Last week was pretty uneventful. I went to class did some homework and went to the gym. The week became pretty interesting on Thursday because it was Maggie's 20th birthday so a big group of us went out to celebrate. We went out dancing and had dinner together and it was a great night for all. Even though we were all there for Maggie and her birthday, though, we were all also looking forward to the next day because seven of the girls were leaving for a weekend surfing safari.
Friday night Maggie, Kaylyn, Lexy, Jaimie, Jess, Kendall and I were picked up by people from Mojo Surf and we were taking a three hour drive to Arrawarra for the weekend. The ride there was pretty entertaining taking some weird backroads. Jess almost went to the bathroom in some weird looking shack/ bathroom thing on the side of the road that even the guys driving us wouldn't go into to. Also along that same road we found out that when a sign says there's road work ahead, they actually mean it. We drove on a gravel road for about 5km and it definitely woke everyone up. When we arrived in Arrawarra and Spot X (the name of the surf camp) we met Tom, our guide, who showed us around the camp and told us where we were staying. The beds were in glorified cargo containers so it was a new experience. All of us being pretty beat went out by the campfire for a little bit to meet some of the other instructors, academy members and weekend surfers and then took an early night. We did wake up for the sunrise the next morning though and it was a gorgeous start to our surfing weekend. Lessons started at 9 and it was a lot of rules/ information about surfing and rip currents and types of waves. We finally made it out onto the beach at about 9:30 and both Lexy and I noticed that there weren't many "waves" but a lot of chop and white wash. But we didn't really care a whole lot and were just excited to get in the water on a beautiful day. We surfed in the chop for about 2 hours and made our way back up to camp for some lunch and meeting Jules and his camera crew for an Australian travel show. We had seen the cameras down on the beach that morning, but we didn't know what they were for but now everyone was pretty stoked since it was a once in a lifetime thing.  So during lunch everyone was trying to act normal around the cameras and Jules. Around 1:30 was the next "lesson" or just hanging around the beach having fun. A large white water raft was being taken in and out of the surf for some helmet camera shots. Lexy, Kaylyn, Jaimie and I went on a raft with Ross, an instructor from Scotland, and a few other guys from the academy and we were being pummeled by waves. By the time we finally made it out of the impact zone, we chilled looking around for dolphins and watching some other surfers. Then we had to try and ride a wave back in. Yeah that didn't work so well..... We capsized sideways, so I saw Kaylyn and Jaimie start coming toward me and I bailed from the raft as fast as possible. Getting the raft turned back over was impossible, so we all just kinda floated back in. So hopefully there is some good video on this show of our failed attempt at raft surfing. When we were back on shore Kendall and I decided to join in some beach volleyball and we were having a blast until the tide came in and destroyed our court. By the time it was 4:30 everyone was wiped and just wanted to hangout by the fire and eat food. We all stayed by the fire for a long time hanging out and chatting with everyone and went to bed pretty early again since we had another surf session the next morning.  Unlike the day before, nobody got up for the sunrise and we barely had enough time to eat and pack our things before heading to class. Rhys and Nicko, our instructors for the day, informed us that we were going out a lot further that day into the 3-4 ft waves to surf and how to make it past all of the waves. The surfing was amazing that day!!! Lexy, Kendall and I were by far the best in our class and we kinda were doing our own thing for most of the session. We tried to do a party wave but we all ended up not being able to ride a wave at the same time. By the time Rhys and Nicko said we had to go in, all of us wanted to stay. We were wishing we did the 5 day trip and not the 2 day weekend trip.  When we had to leave, Rhys and Nicko came up to say bye to all of us, and they also informed us that we could surf with them next week when they were up in Byron. All seven of us are excited and can't wait until then.