesson at Ocean Grove.
The drive to Ocean Grove from campus was about an hour and a half, which wasn't too bad. We were there soon enough.
It was actually a little chilly, about 60-65 degrees as a storm had just passed the previous day. A storm having just passed had its ups and downs - the waves were a bit bigger, although they were choppy rather than being super consistent.
We were given a short briefing including how to handle yourself in the water, what to look out for, etc. Yes, being in the shark fatality capital of the world, sharks did come up, but only briefly. Shark attacks are scarce outside Melbourne... since 1791 there have been about 10 fatal attacks in the area. Sydney, and northern Australia are where sharks are more prevalent.
Anyway, after the briefing we were given wet suits and got ready.
At this point I had to lock up my phone and wasn't able to take pictures, but I'm working on getting the pictures from the trip organizers to post here. If I get them I'll update this post.
We were given our boards and then given a few minutes of lessons on the beach - paddling, a beginners way to stand up on the board once on a wave, etc. But the best way to learn is to just try it, so before long we did. As we were trying out surfing for the first time the surfers giving us lessons would point out things they are seeing that are causing us to fall off, or stopping us from standing up. I was lucky and was able to stand on my board on my third try. (My luck didn't continue for very long though!)
Half way through our surfing time we were brought back in to be shown the pop-up methods any experience surfer uses to stand up once on a wave. We were given more pointers and subtle tips on how to get used to the method and were let back out again.
After 90 minutes of water time I was able to ride four or five waves in until it died. I never was able to figure out much board control or turning, but in 90 minutes I was pretty happy with the try.
After an included lunch - lam souvlaki - we went to Torquay next, saw the beach (it looked very similar, forgot to take a pic!) and headed in to town to do some small shopping. I visited a few of the stores to look at some sales, and picked up some pretty cool gear as gifts for friends/family back home. But to meet our schedule we only had about 45 minutes in Torquay.
Finally, it was a short trip to our final destination, Bells Beach.
We walked down to the lookout point just down the path.
The waves were definitely much more intimidating here. They look small from at the lookout point, but up close they are very intense.
Again, several pictures of myself and the rest of the exchange students were taken on the organizer's camera and I am still trying to get a hold of them.
After that though the trip was over - it was nearly 5 o'clock and time to get back for dinner. I was exhausted...
No comments:
Post a Comment