I spent three nights over the Easter weekend at Spot X in Arrawarra (my favourite place name after Woolloomooloo in Sydney). Arrawarra was such a tiny place, it didn’t appear in my guidebook, but it was a half-hour bus journey north of Coffs Harbour. Spot X was where Mojosurf ran surf camps, and I wanted some progressive lessons.
The surf camp was bigger than I expected, with about 230 people there on Saturday, April 7, when there was a big party in the evening, and about 60 people on the other nights. As I expected, all the instructors were toned and tanned young men with shaggy blonde hair (I’m sorry I didn’t get any photos of them). I was sleeping in a shipping container, with five other people and a whole host of creepy-crawlies. The meals, which were all included, were impressive; I hadn’t eaten so well since leaving home. We had steak, roast beef and roast pork for dinner, buffet lunches, and big breakfasts, although I didn’t make the most of the latter because I had two-hour surf lessons at 7am each morning and I didn’t want to make myself sick.
The aforementioned party was lots of fun, and involved drinking lots of goon around the campfire (on seats made from old surfboards), games such as the one where people have to pass an orange around from chin to chin, and dancing on tables. We spent the daytimes playing cards or volleyball, or watching TV. We were too tired after our lessons to do any extra surfing!
I was really lucky the morning after the party because the rest of my group didn’t make it to the lesson, and I therefore had a private lesson with Rob. He saw what I could do already and then took me well out of my comfort zone, but I felt safe with him. I learned so much and became much more confident in the water, which is what I wanted from surf camp. The following three lessons were in a group and progress was less noticeable, but it was useful to have the coaches giving us tips to help us improve. The water was lovely – about 24 degrees warm.
I didn’t really notice that it was Easter, but I was aware that I had reached the halfway point of my travels, which was hard to believe. I’ve seen and done so much already. It has been awesome.