Surfing in Raglan – Day 20

Raglan is a top surf spot and probably the most popular and well-known surf spot of New Zealand so that is what we are doing today. We are going to ride the waves until the sun sets. It is going to be gorgeous.

But first things first, we hang out in Raglan Backpackers. it’s a really awesome hostel, like it’s really worth mentioning because there is so much going on there and you can tell that the lady who own the hostel, Suze, she’s been travelling all over the world herself and every little thing that she’s picked up like all those things that people want when they’re living in a hostel she has put them into the hostel, for instance, there’s like a whole bunch of guitars, there’s a baking box, you can go in the sauna, you can go in the spa pool. There’s like a whole back shelf in the living area with books and board games, if people are keen. You know, you can all get together and do yoga or movie night or pizza night. I pretty much love everything about this hostel. I’m a bit obsessed with it. And they even have hammocks around the garden area. And you can just lie in the hammocks. Anyway, I’m going to stop bumming over Raglan Backpackers and move on.

What happens when you learn surfing at the Raglan Surfing School, you spend the first about 20 minutes in their shed. This is where we meet our surf instructor for the day, Bing, he’s called. He’s from the US. So yeah, this is like some no-nonsense theory right here. We are going to learn some shit today.

So next we need to get ourselves some wetsuits and go to the beach.

Today we are get some bigger, thicker surf boards than usual because we are beginners. So really thick surf boards – really long so they are much more stable on the water and it will make for a much pleasurable experience, which means that we may be able to stand once or twice on the board.

The moment we’ve all been waiting for, time to hit the waves. Robin was the first one in the waves and yeah, he amazing stands up first time. because I wasn’t expecting much from Robin, as bad as that is, but he stood up! He did pretty well.

Going surfing [in Raglan]! Riding some white water. I just enjoy it. it’s like simple fun. Every time you actually stand on the board you’re like: “Oh my God, this is amazing – I’m doing it!”

Bing helps me with the first wave, just helps make sure that I’m steady on the board for the first wave I’m about to attempt to stand up on and I do it! I stand up first time and this is a good feeling.

I’m just going wave after wave. when I say ride the wave, I mean all the shitty little white water things.

How does my hair look?

Everybody’s having a blast. Bing is on the ball. Every single time he sees us gliding, you know, he’s like giving you a bit of “Yeah, bro, wooo,” You know, it’s a bit of a feel-good because you know you’re doing pretty shit but you have someone who cheers you up so that’s always cool.

This is it. the tsunami of Raglan and I’m gonna ….

I can see the amazing sunset that’s going down across the waves right in front of us and beams of light. It’s a really bright sunset and it look absolutely gorgeous.

Mid-way through the surf lesson [in raglan] I get really exhausted, and I am carry the massive beginner boards down the beach every time you go out and surf, you end up further down here and you have to walk back up, go back out, surf and like do this process over and over again – and I’m getting like pretty tired and this point.

That is how you do it.

That is not how you do it.

I spy with my little eye in the corner over there, Laura nailing it. She’s jumping in the water she’s having a blast, she’s laughing so much, she’s jumping on the board, she’s gliding. She jumps on the board again, she’s gliding. She jumps on the board again, she’s gliding. it’s ridiculous. She’s nailing one wave after the other while I’m just struggling so much, it’s ridiculous. Bing has to take me a couple of times and place me properly and push me. He does that to Laura maybe once or twice but almost none. She was just a natural.

Bing is saying like this is our last two waves you guys have. You got to make the last waves really count. So the sun slowly goes down and we are treated to a gorgeous sunset. I mean, amazing and it was just mind-blowing. Honestly, we are knackered now.

Gnarly bro. That was rad. that was sick.

So I surfed the white water. No barrels today. Usually I surf barrels. Not today. Didn’t want to show everyone else up so.

While we’re in the changing rooms we’re all like talking about it like: “Oh my God. Did you see me do this? Did you see me do that?” We’re all pretty pumped afterwards. We need to get some sleep tonight because we are waking up really early tomorrow. We are going to get the van fixed hopefully fixed once and for all. Get this rust hole, put some metal over this rust hole – whatever they need to do and that’s in Hamilton and we need to get there for 8 o’clock so we need to get up drive to Hamilton from Raglan and we’ll see what happens from there. See you tomorrow.