Beach Education

I actually thought it was going to rain on Monday morning.

The clouds looked so gloomy and depressing; not a ray of sunshine. The senior school of Sacred Heart were going to North Beach for Beach Education.

It was quite a long drive on the bus. Since I was sitting somewhere in the middle I was hoping that we wouldn’t crash into anything since the driver was making REALLY tight twists and turns. At first we made it to the wrong beach but then we just drove onward for a bit longer and we knew we were there when we saw the surf club building.

We all put our bags in the changing rooms, the area between the door and the room was small, so the girls had to take turns walking in and walking out. There were a few lolly wrappers on the floor and an old half-eaten jam sandwich which was stuck onto one of the hooks. Girls being girls; we completely avoided that hook. It must’ve been from a previous school.

We made our way upstairs and sat on the cold ground. The volunteer lifeguards ran through the sun-smart rhyme.

1. Slip on a shirt

2. Slop on sunscreen

3. Slap on a hat

4. Wrap on some sunglasses

5. Step into jandals 

6. Slide into some shade

7. Smudge on lip balm

After that we talked about identifying a rip current; which was calm water between waves. They informed us on how they could use the rip to rescue swimmers and what to do if you were caught in a rip. Morning tea flew by quickly and so did lunch.

We played a few beach games such as ‘Octopus’, a game where you grab the ‘flag’ from the sand, a relay and a sand sculpture competition. Samantha, Rommel and I had built an entire village; too bad the tide washed it away. It had looked really good with the mountainside heads; okay, so the heads were really lumps of sand with holes poked into them.

After all the sculpting I sat on the dry part of the beach where the sand was really warm and talked with Charlotte, Violet and Willow on random subjects. Suddenly a large group of seagulls flew over us, we practically screamed in fright of being pooped on. Later on we were called in to get changed into our togs. We were all split into class groups and followed them back down to the beach. The lifeguards let us run into the water and scream on top of our lungs at the same time. I waded deeper into the water until it was waist length. I dived into the body of H20 and felt it rush into my nose even though I was holding my breath. I pulled up for air, my eyes stung and the over-salted water burnt my throat like acid.

I jumped up in the water with everyone else as a large wave headed towards us. We spent ages in the sea. Surely enough I had looked at my hands and they were wrinkled from the time spent in the water. I didn’t know what time it was but we got back to school five minutes past three.

I changed my mind about it raining because it turned out to be a beautiful day in the end. I had thoroughly enjoyed myself and had liked everything about Beach Education…well, apart from the mouldy half-eaten sandwich in the changing rooms. 

By Bi Ling

A day at the beach

On Monday 10th of February Rooms 7,6 and 4 went to North Brighton for beach education

When we arrived everyone ran out of the bus and went in the surf club, we put our equipment away and went up. The four lifeguards introduced them selves, then after that we talked about Sun Safety. About all the things we need to do and what to have while outside on the beach, Slip, Slop, Slap, Wrap. Later on we learnt about Surf Safety to know what the rules are and what to do when someone is in trouble

Later on the day we ate our morning tea then went out for beach games, we played octopus, built sandcastles and did many more things.

After the fun games we headed back to the club and ate our lunch, once we finished eating we went out to the beach and played for a couple of minutes then we changed our clothes and got ready to go into the water!

Finally it was time to swim! We went in the water, it was freezing but as we got use to the ice cold water we had so much fun! We were jumping onto the waves and had a lot of fun! 

Sadly we had to get out, when we got out it was so cold we changed our clothes and went back on the bus.

Everyone was cold and tired after one of AWESOME day at the beach!!

By Adrian

I woke up. my vision vague, my mind still unconscious, feeling lethargic. Nonchalantly getting up the gelid air brushed against my bare skin. Hauling the tepid blanket over myself, I could barely get up, too cold, too tired. Checking the time, nearly 7:50 I rapidly parachuted out of my bed and quickly got changed. Moments later I found myself scurrying through the gates and stumbling up the steps and into the classroom where I greeted a couple of my friends and waited impatiently for the bell to ring for us to travel to north beach to learn the requirements for being sunsmart and being intact in the water . Nearly an hour later we disembarked the bus and strutted towards the surf club building where we met a numerous amount of instructors, we observed on what they had to say such as the 7 sun smart rules; slip,slop,slap,wrap,step,slide and smudge. After morning tea we were all frolicking in the damp sand, crab walking, running and just having fun playing the convivial games. As lunch ended we were finally allowed to go into the water, everyone zoomed in , prancing and splashing, while others dreaded to get wet were awkwardly stumbling in, trembling in the cold water.

Overall the day was filled with teamwork, cooperating with one another and just having fun, cooling off in the hot sand and learning about beach education. 

By the one and only Violet !