After we got all set up in our hostel... we went out to explore the surroundings. While at the beach we noticed a large number of tents and soon discovered that there was a life saver festival going on. Oh yes! But not just a small little "life guard get together." This was the national Aussie championships to crown the best surf life saver athletes in the whole of the country! What an amazing thing to stumble across.

Walking around the beach was like bay watch come to life! "Crap Physiques Everywhere" Mark kept saying! On Friday night we saw the parade when the lifesavers do their little marching thing. We can't quite figure out the purpose of the marching... or what the big rope thing is that they are carrying, but it sure looks cool.  Several boats were out on the water doing practice starts... little did they know that they'd be facing such wild surf the next morning.

The events really got exciting on Saturday! The surf was pounding against the shore and we watched while the vikings (pictured above!) capsized and took out a judging tower! There were also the Iron Man and Iron Woman trials for the finals on Sunday. Pretty impressive.... surf skiing, running and swimming in incredibly high surf... these folks were amazing!

We enjoyed a good few hours of watching the festivities, but by mid-afternoon we couldn't resist the call of the water. (If for no other reason than to cool down from the hot humid weather!) We wandered back down the beach until we found a set of red and yellow flags and had a wonderful afternoon swim!