Surf Life Saving and Surfing
- Silvia W
- Mar 5, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 11, 2024
On Tuesday last week, I attended the first field trip for my Sports and Learning in Australian Culture class. We went to Bondi Beach, where we learned about some of the history of the beach as well as participating in some surf life saving exercises. Almost all people who were raised in Australia have gone through surf life saving training. From the age of 5 to 14, kids learn how to navigate the ocean and the sand efficiently and safely. They're not necessarily learning how to save lives, but they are gaining the skills that could help them one day if needed. So when I say I did some surf life saving exercises, I don't mean that I was swimming out into the ocean to bring in a person - if you know me, you know I wouldn't be able to do that. Rather, I was running around in the sand and in the ocean for an hour competing in little games.
Pictured above is one of those games. We started with six people laying facedown in the sand and a little distance away, there were these little tubes propped up in the sand - only 5 of them. The instructor would say GO and we would race to grab the tubes. The person who came up without one was eliminated. I made it to 3rd out of 6. Not to shabby!
We also observed kids actually doing surf life saving exercises. There was a group of maybe 8-year-olds that was doing laps in and out of the water with these things called surf-skis. Sort of like a personal inflatable raft with handles. They would kneel or lay on them and go straight out into the water, circle a buoy, then come back and run up to a point in the sand. They were really fast!
Other highlights include an Aboriginal carving on a rock overlooking the beach and a nice view of Hugh Jackman's house!
Wednesday evening, I went to trivia night at one of the on-campus bars with the Book Society! My team came in second to last, but at least the club got this awesome picture of me thinking really hard and posted it to their Instagram (sarcasm). I'm famous!
The other classes I am in are Engineering Dynamics, Fluid Mechanics I, and Australia Now!. Engineering Dynamics is about structures that move, but right now it's about point-mass systems. Much simpler. Fluid Mechanics so far is about pressure, viscosity, and shear stress and doing calculus with that stuff. And Australia Now is an Australian history class, so the units we have touched on so far are a rough overview of before the British arrived, and then British-Aboriginal interactions in the early days of the colonies here. That class is especially interesting in how it echoes the American history I already know.
On Friday morning, I was back at Bondi for a surf lesson! I got there early in hopes of viewing the sunrise, but it was cloudy so it was a bit disappointing. Still interesting to see the area while it was dark. Plus seeing how much activity there was! At 6am, there were tons of people running, surfing, and participating in exercise classes.
Now for the actual surf lesson. IES (the program I am here with) hooked us up with a lesson from Let's Go Surfing. We met at the shop, where we were fitted with wet suits and then led down to the beach where the boards from the last group were waiting for us. First, they showed us how to get situated on the board and then come up to a cobra position. We did a few runs out in the water where the instructors held the board while we got up on it (laying down) and they would watch the waves and then say GO and release us at just the right moment. Then we would get in the cobra position and try to stay balanced. I fell a few times just doing this, but eventually I got the hang of it. Luckily, it never hurt, but I swallowed a LOT of saltwater.
The next part of our lesson, we were back on dry land and they showed us how to get into a standing position. Then we did the same thing with the instructors in the water, but each run we tried to stand up. I had quite a few runs where I would get my feet under me and then immediately fall over. However, I am proud to say that I had one run where I made it all the way to shore standing up! Huzzah! Yeah, you could say I am a pro surfer now.
Here are a couple photos from the surf lesson!
Last thing I'll say is that I've been trying to continue running while I am here, and I love how beautiful everything is, even just running around campus. The other day I just went and ran laps around the Quadrangle, and it was awesome.
Keep up the good work!