Hey, so I'm about to head to Australia to start my Surf instructors course and thought I would set up a Blog to let you know how my training was going and how many Sharks I've had to fight off with my Board! I’ve got 3 months of Training at 'Spot X Surf camp' on the East Coast of Australia, about 2 hours south of Byron Bay. The idea of Surfing in the Pacific Ocean seems pretty unreal, especially after a summer of surfing the slightly less exotic shore break at East Runton on the Norfolk coast. Tropical paradise it is not.
The first 2 months of the course are surfing and training every day out in the ocean getting my ability and fitness up to scratch. Then in the final month I start the qualification part of the training, learning advanced resuscitation, open water rescue, advanced first aid, and also taking my ‘run swim run requirement’.... I’m assuming that I’m going to have to run for that. Then swim. Then run a little bit more! I will also get to start taking my first groups out to teach them to surf as I get to do 40 hours of practical experience at the Surf School. Hopefully by the end of the 3 months I will be fully qualified and licensed with the Australian Level 1 Surf instructor’s award. After that I’ve got the working Visa for a year so hopefully I’ll be able to get a job and a place to live out there and keep living out in the land of surf!
So now I’m packing everything for a year into one bag. It is quite a large bag I might add... Unfortunately my own Surfboard is going have to sit this adventure out, the nightmare of getting it down there and around Sydney means that I will buy its Australian cousin once have sorted out a more permanent place to stay! Amazingly I have managed to fit almost everything in my bag, though I guess a selection of Board shorts and Rash vests were never going to take up a massive amount of room. The fact that you don’t need a wetsuit is something that I probably won’t accept till I get there... the sea is always cold and it’s always raining when you get to the beach right!? The hail storm in Newquay in June has sort of given me a complex...
Well that’s about it for my Blog intro, I’m going to try and update this once a week with how it’s going, and also any video or photos I take. The next one should be after my weekend in Sydney and my first week at Spot X, hey maybe I might even spot Russell Crowe!
Charlie
Why is there no update here yet? Are you dead? Have you died on the plane???
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