I forgot about this one!  I left Portland February 25, so March 25 I was… sailing the Whitsundays in Australia! At this point in my travels, it felt like I’d been out of the US for ages. So long in fact, that I’d started calling it “America” instead of “the US”

How cool is it to be surfing in the morning and be back in Sydney for a concert at the Opera House that night? Very cool, indeed. This morning’s surfing was much better than yesterday. We were all glad to have Kyle back (he actually gets in the water), and the waves were alright, not great, but manageable. I caught a few that I was actually proud of! Yes! After today, I wished I was staying here longer. I need more time to surf! Now I definitely want to try surfing again later in my travels. After a quick shower, Read more…

The day of unfun… Today was Kyle’s day off. So Lester (the “surf legend” and resident curmudgeon) took us out for the day. Turns out Lester is an old codger and it felt like we did more driving around than surfing. We finally stopped at a spot, but the waves were brutal. I wasn’t even enjoying myself. Lester is totally old school, “You boys head out to the right on the hard boards and you girls stay in the whitewash with the soft boards.” After lunch, we headed out for more driving, I mean surfing. We ended up stopping at Read more…

Today was our first full day of surfing. After breakfast, we drove out to the campground (that they used to use as base camp) and started surfing. Today is much better than yesterday. All of the paddling is still tiring, but I feel like I’m actually accomplishing something. The waves are milder here. After a few hours we breaked for lunch. Surfing makes me insanely hungry. I’m craving Mexican food, big time, but I feel like that’s all I ever write about. After lunch we laid out for a bit and relaxed before going back in for a few hours. Read more…

Surf camp! I checked out early this morning and walked down to Central Station to meet the surf van. It looks like there will be seven of us, three girls and four guys. The drive north, near Byron, took about six hours and we stopped along the way for lunch and the bottle shop. Kyle our surf instructor (and our driver) looks like a mid-30s washed up surfer dude. Time will tell if I’m correct, but I’d bet a Beez Neez that I’m right. After checking in, we still had 4 “surf hours” in the day, so we changed into Read more…