Thursday, February 21st

Shawn and I departed from Auckland at 7:25 this morning to embark on our very first surfing experience.  Upon arrival at Piha, we bundled up in our wetties (wet suits), grabbed a board and a quick 15 minute lesson on the sand, and began to shred!

Well shred might not be the best verb to describe the first hour of our surfing initiation, but after a couple of tumbles we began to understand how important balance was on a surf board.  Shawn and I both had long boards (Shawn’s was the Cadillac of all of the boards) and were both able to ride a few waves more than just a second or two.  The Blue Crush wave ride of the day definitely goes to Shawn.  He hit a swell at its peak and he was immediately thrust into overdrive (our instructor said he easily got to about 40 km/hour) — but he didn’t stop there!  He popped up on the board and cruised it all the way into shore.

After about 2 1/2 hours of surfing our instructors gathered us up and we BBQ’ed up some food to feed the serious hunger we just worked up.

Totally Rad,

Shawn and Scott

Next up:  Bay of Islands