Bye bye surf camp :(

Hey guys!

Wow am I in need of a de-tox or what. Eeesh! Surf Camp is over now, and I'm really sad. I made some great friends with the other helpers, and to a lesser extent with some of the boys out there too. So lets see ... where to start....

I think the last time I wrote I was in Sydney for a weekend thingy. Well now I'm back in Byron Bay, and almost totally alone (again!) which is a bit of a depressing thought, but on the plus side, I"m heading up to Surfers Paradise to meet up with Helen and some of the other girls from Surf Camp to pick up some fruit picking work and head up the coast to where its warmer. The last few nights at camp were soooo cold! Sofia and I were freezing out there, and we both come from cold climates! (Sofia is from Sweden) but the weather is lovely in Byron, even if the beaches aren't as nice as where I've been.

For those wondering, Surf Camp is basically 3 hrs north of Sydney in an area called the Great Lakes. We are about a 20 min drive from a little town called Bullahdella, which makes Bowden look like a raging city. It has a cafe, and a grocery store, and um ... a butcher ... and um.... .... yeah thats about it. I went there a couple times with Vicki (my boss from surf camp). Oh right, you know how in Canada people have those little dear statues or what ever on their front lawns? They look all bronzed and what not... well they dont have dear here... they have ... yes you guessed it Kangaroos! This dude had a Bronzed Kangaroo statue on his front lawn. I just about died of laughter. Vicki thought I had gone nuts!
Speaking of nuts, I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned Ben the extremely gay surf instructor. (his nick name in Pornz. dont ask) well, he wasnt working when I was down there, but he was hanging around the camp for a free lift down to the snow season. Anyway, I love the guy, but hes a bit of a basket case. Helen, Sofia and I were on the bus back from the beach when Ducat got this call and he started laughing so hard he had to pull off to the side of the road. Turns out, Ben has a few phobias. One being red necks, and another being wild dogs. So Ben goes out biking in his tiny little short shorts and cropped tank top. Sees a truck go by, and starts freaking out thinking these red necks are going to rape him or something, so he starts peddling like mad, and ends up missing the turn into Camp and winds up at Frank the handy man's place. (Frank has about 12 dogs that are a little less than domestic) So while hes looking over his shoulder, the dogs all started barking and poor Ben is lost, thinking hes being chased by red necks and now hes got a pack of wild dogs on his heels (doesnt help that there was a cow killed by some actual wild dogs a week or so before) so instead of being a man, he ditches the bike and scurries 20 feet up the nearest tree! (keep in mind the dogs he heard are locked behind a gate and are no where really near him anyway) So now Ben is up a tree in short shorts and a cropped tank, thinking there are red necks and dogs after him, and what does he do? he starts trying to send Vicki telepathic messages to come pick him up. He was lucky Sharon (the cleaning lady) came by after about a 1/2 hr. Now if you know Ben thats funny as hell, if not it might be a little scary. Rest assured, hes just over the top, not full on looney bin crazy. I miss that guy. He was really really fun.

Lets see what else, there have been tons of fun stories of people and punters I've met at surf camp, and retelling all of them would take forever! Besides, the antics of the drunk are usually only amusing if you've been there So I'll spare you guys for now. If I think of anything else though, rest assured it will go up here.

Ok there is one drunken story that is fresh in my mind so I'll put it up here. The group of punters that I came North with are a tiny bit on the creepy side. I'm not saying everyone who goes through Surf Camp is gorgeous, but well ... you'd have to have low standards for the most part with this particular group. (really low) Anyway, there was one guy who was from France (yes we called him Frenchie) and he was a little more creepy than the rest because he couldnt speak english very well at all, so if he wanted something at the bar he'd just stare at you until you figured out what he wanted. So on the 2nd last night at camp, he got really really drunk, and started taking a million and one photos of Sofia and I, we were getting really creeped out, and then the guy comes behind the bar and starts trying to kiss us! Now, Grommet and a couple of the guys can get away with that because we know them, but some random really creepy Frenchie?! Hell no. We told him to piss off and left the bar to the boys. Frenchie wasnt so bad after we left camp though, he was slightly less creepy... until he was assigned to Sofia and I's dorm last night >.< that was not cool.

We got into Byron last night, and pulled the usual farewell party, except it was bigger than usual, since its the last tour here. Sofia and Ducat had to go back to Surf Camp, but RobBob and Dylan are still here, so at least I'm not totally alone yet. Gonna meet up with them later ( I hope they don't want to party again tonight, I don't think my liver can handle it) Right, talking about the tour, Anyway, Steve-O (the driver of our lovely big blue bus) is done for the season, and has been gone for the last 2 weeks. Thats left us with these little mini buses (coasters) to take our tours north with. Its not too bad ... until you have 21 punters (there are only 21 seats) and 4 surf instructors, and 3 helpers to fit on to a bus. Grommet drove the Troopie up half way with us, but he had to turn around and go back to camp yesterday for the weekend tour. That meant that we had a 21 seater bus with um 26 people on it. So Illegal! I spent a 5 hr trek to Byron Bay on the floor with about um 2 sq feet of space to myself. The only solution to that kind of discomfort? Alcohol of course! Sofia picked up a box of goon, and I broke out the Wild Turkeys and Strongbow. Now we don't have Wild Turkey back in Canada, but its Bourbon and cola. Things here are measured in standard drinks per serving. So like um beer is 1, Rum and coke is 1.4 ... and Wild Turkeys are 2.4 No one told me that. (I think they didn't on purpose too actually) so by the first toilet stop I was trashed. It made the ride much more fun! I got to talk to one of the punters who was reading a book and could understand words over 2 syllables, though I imagine it was hard to understand me at that point anyway I think the most fun had to be all the police on the road last night. Poor Ducat was freaking out. If we had been pulled over he would have likely lost his license and been fined...Heavily.

Oh yeah, yesterday was the last day on the beach for me, (well with Surf camp anyway) so I grabbed a board, and was determined to hit a few waves with Ducat and Grommet. The best part? I actually caught one all on my own! I was soooo happy you wouldn't believe it. The only shitty thing it that about 2.5 seconds after I stood up, I crashed into Ducat and took him out. He hadn't expected me to get on the wave, what a vote of confidence eh?
We always have a surfing competition on the last day of the tours, and this tour was no exception. There were quite a few competent surfers on the tour, so it was fun to watch, though I think the antics of Ducat and Grommet were even more fun. They started playing full contact surfing. At one point Grommet full on lept off his board to tackle Ducat (we are talking a flying leap) another time Ducat got off his board to grapple with Grommet on his. Though I think the most cold blooded sabotage was when one of the punters took a page out of the boys' book and full on threw his board at another of the punters who had just managed to get on a wave. That or when Grommet took out Sofia on her first and only wave of the day. he just surfed straight into her and pushed his board into her legs. Poor girl all in all it was a really great tour, which was good because I was afraid that it would suck.

Well I think I need to go write some postcards, call some family members and um ... eat something ... maybe. SO I'll leave you guys with this:

What they say about the water draining the wrong way ... its totally true! I found that out while filling water jugs at camp after a night of heavy drinking. Staring at water that spins the wrong way when you're feeling like that ... you dont forget that kind of thing. Stupid, but what do you want? really ....

Ciao! Love you all
Amy