New Outdoor Education Opportunity a Big Hit

The weather tested us, the waves surely tested us, we tested ourselves and came up with the goods. This week of sun, sand, surf, rain, wind, cold, hot temperatures was a usual walk in the park stock standard week for our Tahuna students...or was it?

We arrived to the South Coast Board Riders at 8:30am and geared up for our day of surfing with The Esplanade Surf School. The weather was not too bad for this session - the swell on the other hand was big and powerful as Tangaroa blessed us with the opportunity to feel the force of the waves hitting the south coast at St Clair beach.

The first session was an almost 2 hour session in challenging conditions. Students were making every effort to follow the instructions of the surf coaches, life guards and Mr Lousley under howling wind and big swells. Mr Lousley said "the kids showed amazing resolve and did not give up at anytime. The conditions were rally challenging and the students just kept on getting out and giving it a go.

After a delicious lunch of fish and chips we braved putting on wet wetsuits and headed out for the second session. We managed to carry our boards 300 metres down the beach and attempted the session. This lasted for about 45 minutes until it was deemed to marginal and we then put the board on the shore and were able to be in the water with our parents, teachers, surf coaches and lifeguards  to get the feel of the raw power of the huge swell and current. It was an amazing learning curve for everyone.

Day 2 saw smaller conditions and the group was able to really get schooled by Craig Higgins Surf Coach. After a classroom session on technique and form we entered the water and had amazing success. Keo, George, Flynn, Flint, Ariana, Nuku, Marley were not put off by the swell and headed out the back with lifeguard Josh McGreggor and 4 parent support. The rest of the crew surfed on the inside and had a fantastic session.  Everyone managed to get up on a wave and experience a real surf.  We finished up with the skateboard comp on the esplanade and it was too close to call a winner.

This was our travel day up the coast to the Hatherly Lodge at Warrington. We had two awesome sessions with Esplance Surf School and it was amazing to have Mr Minn out there dropping in on kids in the surf. There were our awesome parents out there as well and they just kept everyone safe and also challenged them to keep going! We all got waves.  

That evening we had a night mission to the beach for some star gazing and finished up around 11:29pm A huge day and we all slept well.

Day 4 was with Luke Murphy Surf Coaching. He has us getting grounded on the beach and we did some visualisations before hitting the water. The weather was stunning and this day was so much fun. Everyone got a wave and there were so many smiles during the sessions - MAGIC!  We farewelled some members this day as they were driving up the the South Island Surf Champs in Kaikoura.

Last day (and teachers thought some students would be surfed out - we were so wrong) and the Tahuna Surf Champs were on. The surf was small and clean and heats were alot of fun. Team 'Flint' took out the title and will be in training all year until the next comp.

All in all there were 26 kids with smiles on their faces, joy in their eyes and just stoked to be out there.

Many thanks to all the parents, Mr Minn and to Mr Hunter and Mr Scoles for backing this adventure.

See you in out the back!