Yarra Week 4 2017

We're now halfway through the program and have had another busy week. We started off with a bang at the Collingwood Leisure Centre, powering through a circuit workout that put everyone through their paces. It was a great way to start the morning as it definitely woke everyone up and gave us energy.

From the gym we did our shopping for camp this week before heading over to Yarra Youth Services for our first of two art workshops. Here we met great local artist Brody who showed us some of his own work before we got started on our own pieces. The students had plenty of time to plan a design for their large board before having a go at the spray paints and air gun, with Brody showing some new techniques we'll be able to use. The students will be painting their final pieces next week and I'm really keen to see the results.

The rest of our week was spent out in beautiful weather down near Torquay for surf camp. We're lucky to be able to stay in the Bancoora life saving club for the night, which has heaps of great facilities as well as the perfect location to the beach for surfing! After lunch on Thursday we met our instructor Kev, put our wetsuits on and headed out for our first surfing lesson. The waves were perfect and after a quick demo on the beach we were straight out onto the water. It was impressive the effort all students put into perfecting their technique, with everyone getting to their feet on the first day! There was plenty of time in the afternoon to head into the shops in Torquay as well as driving down to check out the world famous Bells Beach, before heading back to camp to cook dinner and play plenty of pool.

Our last day of the week started fairly early with breakfast before another surf session. Despite the water being a little more challenging today everyone remembered what they'd learnt the day before and had a really great session, making the most of all the time. While this camp is in some ways much more relaxing than our others, the surfing itself is very physically demanding and requires a great deal of perseverance, strength, determination and patience. All of our students did incredibly well and should be very proud of their efforts.