Monday 31st May 2004 - Day 261/366 - Surfers Paradise, Queensland.

God Bless the Swiss Army knife

I managed to get as far as 500 on my combinations before I got bored. It took me 20 minutes to break into the lock with my tin opener on my Swiss Army knife.

Some American i've heard compare Surfers Paradise to Miami South Beach. Er No, its no where near as pretentious.

I had a surf lesson this morning. $25 for 2 hours with the Surfer World Champion Cheyne Horan. Thats how it was advertised anyway, in reality it was with some guy called Scottie. The lesson was much better than the one I had in Hawaii. We learnt about reading the conditions, like the rips, weather, wind and waves and took time learning how to catch waves as opposed to having some guy push you at the right time.

I did alright. Caught plenty of waves although everytime the photographer was pointing her camera at me I fell off. The Instructor said I was ripping it. I've no idea what that means, but I'm sure it's good.

It was pretty hard work out there today. The rip was very strong and it's surprising how quickly you get shifted down the beach.