Hi all, its time for another update from the Ticket to Ride 10 week instructor course and I thought I would take a slightly different approach to this blog so I handed the laptop over to one of our group members so he could give his perspective of the past few days. I hear by introduce Pat Noyles. Pat joins us from Chicago and is the second member of his family to join us on one of our trips after his sister Skatie came with us on our 10 week course at the start of this year. Ill hand you over to Pat….
Hi again from Ansteys,
The rest our stay at The Spot was a good mix of surfing and preparation for the upcoming Surf Instructor and Beach Lifeguard courses.
On Wednesday Glenn, the owner of the Spot, and avid surfer took us to The Wedge surfboard factory where they have been shaping boards and making Maisch fins for over 2 generations. This was a good opportunity for the group to gain some serious knowledge about the technical aspects of a surfboard, which directly relates to information in the upcoming coursework. A few people bought fins and camera Steve (as we like to call him) even ordered a custom board, an opportunity we will have in Durban at the Clayton factory as well. After the factory we saw that the waves were decent at shark bay and most people had a surf while some went to the pool to work on their swimming technique.
The Spot was a great place to start sinking our teeth into the coursework when the onshore winds kept us out of the water and Thursday morning everyone broke out their workbooks and notebooks to begin work on their 10 min presentations, which they need to give as part of their Surf Instructor course. In the afternoon after all that work, a much needed surf in the windy and powerful, but very fun surf at Lucian Beach, which ended with a human wall, where people link arms and try to walk through the head high shore break.
Friday the winds finally backed off and we mission-ed for waves after an early timed swim. We ended up surfing a fun little wave at the end of the point and coming into the beach at Port Edwards around noon. In the afternoon again up a Lucian Beach, which was much cleaner than the day before. After a long day of surfing everyone was well tired and headed to bed early for our drive to Anstey's the next day.
On Saturday we watched a longboard competition in Scottburgh, unfortunately the wind was howling again, however the contest had some good waves but they were few and far between. It was great for self and the rest of the group to see a long board contest in full swing! After we finished at the contest we completed the rest of our trip to Anstey's where we met up with Dean once again. Dean Botha who is heavy involved with the South African surf industry will be running our certification courses over the next week.
The upcoming days will be packed with classroom work, training and physical tests which include a 400 meter timed swim and a run swim run on the beach and in the ocean. Half of the group completed their 400 meter time swim today with great success. We will also be completing our lifeguard qualification which involves lifesaving and first aid techniques and if we are lucky enough to get favorable winds, certainly a few chances to catch some waves. Until next time.
Hasta la Pasta,
The TTRide Crew, and their totally awesome trip leaders Nikki and Bevan