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Hungover.

Sitting on the 'Waves Surf Camp' bus with 8 others, sleepily dozing on the 3/4 hour trip up the coast to our first surf camp.

Soggy 2-Up

Ricklivesey
2006-08-31 12:13:05

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our shivering, hungover bodies into soggy wetsuits before grabbing a huge 12ft learners board and heading down to the beach.

Harley, (renamed Haley by the Mexicans), wasn't too upset about the rain, but my teeth were chattering, (yes, I know I'm supposed to be a hardened Northener, but I've got too used to the sun!), and I was praying for blue sky. The other guys all seemed really good fun, and after a few hours of falling off the boards, we moved on to the local community center / pub.

We'd all forgotten that it was Anzac Day, (a public holiday commemorating the loss of life during the ANZAC invasion of Gallipoli in 1915.), and the pub was rammed with loud, screeching Australians - it was mullet city and the name of the game was '2-Up'.

It'll be hard to describe the hilarity of the events that were slowly becoming clear to us as we supped, but the gist is that 3 coins are placed on a bit of wood and then tossed into the air, falling down onto the floor, whereon a fat 'Alf Stewart' (Home and Away), type character then ingeniously works out whether the majority of coins are heads or tails. However, before this, the encircling, (and rather pissed), crowd yell, barter and bet with each other across the room using a simplified 'Tic Tac' hand code, (tapping your head means heads and wiggling your hand on your bum means tails - John Motson would have been in his element) , on the result of the coin toss.

Oh the smiles of glee, the cheers of delight that errupted on every throw of those 3 coins was astounding! It took us some time to realise that there really wasn't some deeper, hidden rules and influences that brought skill and depth to the game; who could have imagined that a 50:50 bet could bring such joy, yet 100's of dollars were being traded every min, thousandaires were created in a day by the fickle hand of Lady Luck.

God bless the Australians.....they need it.

A traditional underground BBQ (can't remember what they're called), had been prepared and we dined on delicious roast, sweet potatoes, chicken and veggies, then the games began....Musical Boys, Sex-position-dance-offs, etc, etc. My face turned ashen with dread. I'd forgotten that these antics are endemic on this type of course. I'm no stuck-in-the-mud, it's just not my cuppah, still I'd been getting to know the 2 Irish girls who were a really good laugh, with wicked senses of humour and similar sinisisms about the events unfolding before us and by the end of the night we were roaring with laughter and dancing on the tables! Brilliant start.