Surfing Sydney

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get in touch with Danah, (the surf instructor I met in Margaret River) in time, but I booked a couple of days of surfing lessons and had a blast. The beach was about an hour drive south from central Sydney at a place called Boat Harbor (which was odd, because there were no boats, and no harbour; go figure.)

Day 1:
There were only about 5 of us, and one instructor (Ekka), but the conditions were less than ideal for a first day. It was a sandy beach break. It was overcast and cool and there was little wind. The waves were about 2 feet (which roughly translates to a 2 meter face) and were coming in very close together. This made it really tough to get into position, and it was battle of a day, even though we were surfing broken waves. I did manage to stand up a few times briefly, and even rode in on some unbroken waves that I caught further out, although I don’t think I managed to stand all the way up for those. Determined to do better, I decided to come back the next day.

Day 2:
Today there were 20 of us, and 4 instructors (Doug, Ekka, Alex, and some other Grommit whose name I don’t remember) and the conditions were better. It was warm and sunny, and the breeze was blowing almost directly away from the beach. The waves were about 6 to 8 inches (which roughly translates to a 50 – 75cm face) and coming in very well spaced. In fact there were a lot of times during the day when there weren’t waves to be had. Luckily that was lunch time. I definitely managed to stand up quite a few times and had a few fairly long rides. The most difficult part became recognizing the waves before they came in, and timing the paddling to be in the right spot at the right time. The second to last ride of the day was definitely the best, and I got to turn a bit.

Conclusions:
What the heck was I thinking living in Santa Cruz for nine years, and not surfing?!??
All of that skateboarding as a kid definitely helped my surfing experience.
It’s really remarkable how different the same surf spot can be from one day to the next.
I’m totally stoked to do it again, although perhaps not on this trip.
(Did I hear someone say Costa Rica?)

Arriving in Sydney

I took the shuttle to the Townsville airport and had some breakfast at the cafe there, then spent some time loading photos onto my computer. Finding internet access with a laptop has proved difficult on this trip. I’m not sure I’ll be bringing one in the future.

Once in Sydney, I visited a couple of hostels that were full before checking into Footprints. I still hadn’t heard from Danah (I met her in Margaret River) regarding surfing lessons, but I was determined to find a way to try it out.

I spent the next day walking around Sydney just to get a sense of the place. The Opera house was on the list of places, as was the old section, called The Rocks. The Opera house wasn’t as big as I thought it was going to be. It was still raining, and the light wasn’t great, so I didn’t stick around long.

The next day, along my travels I stumbled onto a really interesting building. One whole side was a sheet of operable louvered windows looking out onto the Royal Botanical Garden across the street. I wandered around it, and found a courtyard complete with cafe, and granite sculpture covered by a very fluid glass canopy. The smaller front building was obviously apartments, and it looked like part of the larger one was too. I talked to the fellow at the reception desk to get some more info. Turned out it was a building done by the famous architect: Renzo Piano.

The building was the smaller half of a two building project called Aurora Place. The taller one had faces that bowed out like sails in the wind.

On my way back to the hostel I stopped at the library, where I had found free internet access for my laptop. Note to fellow travelers: For internet access, find the local library, they won’t charge you the usual arm and a leg for it.