Surfing adventures

December 2020:

Sunday 13th:

Today we drive to seal rocks treachery camp. We were quiet hesitant on going at first as the forecast said there will be damaging surf, thunderstorms, and flood warnings. We got lucky because we thought it would rain and we would be putting our tent up in the pouring rain. But it hasn't rained all day and night. The beaches there were terrible for me though. It was huge and bumpy but I waited at the beach while Tom went for a surf. I recorded two of his waves and I thought they looked really awesome!
We woke up in the middle of the night in our tent from one hundred cicadas chirping like crazy and so loud! In my dream I thought it was the sound of a rattle snake.

Monday 14th:

We drive out to the surrounding beaches to look for a place to surf that is good for both me and Tom. We decide to surf at 'Number One Beach'. The waves are still the same as yesterday but Tom says that I should try surfing near the shore anyway. Tom came in with me to make me feel comfortable before he went further out. The first wave I surfed was awesome even though I got smashed heaps and had to use all of my strength to get through the bumps. Tom then got off of his board and came out in the water to push me but the current was so powerful and kept pushing us back. Tom said "the rip is very powerful" which scared me and that's when I decided to get out of the water.
Tom got his board and went all the way out into the ocean and came back with zero waves caught because he didn't want me waiting because he promised to just get one wave and come back. We go back to our camp spot and play a game of talisman (Tom won) and make a fire. We gather lots of sticks and sort them from twigs to larger sticks.

Tuesday 15th:

Today we go to a few different beaches to check out around our camp area. We check Number One beach again, Yagon beach, Blueys beach, Boat beach, Boomerang beach, and this other beach called lighthouse beach with a really beautiful 5 minute walk trail. Tom decided he didn't want to surf here for we drive for 40 minutes away from our camping area to a beach called Forster Main beach which also has a big beach swimming pool. I was happy to swim in there while Tom went surfing in the big waves. I practiced my swimming for a little bit and spoke to an older lady doing her breast strokes. There were really big crabs around the side of the pool doing there crab dance which also reminded me of Mr Crabs from Spongebob.
I saw Tom coming coming towards me from the shore but without his surf board. He said he lost it while out and had to swim about 1km back to shore in the humongous waves!

He went around the rocks in desperate search for his lost board because he wanted to at least save the fins on them. Now it was really raining and he hadn't come back yet. I think to myself that maybe he has jumped off the rocks and into the ocean, so I go look for him. I walk over the rocks that hurt my feet with each step. I call out to him and his popped out of the rocks. He was disappointed. But just as he thought he had lost his board forever, he spotted his surfboard in the middle of two large rocks, all broken. Even the expensive fins were useless now. We kissed the board goodbye and chucked it in the bin.

We then booked an airbnb house which was in a farm in the middle of the bush. The people who owned the house were living next door and had horses, ponies, dogs and peacocks. They also had ducks, chickens, a rooster, a hideous looking turkey, a cow and a turtle.

Wednesday 16th:

Tom and I wake up in the Airbnb at the farm house next to the house of the very Aussie country men and women living next door. We think that they are really nice people even if we laugh at the old man talking to his animals in his funny accent. They give us adventure ideas for the day to go down the tracks and into a waterfall so we do that instead of looking for a beach to surf at. The drive to Ellenborough falls is really beautiful. Tom and I think that it might be the most beautiful road we have drove on. When we get there we walk down the path to waterfall, down 600 and something stairs until we reach the bottom of the waterfall. It is apparently the tallest single-drop waterfall in Australia, NSW. The weather had been pouring with rain the whole week and there had been flood warnings across the whole region so the waterfall was f****** massive! The power of the water was like nothing we had seen, even as surfers. A torrent of droplets and vapour smashed outward from the impact zone and the falling water blinding up close. As we climbed down the big rocks to the big pool of waterfall we guarded our face to protect our eyeballs from the penetration of the droplets.
I was really afraid to go in at first and was advised by two teenage boys not to go down there if I didn't know how to swim. The waterfall did look terrifying and hungry, ready to drown me in its current pushing outward from the impact zone and down the jagged rocks around the perimeter.
But I risked it for the biscuit and went in the safer area in the pool. It felt like I was in a movie because it was so misty. Anyway, after a bit of fun and splash around and enduring the cold fresh water, we got changed to our dry clothes and walked the tracks back up.
We drove back to the Airbnb and try our luck to make a fire. We try for so long to make the fire and fail so bad. The woods were stills wet from the all the rain. We finish the night off with a game of digital talisman which I lose to (always).

Thursday 17th:

We wake up from our sleep and pack away our stuff to leave. We decide on going back to Forster main beach before we head back to Sydney. At Forster Tom buys his new surfboard from a guy on Facebook marketplace. We go into the swimming pool this time because Tom couldn't surf anyway as his new board needed a leg rope which he didn't buy yet. This is the day that I learned to swim properly because I learned to stay afloat on the deep end of the swimming pool without having to hold on the rails. I am now a basic a basic level swimmer, woot woot! We have a lot of fun swimming together but then it was time to drive back to Sydney where the not so fun part of unpacking happened. 

Friday 18th:

We were walking to bondi beach today to go surfing. On the way, I am carrying Tom's new board that he bought yesterday (because it's lighter to carry) while he holds my heavier foam board. We were walking down some stairs when tom calls my name. I turn around quickly and smash the tail of Tom's surf board on the stair. ''Aaaargh, f***!'' Tom whinges about the smallest crack. We sit on the grass for 10 minutes while Tom cries over it... but at least when we finally go in the water the waves are lots fun.