MERRIBEK TERM 1 2025 WEEK 4 - Surf Camp

Hey everyone, welcome to our week 4 blog!

It was a busy one, gearing up for our 2nd camp of the term.

On Wednesday we started off at Oxygen Youth Hub discussing the principles behind the 4 P’s which we will be using on the Surf camp (Positive, Patience, Perseverance and Participation) we moved on to doing some team work games that required students to use critical thinking skills, patience and working together to solve some brain teaser activities. After this we made our way to MAYSAR boxing gym in Fitzroy where we met with our instructor Sal who took the students through another boxing circuit. Everyone’s blood was pumping as we moved into the ring and did some safe sparring. Overall it was a great day with Sal teaching students the right boxing techniques to avoid injuries and introducing the importance behind a positive attitude!

After an exciting Wednesday on Newstart students we pumped for our 2nd camp of the term! We headed off towards Bancoora Surf Lifesaving club where we would be staying for the night. Once arrived, we settled into our accommodation, had some lunch and gathered around for a debrief. We reminded students about the 4 P’s to reflect on while they were surfing before meeting instructor Kev for our first lesson. Once we had our wetsuits on we headed down the beach and started of the basics of surfing with our boards on the sand. Once students were comfortable with the methods of catching a wave and balancing on their board, we then spent the next 2 hours catching wave after wave with students all picking up the skills instantly and doing an awesome job! The weather made the conditions a bit tricky but everyone showed amazing perseverance and had lots of fun!

After our lesson we made our way into Torquay for some chips and potato cakes watching the surf, before heading to the famous Bells Beach which had massive swells and beautiful scenery to explore. Once back at the accommodation we settled down for some free time and intense games of pool. We split up into 2 teams for dinner; a prep team and a cook team, Toby and Logan cooking up a delicious BBQ, and Mason and Jiesikah our top tier chefs for the salad. We spent some more time playing pool and a few games of Mafia before heading to bed.

On Friday, we woke up to a beautiful sunrise and some delicious pancakes. We got straight into surfing on day 2 for an 8am session, energy was high as students were keen to get back into the water. Conditions were tricky again but everyone embraced the waves and gave it their best shot. It was amazing seeing every student get up on a wave, with some awesome wipe-outs to follow, followed by an insane sandcastle.

Overall it was an awesome camp with students showcasing some amazing skills and embracing the 4 P’s each day.

Thank you to the Bancoora lifesaving club for allowing us to use this accommodation and to the Torquay Surf academy for taking and resources to teach out students how to surf!

Lots of surfing videos to come in our end of term movie!