Banyule/Nillumbik 2016 Week Four

We are halfway through the program! This week allowed us plenty of time for reflection, as well as some pretty hard physical exercise.....

We started the program off at Eltham YMCA again this week, where our trainer Jordan really gave us a great workout in a cycle class. Cycle is great as everyone can set their own pace and push their own individual limits. After this we took a bit of a break and did a mindfulness meditation exercise, before playing some team work games like blindfolded soccer. It was a fun active morning and everyone enjoyed themselves. From here we headed back over to Greensborough for our second headspace session. This week we had a more hands on session where we looked at different mindful activities before doing some mindful art. All the students participated positively and it was a nice relaxing afternoon with Liz from headspace.

Thursday and Friday of Week 4 was spent down at the beautiful Bancoora beach for surf camp! We had two really great surf sessions where everyone gave it their all and had some great successes (and some great wipeouts). The waves were a bit rougher on Thursday and it was a bit of a battle to catch good ones, however it was great practice and made it much easier to catch waves in the great conditions on Friday. While the surfing was the main highlight of the camp and a great learning experience around perseverance and commitment, we also had a lot of other positive moments together as a group. A few that really stood out to me were a really nice walk on the beach in the evening, games of pool, and everyone pitching in and helping cook meals together. We also had some really positive mid term 'interviews' with each individual student to check in on their progress on the program.

Big thanks to our surf instructors Kev & Gally, Mel for coming and joining us as a placement student, and all of our Newstart students for making it a really enjoyable camp!