Shakas all around - Surfcamp Byron Bay / 07.12. - 12.12.2018

We took a very winding bus route to Byron Bay, and even though the journey from Surfers Paradise was only about 2 hours long, we felt really sick afterwards.
Luckily, we quickly found our hostel - the Backpacker Inn on the Beach - where the surf school was located. We had booked a surf camp for the next 5 days and checked out our room right away.
For the first night, we only had a small double bed because the hostel was fully booked - but we were just happy that we managed to get a spot at all, as there were some complications with the booking. We had already booked the surf camp in Cairns with a guy named Moritz from Greyhound (a travel company), and then called the surf camp to confirm our booking and let them know when we would arrive. They told us to sort it out with Greyhound, so I called them. After trying twice, a woman finally answered and told us that Moritz would take care of it and call us back. But he didn't.
In the end, we reached him via SMS, but he said that no one had informed him that we called and that he couldn't do anything now because he was too tired. After a week and a half, he finally told us that he had registered us - but we were still suspicious and called the surf school just to be safe. As we feared, we were not registered because Moritz apparently is incompetent. So I had to send our data again via email on my own, and in the end, we only got a double bed because everything else was fully booked. Fortunately, we followed up on our own (otherwise we would have missed our expensive surf camp because it wouldn't have fit into our plans anymore) and even learned an important life lesson: never rely on incompetent people.

We celebrated with a delicious burger dinner from the surf school at a cute little place in town called BayGer. There were many cool signs with inspiring quotes on the walls, such as 'The problem with doing nothing is not knowing when you're finished'. The burger was also really tasty, and while we were sitting there, my eye suddenly caught two girls crossing the street in front of us. One of them looked a bit like Clara from my former biology class back home, but that couldn't be possible to randomly meet on the other side of the world, right? We hadn't finished eating yet, so I decided to just message her and cautiously ask if she was also in Byron Bay (I didn't realize that she wanted to go to Australia).
So, I considered the matter closed, but then when we wanted to go to Aldi to buy some fruit, Clara was actually standing there between the shelves, and we greeted each other completely amazed and exchanged some travel experiences and plans, with the promise that we would definitely do something together before Linni and I moved on. Clara was currently working at the hostel where we were staying, and she would also spend Christmas and New Year's in Byron Bay.

Then we walked along the main street with many small shops and admired the people dressed in a hippie style - because Byron Bay was the surfer and free-spirited city par excellence. There was also a lot of street art, and in a completely painted little alley, a really beautiful voice with guitar accompaniment suddenly reached our ears. A street musician named Bradley Stone, maybe a bit older than us, had set up there and was playing his songs. I love that sort of thing, so we stayed there a bit longer just listening. In the end, I even bought one of the CDs in his guitar case with his new album, even though I wouldn't have the opportunity to listen to it right now.

After that, we went back to the hostel and quickly went to bed. The double bed we shared was really small, so we had a hard time falling asleep and getting through the night in general. But from tomorrow on, we would have an extra bed because two girls from our room would check out.

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The next day started with breakfast: different types of yogurt with muesli and toast. We also got to know two other girls, Mandy and Lisa, who were also going to take the surf lesson today.
Unfortunately, it was a pretty cold day with gray skies, so none of us were very motivated to go into the cold ocean. After a short introduction by our surf instructor Jack, we still grabbed the big green beginner boards in the surfboard sandwich and went down the small sandy path to the beach.

