WIPEOUT!

Wow... what a cool sport this surfing lark is!

I headed out at 12pm with about 8 others from Black Dogs surf school and we arrived at The Pass section of the beach where the waves are more numerous and suitable for beginners (i.e. no heavy swells like the one that dragged me toward the rocky section of the shore back there on Friday). We first did some stretching which certainly paid off I was to discover... wouldnt want to have tense muscles with some of the maneuvers involved.

After a brief description of how to use the padded board (such as how to get up and swim out while on it) we headed out. I found myself taking to it fairly quickly! Within about 5 minutes I had my first wave and managed to stand (and fall) on the board for about 3 seconds... its a LOT easier than Id imagined.. probably helped by the oversized 9ft board I was on (beginners always start on large boards)

As the 3 hour session wore on I found I was getting REALLY tired since it works pretty much every muscle in your body (even now 5 hours later Im totally wasted!) and so I wasnt performing quite as well as I was at the start, but needless to say we were doing a LONG session so I wouldnt expect to be this tired on a normal 1 hour surf session.

I was mightily impressed and the instructors were a helpful bunch (even though I found I got the best practice by doing it on my own)... a few things I need to remember:

- Stretch first

- To take the board out over the waves, push down on the end to lift the face up over the crest.

- When standing, first push up with hands ON board (not on sides) directly below the chin and bring knees up level with the hands, then quickly push with the right foot while bringing left foot forward and assume STANDING position

- Feet should be shoulder-width apart and you should stand in straight line with centre of body over centre of board.

Thats just some info for me to remember so ye dont need to worry yerselves about dat.