Manly Surf School

    On Saturday the 19th of March I was given the opportunity through my study abroad program to take a complimentary surf lesson at the Manly Surf School.  I have been surfing for a few weeks now so I figured that taking a lesson would definitely help me improve on my newly acquired skill.  Previous to heading out for my lesson I took the time to talk to one of the instructors and informed him that I was not necessarily a beginner and was wondering if he could help me out at a more intermediate level of surfing rather than the beginner lesson that the group was doing.  The instructor agreed and we then went off on a conversation about my surfing experience, where I had been surfing, etc.  We discussed this for a few minutes and then we started talking about how great of a job it is to be a surf instructor.  He then informed me that this particular surf school gives lessons all day seven days a week from the start of summer right through until the end of April.  Once winter strikes they only run a few lessons a day but even during this time the turnout at this particular school in large.
    This all came as a large shock to me.  I knew that surfing was big in Australia but I did not know just how popular the sport was.  He told me that a chunk of their interest in the surf school comes from tourists but the majority of people learning to surf are people who live in Australia ranging from five year olds all the way into adulthood.  To me this was a bizarre fact that there was this much interest in surfing that they were giving lessons seven days a week from 9:00 in the morning all the way until 6:00 in the evening.  For the lucky few surfers that own this surf school I would have to say that they are doing very well for themselves and their job consists of teaching people to surf all day, needless to  say there are many worse jobs out there.
    All in all I would say that the free surf lesson turned out to be very beneficial and useful.  I learned quite a lot of the Australian surf culture as well as some necessary skills to really improve on my surfing capability.  It fascinates me that I live on the east coast in New England back in the United States and I never see people surfing.  When you go to the beach here, rain or shine, there are always people out surfing, even if the waves are terrible.  This new surfing skill that I picked up is definitely something that I am going to bring back home with me and maybe I can start a trend and turn surfing into a popular sport in my hometown and maybe even eventually open up a surf school.