Week Six... Get hit with Sticks.

The title is a bit of a lie, it wasn't really sicks that we got hit with... more of large, board shaped, planks. On monday we left for our Tofino surf trip. Oh boy, was I ever excited. I had never been surfing before and we were getting a free lesson from a pro instructor. His name is Joel, he works at the camp but he used to live in Australia and teach people how to surf. So fun. On the ride there we made a few stops along the way. First of all, of course we had to make a stop at Coombs on our way out. Coombs is just so fun, and dare I say... neat. So we wandered around there for about a half hour. Ellie and I just ran around taking fun pictures with the random statues and such there. Our second stop was at a place called Cathedral Grove. I would really love to visit there again, maybe bring Jilly next time. It is a truly beautiful place. You walk into the entrance and at first it just looks like some forrest. It is so much more then that. It is a forrest filled with ancient trees and bridges and what not. There is also a tree in the back of the forrest that is approximately two hundred fifty feet tall and twenty nine meters around. That is a big tree. After we left Cathedral Grove we stopped at a wonderful little lunch spot. It was right on the river so we could sit and eat our previously packed sandwiches and watch the rapids tumble and smash against the canyon of rocks. I love water and waterfalls, so this was quite the place to visit. Justin and I found a nicely sized tree stump up near the road a ways and decided that it would be fun to watch it float down the river. So that's exactly what we did. We got some people together and threw it off the cliff into the water. It was awesome. I don't remember making any stops after that. I'm pretty sure we just kept right on going all the way to Ucluelet . We were staying in a nice little church there, right across the road from the highschool. The girls were sleeping on the floor of the kids room and the guys were sleeping on the floor of the basement. Oh, and I forgot to mention that we had some tag-a-longs on this trip as well. Jordan Wilcox, Rob Bancroft, and Kevin McAlary from Kaleo five, and Brady Van Leenen from Kaleo three decided to come and hang out with us for their reading break,. What better timing then the week we go surfing. So along they came, and the four of them slept in the nursery. Our first day in Ucluelet we did what Jim calls "wave watching". It means exactly that. We went out and watched the waves. For the first day we had the option of either exploring the town a bit or going with Jim to a place called "the blow hole". I chose the blow hole. We drove to the side of the highway somewhere then hiked into the bush till we found the ocean. We got to hang out on the beach for a bit before hiking further into the bushes till we came out on the other side at a big rock. At first I was thinking that jim just brought us to a big rock and we were going to watch the waves hit the side of it. This wasn't the case at all. With in seconds of that thought entering my mind a giant wave came up through a hole in the rocks then shot straight up into the air. It soaked all the rocks around it. I was officially excited. We hung out there for quite some time, and I loved every second of it. Trent, Jade, and Ben went and stood right near the edge of the rocks where they could get splashed by the waves. They got soaked. Trent gave me his camera, since mine is in either Kelowna or Prince George somewhere, and I got to take hundreds of pictures of them playing in the waves. It was wonderful. When we got back it was dinner time. After dinner a group called Jezreel came and hung out with us while we did chapel and worship. They were really cool people with some great stories. The next day I chose to get up at seven so that I could play piano for a bit before a small group of us left to go watch the Cold Water Classic. The Cold Water Classic is a professional surf competition put on by O'neil surf company. It was really cold on the beach that morning, but it was cool to see what surfing could look like. After brunch we finally got to head out and catch some waves. I was loving my first day of surfing. I caught a couple waves, then I caught a couple kneeling. I almost caught a wave standing, but as I went to stand up I got hit with someone else's board. Luckily I was still on my board and could lay down and ride the wave in. I remember holding my head and great pain as I rode into shore. As I was riding in I passed by James. He must have saw the horrified expression on my face because he started to paddle in after me. When he got there he took my board and carried it in for me and I just kept holding my head and crying. I noticed that he kept saying "it's going to be ok", "you are going to be ok". I didn't know why he would say that, all that I had was a bruise or perhaps a goose egg. But then I took my hand off my head and looked at it. It was covered in blood. I didn't know what was wrong or what was going on. All I knew was that some part of my head was bleeding and this could be very serious. We somehow found Jim on the beach and when I saw him I started waving my other arm and screaming out to him that my head was bleeding. James kept telling me to keep the pressure on it and that it would be ok. Jim passed me off to Claire and Claire brought me up to the vans. Claire, Boyda and I all crowded into the bathroom up in the parking lot because somehow it had running water and a flush toilet. Clarie washed the blood off my face and ear and found out that I had just cut my ear really badly and my head was for the most part alright. That was the end of my surfing experience though. That night we hung out with Jezreel again and I went to bed early. I had the biggest head ache I could ever imagine. I really wanted to surf again the next day though. When I woke up the next morning I was in an unimaginable amount of pain. I knew this meant no surfing for me that day. So I went back to sleep for a few more hours. When I finally woke up I moved me and my sleeping bag out into the main room. It hurt to much to move or lift my head much so I just laid on the floor in my sleeping bag and propped myself against the wall so I could still see people. I noticed though that Justin was also there. He was in the nursery and not looking so good. Apparently when we were in Cathedral Grove he was doing a back flip off of a tree and his foot slipped so he ended up back flipping his head into the tree. So he was in a great amount of pain too. He puked a bit then went and tried to read in his bed. The two of us didn't do much. This was going to be a long day. I didn't move from that room, just changed laying positions a few times. Then we finally were heading home. I set up my sleeping bag and pillow in the front seat of Jim's van and rested most of the way home. The day after we got home, Justin, Jeremy and I headed for the clinic. Jeremy, being the hooligan boy he is, potentially broke his wrist skate boarding a few weeks ago but didn't want to get a cast till after surfing so he could still surf. So he was finally going to a doctor. The doctor said that Justin and I had severe concussions and that Jeremy was probably fine but they did an x-ray anyways. This meant rest and relaxation for Bria all weekend. I went to youth group and didn't really do much. I mainly just helped make sure kids were behaving and handled their questions. It was a big group night, so all the kids were doing the same thing. So I was doing exactly what they needed me to do, which was good. The next day was halloween. I got to go into Crofton and watch the Olympic Torch run through town and I got to go to our church halloween bash. It was a pretty good day, but my head was still really bugging me. The next morning when I woke up I quickly realized that the events of the night before where not such a good idea. My head HURT. I came to the decision that church was not going to be an option today. So I informed Haley and asked her to tell Justin that I couldn't come. Then i found out that several other people were not attending church either. I felt quite bad, but there was no way I would be able to pull it off. So I slept most of the day. I didn't leave my bed till five o'clock that night. It was a long day, but very good for me. I got to spend alot of time just hanging out with God. This week should be good. It's reading break till Thursday. So I can see some fun times around the corner. I'll let you know how it goes. Much Love.