Surf Camp

During our first week with Ultimate we had a visit from a guy selling places at ‘Surf Camp’; to start with I was listening to what he had to say but was pretty much certain it wouldn’t be for me. He started with the usual sales pitch ‘woo surfing’s so cool, this beach is amazing, you get loads of lessons, plus you’ll have so much fun!’ and yeah, it did sound like a great way to spend our second week in Aus, but all I was thinking was a full week at surf camp would be more money than I would even consider paying (I have slight money OCD, it’s both a blessing and a curse!) THEN he tells us we get travel to & from camp, accommodation for the week, 8 surf lessons, use of equipment, pics and all our meals for A$600 (just over £300, I think it’s usually A$700, there was a deal on, maybe something to do with us being with Ultimate… even A$700 is a decent price to me though). Well that was me sold... we were planning on booking an extra week in a hostel anyway to start job hunting and by the time we’d paid for that, plus what we’d spend on meals, drinks, general life in the centre of Sydney, there probably wasn’t going to be much of a difference in price, and we got the added bonus of visiting somewhere new and learning to surf.

Surf Camp is about 2 hours south of Sydney, in Gerringong and we spent our days having surf lessons on 7 mile beach; the conditions are great for surfers, especially beginners and there’s only ever the lessons and maybe a few locals there. As soon as we arrived, we were welcomed by Jose and his team who instantly gave off such a chilled but fun vibe. The camp was cute as well, with different coloured cabins, hammocks and palm trees, it was such a nice contrast to being in the city.

We had time to get settled and grab some lunch, then it was off to our first lesson. We had 1 lesson Monday afternoon, 1 Friday morning and 2 on all the days in between. We learnt all the basics, including how to get stood up on the board, how to speed up / slow down, and if you got past that how to turn, plus some other stuff I’m sure but I didn’t really get past that! I can now tell you what on shore, off shore and cross shore winds are, because the names are so technical I’m shore you’d never be able to work it out.

On the Thursday morning it was raining and I was pretty sure that’d mean lesson cancelled, but nope, business as usual and most of us still went out for it… it was bizarre but so fun surfing (well attempting to) in the pouring rain. The instructors were fab, regardless of how quick you were picking things up, they helped out everyone and were super encouraging; they were also going around with go pros to make sure you had plenty of pics of your time there. I got a nice little selection, that middle one is actually me doing a fun surf move called ‘the dying cockroach’ and as you can see, I fully committed to the role…

Every evening after tea we’d also get to view the pics from the day all together on a big screen which was always a laugh, then the nights were yours to chill, sing songs round the campfire, have a few drinks at the beach, whatever you felt like really. We were also well fed all week – breakfast, lunch and tea; tea / coffee and biscuits were available all day too! The staff were so accommodating of any dietary requirements, allergies etc. (if you go veggie like I did, be prepared for lots of veggie burgers!) and there was always plenty of food for everyone.

I honestly can’t recommend Surf Camp enough, even though I was knackered and blistered by the end of the week, with a whole new respect for anyone who can actually properly surf - it was such a great experience. Some people picked it up so quickly and were absolutely bossing it by Thursday / Friday; I had zero natural talent for surfing and was still pretty shit by the end of the week, but still loved it and had so much fun, I’m so glad I’d not planned out the second week so that we were able to spontaneously book this!

If you want to find out more: www.surfcamp.com.au Insta: @surfcamp You can get some money off by mentioning my name ‘Sally Purdy’ they do this for anyone who’s visited surf camp!