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1 Day Moreton Island Extreme Day Tour ex BNE

***** 4WD EXPERIENCE + BAY CRUISE + SAND SURFING + SNORKEL THE TANGALOOMA WRECKS ***** Our EXTREME day tour to Moreton Island has been designed to get the most of your day and experience some of the best adventures Moreton Island is famous for. Moreton is a true wilderness destination, 98% National Park, and with no formed roads on the Island, we will be using bush tracks and the beach to get you around. Moreton - a true paradise with the whitest of beaches with clear blue waters. * Luxury cruise including Brisbane River, Moreton Bay, and Moreton Island Marine Park. Relax in the comfortable lounge with café / bar facilities. A great opportunity to spot dolphin, dugong and turtle from the viewing deck. * 4WD fully-guided eco-tour across the Island through the eucalypt forest to the Eastern Beach. Your guide will give you an insight into bush tucker and the history of the Island along the way. * Want to try sand boarding? We give you the opportunity to sand board or toboggan down some of the World's largest sand dunes. We only use professional equipment and are the Island's original sand boarding company (no flat boards). Or simply just watch the action and enjoy the spectacular scenery of the ?Desert?. * Guided Snorkelling: Near the beach at Tangalooma are 15 scuttled wrecks providing an artificial reef system rich in a diverse range of tropical and sub-tropical fish, invertebrates and coral - fish tame enough to eat out of your hand! An ideal place for snorkelling with easy access and is World renowned. Professional guide to provide instruction. Personal flotation devices, snorkels, fins, masks, rash shirts provided. (Shirts and wetsuits provided winter only.) * All transport, National Park fees, etc included. * Picnic lunch provided. * Free pickup from your Hostel / Hotel.

1 Day Surf Package in Noosa

Noosa is one of the safest beaches to learn to surf in Australia ! All beginners start in waist deep water with coaches standing right beside you. Experience the feeling of standing on a board and surfing a wave to the beach, guaranteed. Whether it is your first time, or you just need some additional coaching... drop in, after all who better to learn to surf with than - a world champion! The price includes: Pick up from your accommodation Surf Boards Wetsuits and Rash Shirts 2 x 2 hr surf lessons Delivery back to your accommodation.

1 Day Surf Trip

Departs Mondays & Wednesdays: Meet the Surf Camp Australia drivers outside Sydney Central YHA/ Scubar, Sydney at 7:45am. Bus departs at 8:00am. Sit back and relax whilst we take you down the South Coast to our camp location in Gerroa. Upon arrival, you'll be greeted by our head surf instructor and the onsite staff. After receiving an overview of the camp, you'll be fitted with a wetsuit and head straight to the beach! Lessons: In the first lesson you'll receive a talk on tides and conditions, and how to identify the safest part of the beach to surf, followed by paddling technique. After that, it's straight into the water to practice your paddling. Once you feel comfortable with this, your instructor will then go on to teach you how to stand up on your board and take you into the water to experience catching your first wave! Most people will stand up within the first lesson. Each lesson is two hours long and will progress from the previous one. You'll be provided with lunch and a rest period in between. After your last lesson, you'll be given time to pack and get ready for the journey back to Sydney. Arrive in Sydney: at approximately 7pm. You'll be dropped off at the Scubar where it's ?Party Time!? Enjoy free beer and pizza with your new surf mates! This package also includes wetsuit and surfboard hire. Plus, you'll receive a Rip Curl T-shirt! Surfing is a lifelong pursuit. By starting off with the right advice and guidance from our instructors, you'll easily become addicted!

2 Day Beginner Surf course - Seven Mile Beach

The 2 Day Beginner Surf Course includes: - 2 x 2-hour surfing lessons daily - Use of our Malibu Surfboards &quality Rip Curl Wetsuits. - 1 Night Accommodation at our Modern Beachside Surf Camp. (4-6 berth cabins. Upgrade to a double room). - All Meals. Great food and plenty of it. Vegetarians are catered for. 1 breakfast, 2 lunches & 1 dinner. Let us know if you have special dietary requirements. At the end of the camp, you'll be dropped off at Sydney's popular surf bar, Scubar where it's ?Party Time!? Enjoy free beer and pizza with your new surf mates!

