Day 28 Rest Day in Byron

Sleeping in a surf club is always interesting, especially on a weekend. There is always the usual traffic of locals walking through from 5:30am onwards to use the gym, so sleep in’s on rest days are unlikely.

After an eventful evening i didn’t actually feel too rested at all, my muscles and shoulder joints were in such pain that i was kept awake. Nic offered to swap beds as his mattress was much softer than my stretcher, there was some relief at last but not enough to be able to sleep.

Eventually the loud conversations and laughs of the locals meant that surf training must have been on so i decided to just get up and get going. I took myself down to the beach, that was all of five metres from my front door, to go for a leisurely swim which really seemed to help my shoulder. Wandering back up to the surf club I laid out on the deck to let the sun’s warmth dry my skin and thought about how much the weather has changed since I left Newcastle four weeks ago, near hypothermic. One of my favourite things about my rest days is I always get plenty of massage and physio work done and today was no different as I had a highly recommended masseuse (Amanda Foulkes) come around and work on my for two hours!

I took myself out onto the tourist trail of Byron and wandered the crowded streets in search of a decent coffee. With the temperature finally hitting thirty plus i quickly made my way back to the surf club and then down to the beach to meet up with the local lifeguards. With it being such a small community we all had mutual friends in the industry. I spent the rest of the morning playing in the surf surrounded by clear jelly crystals which you could barely see, but could always feel them as the surf washed them across your body. In between breaks I’d wander back over to the lifeguards to chat and on one of these breaks I had the cutest little toddler I’d ever seen came up to me. With a dummy as a necklace, cute little skirt and a mermaid on her singlet. I asked her “Are you a baby mermaid?” and probably more importantly “Where are your parents?” She pulled on my towel to bring me down to her level and then I tried to figure out what she was up to mostly by pointing and hand signals. The other lifeguards were in hysterics as the little girl had taken a fancy to me and was stroking my hair and patting me on the shoulder. Eventually her parents waved and called out but she had no intention of leaving my side so I ended up giving her a piggy back ride back to her parents which changed her mind pretty quickly.

Nic had just arrived back after running the jet ski up the coast to get a service done as no one between Coffs Harbour and the Gold Coast will touch jet skis… Business opportunity just saying! We spent the rest of the afternoon up in the surf club sorting through gear and food doing a general tidy to make sure everything was in order. Troy (www.surflifephysio.com.au) came back this afternoon and re-strapped my shoulders and back, did some more dry needling work and some ultrasound work. Troy was going above and beyond in helping me out and he brought his two beautiful daughters along to keep me company. We finished the evening off when Dave (our latest jet ski driver) came up to Byron to do a bit of a run down his role for the next day and then joined us for a super relaxed dinner with plenty of banter. Thanks to Tegan at www.beachhotel.com.au for sorting us out again with dinner.