Life on the Beach

Ok, ok I know this is getting boring as we went to the beach surfing again today but stay with me. We headed over to Manly to take a surf lesson with Carl and Martinette. We bought Martinette the lesson for her birthday ages ago and this seemed a good weekend to cash it in. We arrived at Manly at 8am for our lesson at 9am. We walked the 2mins from Carl and Martinette's apartment to the Manly Surf Lifesavers Club where the Surf School is based. After filling in our forms we all got into our steamers and rashies, got issued a softie and walked about 200m down the beach as there was a surf carnival at the top end of the beach. There was heaps of us for this 2 hour lesson, at least 20, with 5 instructors for us all.

Once there, we all sat in a semi-circle around our instructor as he explained about the beach, where the rips are, some basic rules etc. We all then hopped into the water to check out the sweep and to cool off (very hot and sunny morning).

After that we all returned to our boards on the beach for our instructor to explain the technique of getting up on the board. His technique was very different to what we learnt at our previous lessons in Anna Bay and actually turned out to be far more effective.

We all took to the water for 30mins to practice before returning to the beach for a quick re-cap and some more tips and pointers. Then it was straight back in for more practice.

There were some good and bad things about this lesson. Firstly the good;

the main instructor's technique was much better than what Jo and I had previously been doing
the instructors in the water were excellent and were really helpful
the weather was great
taking the lesson with Carl and Martinette was great fun

And the not so good;

the waves and overall conditions were not the greatest for learning - the current was strong and the waves were really choppy
waaaaay too many learning in the water, even with all the instructors to keep us safe there just wasn't enough space for everyone and I missed heaps of waves as there were people hovering in front of me - it would've been heaps better if it was quieter

There was a professional photographer at the lesson and I had been wanting to get some good pics of us so here are a few of the best ones....