2 Day Moreton Island BUSH 'N' SAND Safari ex BNE

?The best value and most comprehensive tour to Moreton Island.? Marine Cruise + Sand boarding + Snorkel the Wrecks + Ride a Surf Board + 4WD touring + Eco walks + Kayaking + Fishing Tour includes: * Sand Surfing and tobogganing at either the "Desert" or the ?Big Sandhills". (We are the original sand boarding company and the only one using professional equipment.) Speeds of up to 65kph can be reached on some of the largest sand hills in the World. Full instruction provided. All equipment included. * Snorkel the famous Tangalooma Wrecks with its 15 ships, sub-tropical reef system and wonderland of marine life, some tame enough to eat out of your hand. Floatation boards, snorkel, mask and fins supplied. (Wetsuits in colder months). Guided. (Valued at over $45) * Surf, Kayak & Fish equipment is available FREE UNLIMITED HIRE for your use and the crysal clear waters and beautiful beaches of North Point are at your doorstep. * 1 night at our permanent Base Camp. Everything is supplied. Shower and toilet facilities close by. Anyone for a moonlight swim in Blue Lagoon? Single, Twin, and group tents available. * All meals, all transport, use of sporting equipment and camping gear included in the price. * Eco-tours to Honeymoon Bay, Champagne Pool, North Point, Cape Moreton lighthouse, and the eco-wetlands. Snorkeling equipment available for exploring Blue Lagoon. * View wild dolphin, dugong, turtles and giant manta rays (+ whales in season) from Cape Moreton, probably the best viewing location on the East Coast. * Culture and history beach tour down Eastern Beach to WW2 and aboriginal sites. Learn about aboriginal bush tucker. * Cruise across Moreton Bay by luxury sea ferry.

2 Lesson Surfing Introduction

These lessons are for those who want to experience the thrill of Surfing and have a lot of FUN!! The first lesson teaches basic surfing techniques including paddling, catching waves and standing up. In the second lesson you can benefit from what you learnt in your first. We take you straight into your standing and surfing style and work on skills that will have you surfing waves all the way to the beach.

3 Day Surf Lesson Package - Byron Bay

Come and learn how to surf with our 3 day group lessons. Each day you will have a 3 hour group lesson where you will develop a better understanding of waves and surfing. 1. Better surf awareness 2. Ride better waves for longer rides (more wave time!) 3. Board control and turning the board

4 Day Beginner Surf Course - Seven Mile Beach

4 Day Beginner Surf Course includes: - 2 x 2-hour surfing lessons daily. - Use of our custom made Malibu Surfboards & quality Rip Curl Wetsuits. - 3 Nights Accommodation at our Modern Beachside Surf Camp. (4-6 berth cabins or upgrade to a double room). All linen provided. No need to bring sleeping bags. - All Meals. Great food and plenty of it. Vegetarians are catered for. 3 breakfasts, 4 lunches & 3 dinners. Let us know if you have special dietary requirements. - Rip Curl T-Shirt with every 4 day camp! You've learnt to surf, you've made new friends, and you're adrenalin is rushing from the last wave you caught..... it's time to party! Top off the end of your trip with a Surf Camp Party at Sydney's popular surf bar, Scubar! Free beer and pizza will be served.

4 Lesson Surfing Progression

If you are really keen to learn to surf, we recommend this progression. You will develop your skills, gain surf awareness, catch heaps of waves, have lots and lots of fun and be presented with a Level 1 and 2 Surfing Certificate!!! Over 4 lessons you will learn parts of the surfboard, catching waves and standing up, trimming the surfboard and surfing style, changing the angle progressing to turns, paddling through the break and building confidence in deeper water. Plus we will discuss surf safety and awareness, local surfing conditions and surf breaks and assist you in purchasing the correct size surfboard for your ability. You will learn the beginner stages that will help you progress with your surfing. You may take your progressional lessons on consecutive days or over a week or month (whatever suits you best).

4WD Tour Full Day Moreton Island

Our Tour starts with a luxury cruise aboard MiCat across beautiful Moreton Bay to Moreton Island. On arrival we board our 4WD and drive of the ferry directly on to the beach. Moreton Island is the worlds third largest sand island of which 98% is a protected National Park, with no sealed roads, 4WD is the only mode of transport! Our first activity is to get straight into sand boarding and tobogganing. This has to be done as early as possible in the day as summer temperatures get up to 36deg. This is awesome fun, high speed, high adrenalin! Moreton Bay Escapes provide both lie down toboggans as well as stand up boards. Next stop we cross the island to the Open Beach. We travel through thick eucalypt forest, featuring beautiful Zantharea (Grass Trees) up to 250 years old. The open beach is 38km long of uninterrupted surf beach. Boogy Boarding and body surfing is next! We are off to North Point and Honeymoon Bay's secluded beach with great safe surf beaches. After a picnic lunch we are off to Cape Moreton Lighthouse and Information centre. This imposing rock Headland is 80m above sea level and gives us commanding views across all of Moreton Island and the beautiful Glass House Mountains. Look out to sea and spot Dolphins, Turtles and Whales (June To October). Moreton Island is home to hundreds of different birds, featuring White Bellied Sea Eagles, Pied Oyster Catchers, Pelicans and thousands of wadding birds. Our last stop is Blue Lagoon, one of Moreton Island's beautiful fresh water lakes. Take a dip and soak up the naturally occurring tea tree oils (the fountain of youth) Once rejuvenated to return to MiCat for our beautiful cruise home. What a day! Tour includes, Morning Tea, Afternoon Tea and Picnic Lunch, All activities and all National Park fees

The History of Surfing

No one can really prove when surfing first began but the first recorded sightings of the majestic sport came from a diary of a man on board the ship Discovery that sailed with Captain Cook on his third expedition to the Pacific.

