Finding our Mojo - Surfing

This was a big, great, fun weekend. We signed up this adventure back in January and have been looking forward to it ever since. Friday finally came and we took off for Sydney around 2:20PM. We got to Sydney around 4:15PM, found the Mojo surf bus, dropped off our stuff and went for a quick bite to eat before leaving. Bus left Sydney at 5:30 and we were all pimped up for the adventure we were about to experience. There were maybe like 16 – 18 of us from U of W, some students on an exchange from California, Florida, Wisconsin, France and Luxemburg and a few others. There were give or take 45 or so on the bus. After awhile a little of the initial excitement was gone, the overall atmosphere of the bus mellowed a little bit as we all realize that we were in for a lengthy bus ride. We wouldn’t be at camp until close to 1:30AM. So maybe an hour out from our first stop, the driver (Morgan, a pro surfer) decided it would be a good idea to play a little introduction game. He had everyone come up to the front, one by one, and take the microphone and say 1) your name 2) where you’re from and 3) one like and one dislike. Me: Brian, Ottawa, Tuna/running, Waiting to go pee while sitting on a bus. Tunes: Julia, Ottawa, Peanut Butter and Chocolate, Smelly feet. Hmmm. First stop: fuel, crappy food, chance to go pee and for a quick walk/jog to loosen up the legs a bit. Back in the bus and our next destination was Buladelah, and the bottle shop at the plough inn for some last minute liquor for the weekend. Now it’s the final stretch into camp, where we passed the time watching Pineapple Express. We got in around 1:15 AM, got assigned a room (6 per, Julia, Jared, Katie, Lee, Kym and myself), dropped off our stuff and headed down to the humpy for a little. The Humpy is basically a little party area with a fire pit down by the ocean. We got to bed soon after that as we knew we were in for a long day tomorrow. I was up around 6:30 and headed down to the ocean to check it out real quick. It was a brief, but absolutely peaceful moment. The we had breakfast (muesli and toast) and got a start on the surfing! We had a quick lesson in the camp area then headed down to the water, grabbed a board and had another dryland lesson on the basics. Soon enough we were all in the water, having an absolute blast! We caught on pretty quick, and as long as you did the basic steps they had told us, you’d get up at least 30% of the time. We surfed and surfed and the more we did, the better we got, which in turn made it more fun. It’s a really cool feeling being able to stand up on the water like that. Jubes straight up rocked it hardcore, more or less a pro and they even offered her a job! (in her own words) These first hours in the water FLEW by and before you knew it we had to get out and go for lunch. L After lunch, we (Julia, Jared and I) walked down to the beach and up along the ocean to these cliffs that stick out from the coast line. We got some amazing views from up there. We got back to camp just in time to head BACK to the beach for round two of surfing for the day. We again had a blast and were ALWAYS the last ones out of the water. We’d have to be told to get out as we were heading back. The instructors truly make the whole experience that much more fun as well. They’re all super helpful and friendly and come out in the water with us and give us all sorts of tips or just hold your board and give you a push as a wave is coming so that you have a better chance of getting up. We got out around 7:00 and headed back to camp for dinner. Dinner was awesome, potatoes, salad, burgers, sausages, steak etc. In fact the food ALL weekend was amazing. After dinner we headed straight to the Humpy for a party. Our own party really happened down at the beach though, as the humpy was crowded and I don’t think we were REALLY in the mood to drink. We brought blankets and Lee, Jared, Julia and I laid on the beach and looked at the sky, it was absolutely incredible. We stayed there for a couple of hours and made our way back to bed around 11PM. We were up again around 6:50AM and cleaned up our room and took our stuff downstairs. We had breakfast and headed back down to the beach ASAP for some more fun. The first day i hadn’t used a wetsuit as I was fine with my t-shirt and board shorts, no chafing at all. But today it was painful so I went up to the truck that brings our boards down and got myself a wetsuit. That made it 10 times better. Again we had a blast just catching as many waves as we could in this, our last session. This time the instructors came out on boards also and had some fun with us, making it all look so easy! They would go side by side and one would jump on the other’s board (and one of them did this to Jared! Though it didn’t quite work out the same way) and another guy surfed with the camp dog on the front of his board. All in all it was another amazing session of surfing and once again, dead last out of the water. We got back to camp around noon and had lunch, packed the bus and got ready to leave, but they had one little last surprise for us. On the way out, all of our instructors (4 – 5 of them) were all buck naked, hiding their junk with everything from guitars to socks, standing on fence posts, hiding in bushes and such. Good laugh for the ladies, I think most of the dudes (except one who wanted photos) wanted to vomit. J So now I’m sitting here, writing this while it’s all so fresh in my mind. It was certainly worth the money and an all-round awesome experience.