Grommet - Surfer slang (although also extends to other boardsports, and surf sports) for a young surfer. Can also be used to refer to children in general, although usually they have some association with surfing/etc. (urbandictionary.com)
As soon as you take a surfboard off the roof of your car, you feel totally cool like you're about to do something that defies nature. You're going to walk on water. You're going to fly across the waves and defy gravity. At least that what you think will happen.
When Giovannina and I first started planning our 5 month round the world trip, I had one stipulation - I wanted to spend an entire week at a warm-water beach and surf every day. With the exception of a couple times out at Hobuck Beach, WA messing around in the white water, I've never surfed. Growing up in Narragansett, I did a lot of boogey boarding, but no surfing, and I've always regretted it. Now living in Seattle, it's 3 hours to the nearest surf beach and you need multiple layers of neoprene to avoid severe hypothermia. So, I figured if we were traveling around the world's oceans, it would be a great chance to surf.
In support of my dream, Giovannina gave me a week's surfboard rental for Christmas and when we were planning our trip down the East Coast of Australia we decided to spend a week at Byron Bay, NSW. Byron came highly recommended from many folks and so we booked a campsite at the Brokenhead Campground about 10 minutes south of Byron Bay and right on the beach.
After setting up camp, I headed into town and rented a board for the week. I wanted something hot and sleek, but I ended up with a soft-top 8' surfboard, bright blue and weighing half as much as my first car. Stable. That's how they described it at the shop. To me, it looked more like a pool toy, but I figured I'd trust the experts. I took it straight back to Brokenhead, put on my shorts and headed for the waves.
I sat on the beach for about 15 minutes scoping the waves, seeing where the locals went. They paddled straight through the breakers and hung out about a hundred yards offshore, bobbing in the swell and catching really nice 5' to 6' waves. It looked great. So I hopped in and started paddling. I felt wonderful. Sun. Waves. Surfboard. Then the first wave hit and I don't think I breathed dry air for the next two hours. I felt like I was in a washing machine, but instead of clothes I had a huge styrofoam door attached to my ankle. Sometimes I was on top of it, sometimes it was on top of me. But most of the time I was swimming and try to stay off the bottom .
I never made it out with the other surfers, and realized I probably wasn't going to, so the next day I decided to head to The Pass, the beginners spot. Actually, there were lots of surfers there - all types, beginners like me flailing away on their own blue or red spongy surfboards, and really good surfers twisting and turning on their short boards and gliding over the water on their longboards like they were driving a Cadillac.
It took me a while to get a feel for the beach. The waves broke off a point, but then curled around towards the beach in nice three to four foot crumbly breakers. Great waves for a newby like me. And because of the way they broke, I could ride one wave - or actually try to catch it, tumble off and get dragged twenty feet - for a while, then catch another without having to paddle back out. This was great. Or at least it was until I found myself sitting in the lineup with other surfers, but these surfers weren't like me. They were good. I mean GOOD. They knew exactly where to catch waves and when they did, they did very cool moves.
As for me, it didn't go as smoothly. A wave would come. It would look like it would break right where I wanted. I'd start to paddle, pushing harder and harder, and then the wave would pass underneath me. Nothing. I did this for about an hour when I finally found a wave that looked just right. I turned and paddled and paddle, muscles aching, back sore. I could hear the wave starting to break behind me. The sound got louder. I could feel the board swell up underneath me and then all of a sudden the board started moving on it's own. I pushed up and and slid my feet under me. I was up on the board! I was riding the wave! I was SURFING!
Then I heard a voice behind me say, "What the &#@! you doin', mate?" and this guy on a short board grabbed my leash and pulled me off my board.
Seems that I broke a cardinal rule of surfing:I dropped in on another guy's wave. I apologized profusely and upon hearing my American accent he frowned and turned away. A stupid foreigner. I felt bad for ruining his wave so I paddled straight to shore and walked back to the beginners' beach. I know I shoud've felt bad, but there was a little twinge of pride. I had that wave. And I had it well enough to piss off another surfer. That means, I was worth swearing at. That means, I was another surfer. Or at least appeared to be one. Yes.
I spent the next three days at The Pass, sticking to the beginner waves and improving, gradually. Giovannina, Mark and Julia came out surfing with me sometimes or went hiking.
On the last day, the four of us surfed all day. My back was sore and my feet were cut up, but I was finally getting it. By the end of the day I was catching waves regularly and even turning the board. I think another week of surfing and I might be ready for the big waves (ones that break where you can't stand up), but the road beckoned and it was time to move on.
It felt good to settle in and stay in one place for a week, the campground had a kitchen with fridge and freezer so we could buy fresh food to cook and keep it cold when we needed to (this was a struggle living in and out of the car). We also made some friends. We met a wonderful older couple that had been camping/traveling for the last four months, they were big birders and retired parks rangers/biologists so we had a lot to talk about.
We Also connected immediately with Mark and Julia, a German couple who had been in Australia for three months. After talking about our volunteer gig in Carins, they told us stories about being flown to a Island and left there for a few days to camp on there own. We spent most of the week hanging with them, surfing, hiking and even celebrating St. Paddy's Day. They met us at Lamington National Park, our next destination.
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