Weather
Today we had an easterly wind which meant that we had a slightly cross shore wind but still offshore. Frequent showers throughout the day but fairly long spells of sunshine at a time. The temperature today was 12 degrees celsius.
Goals for Today
My goal for today was to practice and hopefully perfect my basic skills in the white water and then try paddling out back if I feel comfortable.
Session Evaluation
Today Wayne began the session by talking to us about the moon phases and corresponding tides. He explained that when it is a new moon or full moon we have spring tides and when we have a half moon we have spring neap tides. When we have spring tides there is a big movement of water between low and high tide but when we have neap tides there is a small movement of water between low and high tide. I felt that his was a really informative as well as relaxed way of starting the session and helped us to understand tides more as a result.
Wayne then told us all to get ready and hit the water. As we got into the water, Wayne stayed on the shore watching us for about 15 minutes and then went surfing out back with a few of the better surfers. I felt that once again this was an irresponsible move by an instructor. I felt that this was especially irresponsible due to the swell being slightly bigger today and there being complete beginners in the water this week. At one point William had to go in due to a getting a bad cramp in his calf. In William's words ''What if there was blood pumpin from my head right now and Wayne is all the way out there''. After this we continued to surf for a while before going in ad having a de-brief with Wayne. This was again very annoying as he picked on things that the white water people were doing even though he was nowhere to be seen for most of the session.
Evaluation of Goals
Today I felt that I met my goals of becoming consistent when performing the basic skills of surfing. After a while of surfing in the white water and continuing to pop up and surf waves correctly Peter came in and showed me the best way of paddling out back. This was a big personal achievement for me as I thought I wasn't good enough to surf out back yet.
Environmental Interest
Today due to a slight cross shore wind we were being blown up the beach towards the rip current that is straight out from the beach car park. A rip tide is very dangerous to be in as it can potentially pull you very far out to sea due to the strong movement of the water. Rip currents happen in areas with breaking waves. Rips occur due to water being pushed towards the shore by waves and wind and then having to travel back out to sea. Usually it travels back out to sea between sand bars.
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