Learn to Surf Sydney: A Challenge

There are some things in life that I’m not very good at. Many, actually, but some of them are more obvious than others. Some slip under the radar, as I slip away from karaoke bars and card games.

Others propelling saltwater up my nose, hit me on the head and make everyone suffer the indignity of me wearing a wetsuit in public to hammer their point home.

I’m talking about surfing, of course, an enterprise I’ve dabbled at over the years with varying degrees of bleary-eyed ineptitude before I took my first lesson last summer in wet and windy Wales.

Let’s go surfing!

Don’t expect complex political analysis on today’s post. Just something to make you smile. Either because you’re pleased with the end result or because ill-fitting wetsuits carry inexplicable comedy value all on their own.

But if you’re finding something tough at the moment, if it feels like nothing but a hard slog on the journey to nowhere, remember the secret to success:

Start. Keep improving. Don’t stop.

Happy surfing everyone…

Video not appearing? Watch it directly here.

The Value of Surf Lessons

Let’s Go Surfing showed me a different technique to before: take the downward dog yoga pose (arms straight, legs straight, bum in the air) to create the space to bring that first foot forwards. They also reminded me to pick a spot on the horizon and fix on it, which is easy to do on Bondi as there are so many shops, restaurants and kangaroos. Well, the first two at least…

Other Surfers

Hearty applause should also go to the others in the video for giving it a go and swallowing their egos enough to go on film in a wetsuit. Do check them out, they are:

Caz Makepeace from Ytravelblog writes about learning to surf at Bondi

Megan from BloggerAtLarge writes about Calamity in the Surf at Bondi

Gary from Everything Everywhere

And, of course, if you want to check out how the pros do it, check out this post on how to be a pro surfer. Good luck!

Disclosure : I went surfing on Bondi thanks to Destination New South Wales and Let’s Go Surfing. All bad surfing technique, opinions etcetera my own. As ever, as always.

Would you ever learn to surf in Sydney?