Day 24 Yamba to Esk

This morning i was poked awake by Nick as he informed me that breakfast was ready and next to me, off to a good start having breaki in bed! Moments later he ran the latest of his pick up lines past me for a female critique. I was seriously impressed by the cleverness and whit, he mentioned he’d try it on one of the girls at reception. I didn’t think that was maybe the best idea considering the stunning resort accommodation we were staying in, but it set the mood for a funny morning all the same.

Kim was out on the ski and waiting for me past the break, i jumped in a rip running along the rocks for a fun easy ride out the back saying hey to a few surfers on the way. I paused to put my leg rope and shark shield on once out past the breaking waves. I know I’m in sharky water so best to completely exploit the devices i have,  he shark shield.

Today i made note of a vast temperature change, i had no surfing hood, no wind jacket and no gloves. Without these few items alone i felt so much more freedom than usual, it was amazing to feel the warmth of the sun on my face. I actually had to dunk my head a few times mid paddle to cool down which was a super big change to the usual.

There wasn’t a heap of marine life today, just a vast expanse of magical blue water that felt like silk on my hands! I went into an odd little introverted world of my own today, i was simply paddling with tunnel vision of completing the days task, nothing more, nothing less. After the shoulder dramas i have had today was a good tester. The winds were so light when i began that i jumped onto my knees and powered along like that for a while. Im not one for numbers but today was a numbers kind of day, 200 strokes on my knees, 30 single arm paddles on my stomach and 30 double arm paddles on my stomach… repeat, again, again, again and again. Some days i use numbers to disassociate from what I’m doing and i guess it was one of those days!

Mid way across the open stretch of coast line the north easterly winds picked up, this meant conditions went from glassy to choppy and my mood went from copying to frustrated rather quickly. Kim drove the jet ski in front of me to break both he wind and the swell to attempt to ease the effort output of my paddling. I did a few quick calculations in my head. My pace 3 knots, the wind 5 knots; based on these figures without the jet ski breaking the wind or me sitting on the wash i was either going to just hold my current position and fatigue my arms for the next few hours looking at the exact same headland, or i was going to go backwards… Kim helped me out with this one, we turned the paddle into a down wind session.

When you can’t beat mother nature, join her! I turned around and with the wind and swell i went. Still not easy but a realistic option in comparison to attempting to push on. Finally the light house at Yamba was getting much closer (relief, big relief) i paddled back into Yamba beach and thought id catch a few waves in so i could finish the days work with a smile. As i paddled towards the shore i stopped and chatted with a few surfers, these ladies were hilarious. They asked me where i’d gone, how far i paddled and why! Apparently they were at the beach when i left in the morning and decided to go and get breakfast before returning for a surf. The exact words went something like “we saw you paddle out this morning, so we went and got breakfast. We stuffed our faces all day and now we’ve only been in the surf 10 minutes and your just back’. It all sounded pretty hilarious, but i was impressed with their enthusiasm towards me! I yelled my good buys as a set rolled through and i paddled off flying down the face of a wave heading to shore!

My board slipped out from under me and i body surfed a wave in, body surfing was so fun and its something i haven’t done since summer really so i ran back out into the surf to get a few more waves. Nick was on shore with my board yelling and laughing ‘what are you doing?!’ I was finishing my day with smiles, thats what i was doing!

Once back at Angourie Rainforest Resort it was pool time, Nick and i went in the adults pool where a fast exit was necessary, it was freezing. The baby pool was much more my scene, it had a slide, some caterpillars that doubled as water fountains and paint mushroom water fountains!

Later in the evening i took it upon myself to acupuncture my shoulder, with the amazing home video tutorials from Jess my house mate/mermaid sista back in Newcastle i felt semi confident about what i was doing. Hopefully ill benefit on the water tomorrow based on the recovery treatment this evening.