Quiksilver International head office staff have just returned to work from a revitalisation week up in Noosa! Quiksilver corporate leaders decided it was about time all the girls in the head office had a break. It was also time for the girls to hone up their surfing skills and do a 5 day certificate surf skills course in the warm winter waters of Noosa. Ocean safety, surf safety and general upgrading of individual surfing skills each morning set a healthy daily agenda. Evening team building exercises like personality traits and communication skills made the week a tax-effective exercise. Meanwhile some of the office staff were keen just to learn how to surf while others were sick of their husbands and boyfriends giving them instruction and used the week to shore up their skills and better control their boards while learning to surf at a more consistent level. The aim of the 5 lesson course is to get back to surfing basics building a more solid foundation, better stance and paddling prowess. This then allowed all the girls to manage their surfing with more poise and control which in turn allowed them to learn at a much faster rate. “The end result on day 5 showed a marked difference in surfing standard, confidence and overall enjoyment levels,” said Merrick “Merrick and his team provided us with different classes each day and different locations to suit each person’s standard and ability. Day 1 was a day to learn from scratch. Laguna Bay is totally protected from the sea where the girls rode the gentlest waves in waist deep water. This was a great place for those doing there first ever lesson. It allowed the girls to concentrate on our technique freeing us from the usual constant pounding at our home breaks on Sydney’s northern beaches. Day 2 was an afternoon high tide lesson where after some revision we were pushed onto green waves where a lot of the girls managed to catch their first- evergreen ride. As the surf was small it provided a real energy respite. No paddling meant you could just walk out to your take off point and our coaches would line up the wave with the channel steering us and talking us through our first intermediate lesson. On day 3 we went for our first trek and free surf out to Granite Bay. With blue skies and a perfect lazy 3-4 foot swell some of the girls were nervous but excited too. Most of the girls haven’t had the chance to ride a real surfing point before, so doing it right meant getting out off the rocks learning how to position ourselves in the water line up and later successfully managing to climb aboard a few magical green waves, riding them for more than 100 meters. It was just the most amazing dream scenario brought to us via perfect blue sky and an aqua blue ocean. The boys at Merricks Learn to Surf Noosa guided us out and strategically located us so we would not interfere with the other three people in the line and some of the girls were content just sit in the channel watching on. Go went the Girls and you could here the yahooing from a mile away. Noosa’s Granite Bay is so blue and so green as if the colour on your TV was turned up. If that was not enough a local turtle turned up in the lineup, to boot. On day 4 at 2pm rather than rest in the afternoon we paddled out across Laguna Bay via Merricks Ocean Kayak Tour around Noosa National Park. This was a great athletic team building exercise learning how to kayak, coping with ocean currents, swells and trade winds. Once we arrived at Tea Tree Bay a small 2-foot swell greeted us, not big enough to surf but big enough for us to catch our first ever waves by kayak. As it was high tide we managed to catch and ride across green waves, a ride similar to a surfboard what a thrill! Day 5 was back on Noosa Main Beach to finish what we started and all of us were at least a year better off. Every one could surf with a new level of consistency catching waves to the beach unaided. Thanks Quiksilver hope to see back up here again.