Never Underestimate the Power of Mother Nature

I know I owe you all a post on Fraser Island and I'll post that sometime in the next day or so, but I thought I would make a quick post regarding Noosa first.

I decided to go surfing while in Noosa. It's a surf mecca so what better place to do it? I met a lovely fellow graphic designer from London and a fellow surfer, Oliver and we made a date to hit up Tee Tree Bay in the national park on Sunday. Wheee, a date! After carrying our boards for about 1 km and viewing the rough surf at Tee Tree and thinking we would surely die if we would attempt to surf them, we decided to head back and try the waves at Little Cove. We both noticed a definite riptide, but about two dozen others were surfing the moderate waves and we decided to try it there. Plus my arms were killing me from carrying my board.

We entered the water and both noticed the strong pull and Oliver remarked, "we have to make sure we don't get pulled around the corner into the Surf Competition!" as a joke, but this was really just a bit of foreshadowing. Before we know it, the rip is pulling both of us away from the cove and we started paddling back to the beach. It started pulling us even faster and that's when I realized paddling toward the beach was futile and started the paddle even harder into the rip, big mistake, but I had no other options other than to paddle towards the massive rocks that were now on the shore so I took my chances. Oliver and I were officially separated and he was heading to the rocks and I was going out to sea. Fuck, fuck, fuck! I then realized that I was completely helpless and powerless in my situation and was trying not to go into a blind panic. My arms were Jello at this point. I ended up at the back of the surf competition, where the much bigger waves developed. We started waving our hands above our head to signal we were in trouble. It was not only scary, but embarrassing because a few hundred people were watching the surf competition and we were interrupting! I was shitting myself because if I would get thrown by one of those gargantuan waves, I would no doubt be seriously injured...or worse. Completely powerless and the only thing I could do was wait for help as I was pulled further out. Oliver had made it to the rocks safely with the help from people watching the surf competition with only a few scrapes, so I was relived to see he made it OK. Meanwhile, the big waves weren't breaking on me, but I was approaching an area that made it inevitable. Shit! An older surfer came out to me and asked me if I could ride one in and I was like, NO! He then told me that I was going to have to ride one in to get to shore and to lay on my board. I was shaking because I knew what was doing to happen. I told myself, "just swim to the surface when the wave takes you under and you'll be OK." He ordered me to paddle and I was on top of this monster wave, going to attempt to body surf it in, my only option. Thankfully the wave passed me without breaking and Surf Patrol arrived! The lifeguard told me to paddle up onto the back of his jet ski, with was outfitted for towing surfers into the big waves, and he dragged me to shore. Oliver met me and we both sat for a few minutes and pondered what just happened. I was in a bit of shock. Had we waited a minute or two longer to signal for help and we may have been too far out for people to see us. He was a true gentleman and went back to the cove and retrieved our gear and met up with me on the beach. The lifeguard came over to make sure we were OK and then bid us a good day and went back to work. These guys are the best!

We decided the best way to get over our mistake and shock was to get back into the water, but at a calmer location. We then surfed for 2.5 hours and wore ourselves out. It was good fun, but it taught me a valuable lesson...

Don't fuck with mother nature!