surf camp

Bright and early on our first day of surf school. We caught the train at 5:45am to get to Perth where our vans picked us up to take us to Lancelin. It's a rural town about an hour.5 out of Perth. Population 800, which is pretty common for rural towns around here.

My roommates catchin' some surf. "hang ten!" (Helena in the blue & Rachael in the red.)

My roomies again. And then a picture of the group... minus me. This picture was taken after my accident, while I was still at the hospital.

For those of you who haven't heard, I was on my board, catching this awesome wave when I saw this shark sneaking up behind one of our girls. I raced over to her on my board and leaped off towards the shark. I got him in a head-lock and was wrestling with him, desperately trying to save the life of my fellow surfer. I stuck my thumbs into his eyes, to blind him (you know... how mom tells you to do it when someone it attacking you). Anyway, I poked his eyes with such force that I dislocated my thumb and possibly broke it (still waiting on x-ray results which apparently take a few days in Australia).... ok how it happened wasn't really that cool, but I did do all the breaking and dislocating that I mentioned.

I ended up surfing for about an hour out of the whole weekend that I was supposed to. I was pretty bummed about that. But I was able to do some sun bathing and became the designated photographer. I waded out in the water and took pictures of almost everybody while they were up and on their board. And, not to worry, I was able to get up within the first five minutes we were out on the water, so it wasn't a complete waste.

Maybe some day I'll get the chance to surf again?? It was sooo much fun, I'll just have to bring the bubble wrap next time. :)

Love you guys & miss you all!

mom... don't read!!!

We went bungee jumping last weekend! It was awesome! We took the bus to Bungee West before noon. We took the first bus, and waited at the next stop, but the bus we thought we were waiting for didn't stop... so we ran to the stoplight and tried getting on, but the bus driver just shook his head no. So we got a head start while the light was red, and ended up chasing it to the next stop, only to find out we needed the bus going the other direction! We ended up just crossing the street and waiting for 30 minutes for the next one, but the excitement didn't end there. (These pics are us waiting at the bus stop. The girl in black is my roommate Rachael, and the blond is my roommate Helena.) We only needed that bus for a few stops, then we had to get off and walk for about 2 miles. I just laughed and wondered what people driving by thought of 18 kids walking down the highway.

It was pretty nerve racking that we could see the tower we jumped off from about 1/2 a mile away! Here's a picture of Helena and I just standing next to the stairs to get to Bungee West. I think the tower was 120 feet high. We jumped over a pool, and if you were lucky enough, you could touch the water with your hands on the first bungee. Some people didn't touch at all, while some had their entire head dunked! One of the worst parts of jumping was having to walk up the humongous stairs. Half way up I was thinking, "Are we almost there!?" But we still had several flights to go. We stopped to take a picture, right around this time we were all wanting to turn back... LET ME OUT!! We finally made it to the top though, and were prepared for the jump. The entire time we were up there, the employees were cracking jokes about it being scary, and what not. And then one said, "I haven't done this forever, did I do that right?", or when a girl asked what all the levers and pulley systems were for and what they did one guy said, "Oh I don't know, I just know that I need to pull this one, tie that one, let go of this one, and then you jump!" Very ensuring!

Here's Helena, trying to boost my confidence. I was SO SCARED! After the jump everyone was commenting on how quiet I had been all morning before the jump. I was pretty nervous!

After having my feet tied up, it was time for my jump! I had to shuffle my feet to the edge of this platform where I was supposed to jump off. I got about halfway out and then realized how high I really was. I'm not sure was I was so nervous about, but it was pretty scary. The bungee chord was attacked to the tower from underneath me, so as I was standing on the platform, the chord was hanging over the edge... and it was very heavy! I felt like my feet were going to be pulled out from underneath me. I finally made it to the edge though. The guy kept telling me not to look down, but how do you shuffle your feet and get closer and closer to the edge and not look down? Especially when you can feel the tips of your toes hanging over the edge? To the left is a picture that the girls took as I was getting ready to jump. Halfway there... just trying to regain composure. :) And then... the jump! Right after I felt my feet leave the platform I thought, "I didn't want to do that! I take it back!" But the view was amazing! You could see Perth to one side, the Indian Ocean to the other side, and just a gorgeous view the whole way around. The group on the ground took pictures right after we all jumped! Some people looked more like Superman, but I think they caught me right about the time I was wishing I hadn't jumped! :) But after a couple metres of free falling, it was great!

We took a group picture with the 18 of us who went after the last jump. It was really fun! Some of the people had their jump taped and got it on DVD, which was really cool. I wish I would have done that, because watching them afterwards was hilarious!