Boogie Boarding on the Gold Coast

by Kari Anderson
(Muscatine, IA, USA)

Finally, I found my sport: boogie boarding on the Gold Coast.

I've never been the athletic type but when I discovered this great way to body surf, I knew I had "arrived".

It was sort of cold when I was on the Gold Coast in Australia, so swimming days were limited, unless one had a wet suit, which I did not have at the time. (Now I do have a nice wetsuit from Norway.) The few times I went swimming I borrowed a boogie board from the hostel and gave it a try.

Wow, I was totally amazed at how easy it was to boogie board and feel so professional at it so quickly. I strapped it to my wrist, so I wouldn't loose the hostel's boogie board, walked, swam and fought my way out as far as I could over the waves, turned around, facing the shore, planted the board on the water, hung on for dear life and started kicking toward shore.


Soon a wave caught my board and I was off into wave riding heaven. Holding onto a board is doable, not like trying to balance on top of a surf board. I would never even dare try that, but I can hang onto a board and float, so this was a no-brainer for me.

It was a blast! I did it over and over again. Finally, I found a sport I could actually do and enjoy.

I knew I had something going for me when I looked up to see a group of oriental tourists with their predicable cameras in hand, taking photos of me, cheering and giving me the "thumbs up". By the time I reached shore, they were all yelling and clapping. Oh, my, nobody ever got so excited before when I was involved in a sport. I normally brought yawns, or, "Oh, my, doesn't this gal know how to hit a ball back over the net?"

I highly recommend you try boogie boarding on the Gold Coast even if you're not the athletic type. I sure worked for me. I cannot wait until I can experience wave riding heaven again.

Enjoy my other travel adventures after boogie boarding on the Gold Coast.