A Different Experience at Surf Camp

This past weekend at surf camp was one of the best weekends of my life.

One thing that I have noticed about Australia is when they say "camp" they actually mean camp! We slept in tents by the beach and learned how to surf! I'd never been to camp before so this was a whole new experience for me.

We got picked up at Central Station by the Australian Surf Tours crew and rode on a bus for four hours until we got to Bendalong Beach. I think this was a real culture shock for me because it was our first time out of Sydney and into rural Australia.

Abby, Hunter, and I shared a tent because Hunter got paired with a girl from Korea and felt awkward sharing a tent with her. Although sleeping in a tent was not the most comfortable thing I have done, it was still an awesome experience to get to have with my friends.

My favorite part of the weekend was definitely the surf lessons. My instructor's name was Rueben and he was from Portugal and has surfed all over the world. Because of all his experience, he was a really great teacher. I was a lot better at surfing than I thought I was going to be. At first, it was really hard to balance standing up on my board, but by the last day I was basically surfing like a pro.

Aside from surfing, we also got the amazing opportunity to feed sting rays. This was really cool for me because I had never seen a sting ray in the wild and I never knew how big they got! We stood almost waist deep in the water with the stingrays and put our hands in the sand with the dead fish. Sting rays would then swim by and almost suck the fish out of your hand. It was such a cool experience because I had always been afraid of sting rays because I thought they would sting me with their tail. But this weekend I learned that they are friendly and I am no longer afraid of them!!

Along with feeding sting rays, I also got the experience to pet a kangaroo! There were kangaroos all over our campsite and it surprised me how many there were and friendly they were with people.

Overall, this weekend was amazing. It was a really different opportunity than what I had experienced so far during my time in Australia. I'm really glad we went on this trip because it gave me awesome experiences that I would never be able to have anywhere else.