Captain Cook was killed in 1779 close to Hawaii and it was on this trip that a Lieutentant James King from the Discovery noted in his diary the men riding wooden planks in the ocean.

An excerpt of the notes in the diary is below:

"But a diversion the most common is upon the Water, where there is a very great Sea, and surf breaking on the Shore. The Men sometimes 20 or 30 go without the Swell of the Surf, & lay themselves flat upon an oval piece of plan about their Size and breadth, they keep their legs close on top of it, & their Arms are us'd to guide the plank, thye wait the time of the greatest Swell that sets on Shore, & altogether push forward with their Arms to keep on its top, it sends them in with a most astonishing Velocity, & the great art is to guide the plan so as always to keep it in a proper direction on the top of the Swell, & as it alters its direct. If the Swell drives him close to the rocks before he is overtaken by its break, he is much prais'd. On first seeing this very dangerous diversion I did not conceive it possible but that some of them must be dashed to mummy against the sharp rocks, but jus before they reach the shore, if they are very near, they quit their plank, & dive under till the Surf is broke, when the piece of plank is sent many yards by the force of the Surf from the beach. The greatest number are generally overtaken by the break of the swell, the force of which they avoid, diving and swimming under the water out of its impulse. By such like excercises, these men may be said to be almost amphibious. The Women could swim off to the Ship, & continue half a day in the Water, & afterwards return. The above diversion is only intended as an amusement, not a tryal of skill, & in a gentle swell that sets on must I conceive be very pleasant, at least they seem to feel a great pleasure in the motion which this Exercise gives."

For this reason, it is said surfing began in Hawaii at Kealakekua Bay.

By the time Captain Cook reached Hawaii in 1778, surfing was well entrenched into the culture of the Pacific island. Many legends and stories from years gone by related to incidents that happened in the surf. Surfing was a cultural event, a symbol of the Polynesian people.

However, as Europeans settled in and around Hawaii the cultural significance of surfing and other cultural aspects of life diminished. Surfing became a recreational activity.

Throughout the 1800s, surfing didn't completely disappear but the strict rule of European missionaries frowned upon the sport.

There is evidence in journals of Europeans in the 1800s that indicated they tried surfing but failed miserably in mastering the skill.

After 100 years of European ways, surfing was all but finished in Hawaii. Places which once saw hundred of surfers were deserted.

It is ironic that four free spirited Europeans and a native Hawaiian were responsible for its resurrection.

In the early 1900s, a man named Jack London moved to Hawaii and was fascinated with the sport. He even mastered it along with three other friends and a local who is regarded as the man responsible for the resurrection, George Freeth. London wrote about the sport in publications and interest world wide grew.

In 1905, Freeth surfed in California and from here the sport took off.

Surfing spread to just about anywhere in world where a good wave could be found. However, the three main areas where participation was huge were Hawaii, California and Australia.

A movie titled Gidget made in the 1960s boosted the popularity of surfing and from this point on, it became one of the most exciting sports to be involved in.

Not many Australian's would know this, but the first World Championships were held in Manly, NSW in 1964. During this meet, the inaugural meeting of the International Surfing Federation was held.

The sport now boasts one of the biggest followings world wide with dozens of magazines, sponsors, videos, associations and competitions.   © MAS 2007

The Aussie Dominance of Surfing

Australia has dominated many sports over the years. Sailing, cricket, rugby league, rugby union, swimming, netball and even horse racing. However, surfing is a sport where Australia has had incomparable success.

For starters, the first world championships were held at Manly in 1964. An Australian, Bernard Farelly won that competition and from this point on, Aussie surfers feature prominently on the winner's board in both men and women competitions.

Australia has produced more world champions than any other countries.

Champions such as Mark Occhilupo (1999), Tom Carroll (1983), Mark Richards (1979-1982), Barton Lynch (1988), Damien Hardman (1987,1991) and Wayne 'Rabbit' Bartholomew (1978) are house hold names.

Of course the women have not let Australia down, and our own Lane Beachley is one of the most successful female professional surfers in history.   © MAS 2007