Hi guys! A few weeks ago me and my friends attended our first surf camp here in Australia. The camp is located 2 hours south of Sydney in a small town called Gerroa. I would totally recommend everybody to book this as it is a great opportunity to learn the basics in surfing and meet new people. Students at UTS even get a discount on the weekend package!

The weekend starts outside the central wake-up hostel where you are picked up by the bus at 6pm. The drive is about 2 hours and when you arrive at the camp you get a great welcome and information about the coming days. It is smart to either bring food or eat before you get on the bus, because dinner is not provided the first day. After the info session we all went down to the beach for some star watching, amazing!

As it is around 100 students at the camp every weekend you will get divided into 2 groups, one starting earlier in the morning and one later. This gets switched around on Sunday, so don't get too excited if you are in the late group haha! You start your day with breakfast before changing into the wetties and heading down to the beach. The lessons are about 2 hours long with some technical instructions first. Each big group are divided into three small groups, so you get closely followed up by the instructors if you feel unsafe or need any help. After the first lesson it is time for a big tasty bbq lunch, yum! Before changing into the wetties again we just chilled out in the hammocks listening to music and talked to our new friends.

The second session is often much better than the first. Once you get the technique in you could just practice catching waves and holding your balance on the board. They will also teach you how to speed up or down and turn the board around, which is so fun to learn! Saturday evening you get served a great bbq meal again, drinking some beers and then the whole gang will head to a local pub together. I recommend you to not drink too much if you don't want to ruin your Sunday lesson, haha! The worst is to surf with a hangover.. Sunday is pretty chill with only one lesson and a light lunch before traveling back to the city. After all I had a great weekend and it made me feel so much safer in the water. Now that I have gotten the basics in, it is no problem to rent a board and try it out at the beaches in Sydney. Practice makes perfect, am I right?

Cheers, Andrea