Kyle's Sunrise Surf

Kyle's Sunrise Surf
Surfing has been one of the hardest and most enjoyable hobbies that I have picked up since I have arrived in Australia. Most of the boys around my age surf or body board. The beach is a huge part of the Australian life.
Four months ago I started surfing with an instructor, Rob. He is a really great surfer and has taught me so many things about surfing. I took 4 or 5 lessons from him. At that time I used a form board for safety and better stability in the water. It also made paddling way easier because you float higher in the water. In March, my parent's bought a fiber glass board from Rob for my birthday. My board is about 2 meters long and baby blue color. It is great fun when I'm up on a wave.
Surfing is really fun but takes heaps of balance and practice. It is a very hard skill to learn especially when I don't skateboard or snowboard because these are very similar to surfing.
Each time you go surfing you must reapply surfing wax on the top for grip, otherwise the wet board is much too slippery. That is what the picture above is about.

You can surf anytime you want but the best time is early in the morning. This is when the waves are biggest and there is minimal wind to create a wild sea. Most weekends I will wake up early and my mum, dad or both will go read on the beach while I surf. Some days before school I go surfing as well. I will wake up around 5:40 because the sun doesn't rise until around 6:00 at this time of year. I'll wake up, shove down a quick breakkie, wax up my board to get as much grip as possible and drive to the beach. We live only about 800 meters away from the beach but it is always nice to get a lift home after an exhausting surf. While surfing you are paddling most of the time. When catching a wave you have to paddle especially hard. Then do a push up on your board, drag your feet forward, push back on your board and get in a low stance with your feet spread apart for balance. You will also need your arms out for more balance especially when turning on a moving surface.
The surf at Old Bar in mornings will get up to an 8 foot swell. Plenty big for me, although the pictures here have only about a 4 foot swell. Rob says that some winter days during a storm the waves get up to 15 or sometimes more feet tall. There are many beaches around the area besides Old Bar Beach though. Just a couple other good surfing beaches that are near by are Wallaby Point and Saltwater. Although I do prefer Old Bar over them. When the wind come from the north east I will go to Saltwater to get away from the rough waters caused by the wind and sometimes I will go to Wallaby Point if Old Bar is crowed or there is a surfing competition.
Well I hope you have a general idea about surfing now. I've got to go hit the surf now so I'll catch you later.

~kyle

Sunrise/Sunset

Here comes the sun....

The ocean is to the east, the sun goes across the northern sky, and the equator is also north of us. We are so confused, but my, oh my, how the sunrises and sunsets thrill us.

We wake up early and walk the beach to watch the sun come up. We pick up dinner and head down to the beach as the sun goes down. I walk the golf course, trying to finish a few more holes in the dark, as the sun sets over the hills and we marvel at the sky.

I thought I' d send some photos your way. Make sure to click on them to get the full effect.

Mariah and Jake's cross country race

Last Friday, we ran in the zone (district) cross country race. Because we came in the top 4 from our school race last month, we got to move on to the next level. It was held in Wingham. (about 20 mins from our house) In each race there were around 70 kids. We only raced against our aged kids, and our sex. It had rained the night before and was a fairly cloudy day, therefore there were heaps (a lot) of slippery mud puddles. There was a particular spot where many kids slipped and got all muddy. It was around a sharp corner. One kid lost his shoe and carried it the rest of the way. Every once in awhile you would see a kid run by with mud across half of his body. Neither Jake nor I slipped.

My race (Mariah) was 3 kilometres long. I led the race the whole way, and a girl I know from other sports was right behind me the entire race. We were a little ways ahead of everyone else. In the last 200 metres or so, she started to sprint, and I attempted to. She outran me. I had only done a little bit of training and was not much prepared. She was the state winner the last two years. I ended up coming 2nd. The top 6 people get to move on to Newcastle in a week and a half. I have been doing a lot of training and will be prepared for the next race. My shoes were covered in mud at the end of my race. I had run in a mud spot and they were filthy.

My race (Jake) was 2 kilometres. In my race I was 12th or 13th almost the whole race. The person in front of me slipped and fell and I almost tripped over him. I jumped over him to not fall down. My mate, Aidan, beat me in the school race but I beat him in this race. He came 51st and I came 13th. Aidan slipped over too. Aidan's shoes were filled with mud and were all dirty with mud. The top 6 got to go on, so I don't get to move on.

The pictures are of me (Mariah) at the start line. The person to the left of me, in the tights, won my race. Another is of Jake and Aidan holding up their place # cards. Another is of me running, and one of Jake running. And the last one is of all of the kids from Old Bar school that made it to that race. 7 of them made it to the next one, in Newcastle.

Cheers,

Mariah & Jake