We arrived in Brisbane Monday afternoon and got checked in to our apartments and then had time to check things out before we had our dinner. We were right off the beach. The view out our hotel room was beautiful. We walked up and down the beach before it got dark and then we headed to chinese for dinner with the group.
Tuesday morning we were up early and off to the beach to learn to surf. The team got all suited up with wet suits and surf boards. We all circled the instructor for some tips and to dos. We headed to the water first just to ride the waves in on our stomachs. We were instructed to hold the board to our sides and wait for the wave and then jump on the board put your elbows out and ride the wave in. That was a lot of fun...it was like boogie boarding except with a very long board. Next we all circle up again and learned the next step... how to pull our bodies up to a squat position and then stand. HA, that wasn't the easiest task. I couldn't pull by fat butt up into the squat position. But I kept trying until I did it. Now it was time to do it in the water. Now that I was tired just from the practice I had to try this in the water and that was even harder. I think my big butt got heavier... I was already exhausted but I didn't give up. I finally managed to pull myself up several times but not long enough to ride in very far before I fell. Some of the girls did it several times... Taylor stood up several times but she would fall over too. It was very fun and now that we know how to do it, we will definitely try again sometime when we head over to California.
View from our hotel room
Today we learned how to surf
Sarah * Taylor * Tori listening to the instructions
Shelley * Tami * Dale
Taylor asking a question
making sure my board is connected to my foot
Taylor waiting for a wave
Taylor and Tami waiting for a wave
Love her smile
I was exhausted by the time we were done
I needed the shorter board
Today we headed over so the girls could Kayak. They were all excited to do this, hoping to see some whale or dolphins. Two hours later they were freezing, exhausted and disappointed that they didn't see anything while they were out. They all came back swearing they would never kayak again. I chose not to do this and after hearing all these girls complain how hard and tiring it was I was glad that I didn't do it. The parents had a nice time walking up and down the cute down looking in all the shops.
Cape Byron where the girls went Kayaking
Walking the beach waiting to kayak
It was very windy and cold
trying to keep warm
Taylor the artist
Taylor had a hard time putting on her wet suit
She couldn't get it over that butt of hers :))
Wet suits, life vest, helmets and paddles... check
Tori & Taylor
Molly
Tori and Taylor ready for the water
The wind made the water very rough
Molly, Tori, Taylor exhausted and not happy
Everyone with the two guides
Taylor eating Timtams and drinking hot chocolate
After the girls kayaked we had lunch then took the bus up the road a ways and walked up to the light house. It was a nice walk up a ton up stairs but it was worth it. The view was amazing and we saw a dozen whale and dolphin below us, including some sea turtles.
this whale kept popping up.. I took tons of pictures but his was the best I could get... just his shadow
Almost to the top at this point
View from the top
Sea Turtle
Finally got the whales tale
After our walk up to the light house we headed back to the beach for the Down Under Challenge. The teams should have most of their questioning done... now its time for relays. The challenges were the flip flop toss, bullseye football throw, flag challange, timtam slam down, and then dual run challenge. This was fun to watch these girls compete and come together as teams. There were 3 teams Kolas, Walabees and the Kooks. The Kooks won 4 out of the 5 challenges.
Throwing the football around waiting for the challenge to begin
Waiting to do the flip flop toss
Flag challenge
It was a great 3 days and the girls have been making great friendships!!
xoxo
Tami
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