Here, we had to listen to a long safety talk about the various dangers of surfing, such as currents (sweep and rip), other people in the water that you mustn't collide with, and your own surfboard if, for example, you have just fallen off, which is called a wipeout and seems to be the most fun part of the job for surf instructors.
After warming up with some stretching exercises, we practiced getting up on the board a few times without actually being in the water. And then it was time to go into the cold water. We were wearing short wetsuits, but they didn't provide much protection from the cold, and we also missed the warmth of the sun. Additionally, it was quite windy today, and apart from the cold, the waves were also pretty big and unforgiving. So, perfect conditions for our first surf lesson - the waves in Agnes Water during our previous surf attempt were like baby waves compared to this.
That's why we didn't dare to choose waves on our own yet; instead, we always went to Jack, who was in the water with us, and he found the right wave for us and basically pushed us into it, and all we had to do was try to stand up. We actually managed to do that a few times, and when I didn't have to rub saltwater out of my eyes, it was actually a lot of fun, but also very tiring.
After surfing and taking a shower, we spent a few hours relaxing in our beds until there was a barbecue in the evening. We went there with Mandy, who introduced us to her little group: Manu, his girlfriend Carlotta, and Robert. The four of them had met each other on their travels and had ended up in the same hostel by chance. We chatted and made jokes about Instagram and the struggle of choosing pictures to post - which Manu was currently experiencing (we didn't realize that guys go through that too) - and they even gave us a few cans of pear cider. Later, we went out again to get some more.
So, it was a really cool and chill evening, and we got to know many new people.

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On Sunday, our surf lesson was scheduled for 10 o'clock again, and we had a new teacher - Tom - who already looked cooler than yesterday's teacher at first glance and seemed much more organized.
We put on the dark green t-shirts of the surf school and left the wetsuits behind because the weather was a bit better today. Then we went down to the beach again, and after the safety talk and warm-up exercises, we carried our big boards into the water. Today, our mission was to choose the waves ourselves and try to catch them. Tom also taught us a cool trick for that: when a wave approached, we had to paddle a few times before attempting to stand up. And during those paddle strokes, we should say 'I want that wave' out loud because it automatically makes us stronger and expresses more motivation.
It worked much better than yesterday, and even though the waves were still quite big and it was difficult to get into waist-deep water because the current was so strong, we quickly developed an eye for which waves were good for surfing and which weren't. And paddling on our own also resulted in an even stronger sense of happiness when we managed to stand up.

After surfing, we went to explore the town a bit. The many small jewelry stores were very cute, and there were colorful artworks and hippie clothes everywhere. I especially remembered the Rainbow Shop, which was full of colorful tie-dye fabrics, the brightest hats and bags, and many colorful bracelets.
Afterwards, we picked up our food vouchers at the hostel reception - today we could get burritos in town. We sat down on some rocks at Main Beach in the evening with Mandy and Lisa and watched the impressive surfers, of which there were so many here, perform incredible tricks on the big waves.
As dessert, we treated ourselves to some ice cream, which we ate at the hostel, and after a while, we went to bed because surfing just makes you so tired.

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On the 4th day of our surf camp, the sun was finally shining, but that wasn't necessarily a good thing because even though we tried to apply sunscreen as much as possible, we got a really intense sunburn during today's surf lesson.
In between, Linni and I also had a little photo shoot with our surfboards, during which we got to know a French guy a bit better, who had already been surfing for a few hours. The funny thing was that his name was Tristan too, which reminded me of my family. He was really nice as well, and in the end, we convinced him to take a few photos of us together - but in return, we also took some of him.

The conditions were great today, apart from the scorching sun, and even the side current (which usually caused us to drift away quickly) wasn't as strong anymore.

However, our days were increasingly falling into the rhythm of surfing - resting - dinner - sleep because the strong ocean and the saltwater made us so tired, so we didn't do anything exciting today except going to Cheeky Monkeys - a small bar outside town - to have a burger. There, we met Julian again, whom we had met in Surfers Paradise, which was really funny because the chances of running into each other again in the next town, where there were already quite a few hostels, weren't very high. Although we had actually experienced that several times before, so we shouldn't have been surprised. We also briefly saw Maresa and Tim, whom we had met in Mission Beach, but unfortunately, they were just leaving.
We also met a quite strange older Italian guy named Fabio, who was about 28 but grew up in Perth. But he was actually quite nice, and after playing a game of 'Who Am I?' together and him asking about our plans for tomorrow, he sort of invited himself. We were planning to rent bikes in the morning and ride to a Tea Tree Lake in Suffolk Park a few kilometers away from here.
But okay, a little company wouldn't hurt, no matter how strange it might be.

After that, we went into our somewhat cramped tent, and I struggled to fall asleep for a long time until I finally managed.

Song of the day(s): "Circle of Life" from The Lion King, because it was playing in the Backpacker Inn while I was showering, and I was really excited about it.