Surf's Up!

This morning I had my first surf lesson! Helen is friend's with a man who runs a surf school so she hooked me up with lessons! David picked me and a few others up on our way to James Cook beach. It's a beautiful bay popular for beginning and experienced surfers who want a nice smooth ride. When we arrived, David spotted a Koala strolling across the parking lot. Apparently it's super rare to see one so this was an exceptional experience. I got a little video of it walking away!

Once we were finished ogling at the koala, we headed down to the beach. David walked us through the anatomy of a surf board and proper positioning. He explained that looking up, out to the trees instead of straight down makes you much more successful. We assumed position, laying flat on our stomachs, fake paddled, brought our palms to either side of our chest, "banana'ed" (lifting out chest up while pressing our hips down, brought our right knee in-between our hands, brought our left foot forward, and then stood on our back foot. After repeating this sequence a few times on land, we gave it a go! I did quite well! There were times I forgot to bring my right knee forward first instead of my foot, but overall I caught on very fast! I reckon I'll continue with some lessons and maybe rent a board in my spare time as I took to it so well!

(Picture quality is terrible. I'm finding the one con to traveling alone is not getting enough pictures of yourself doing stuff. Other people in the group were able to video record each other surfing. I'll have to get footage somehow.)

After surf lessons, Helen took me to her friend, Theresa's house out by Bangalow. I never thought of Australia having a countryside, but I guess there's one in Byron Bay. Just beautiful, rolling hills everywhere you look. I was imagining, flat outback. I'm glad Helen is excited to take me to meet new people and go new places!

While at Theresa's, we watched the Cox Plate. This was the last horse race before the Melbourne Cup which is a national event. Helen says the whole country stops to watch the race, even during school or work. Today we watched Winx win the Cox Plate and it was his 29th win in a row. What a crazy fast horse!