Stage 1 Outdoor Education

Over the last 6 weeks, the Stage 1 Outdoor Education class has had the opportunity to explore a range of coastal environments around South Australia as they collect evidence toward their AT2 assessment task – Experience in Natural Environments.

Students began their surfing journey at Port Noarlunga in late February, in a sheltered environment with smaller and less powerful swells. These conditions enabled each of the students to gain confidence in the aquatic environment and begin to understand the different functioning elements in a coastal ecosystem. This allowed students to progress from catching small white-water waves without standing up, to slightly larger green waves and extending their ride time into shore.

Their experience then continued to Middleton Beach in early March. This provided an environment with increased size and power of swells, and a very different type of beach for the students to understand. Students focused on understanding the wave action (how they are generated, how/why they break) and how to safely take part in surf activities while beginning mindful of rips, currents and other hazards. Middleton also allowed students to begin looking at urbanised coastal environments with heavy development across the waterfront and through the dune systems. The change in beach and swell type was a new challenge, and the students had to work hard on their wave selection and pop-up to be successful in the dynamic swell conditions.

The culminating experience was a three-day camp to Corny Point and the adjacent Berry Bay from 20-22 March. This extended experience allowed students to look more deeply at how they have developed their surfing skills over the practical days, and explore a coastal environment that has had less impact from urbanisation and development. Students had to show their resilience from the first day with the luxuries of their mobile phones taken away, and jumping straight into some cool surf conditions with a powerful swell being blown in from the south west. Berry Bay provided a dramatic and challenging location for the students with varying surf conditions each day, with the assistance of instructor’s, students were able to assess the conditions and surf safely across the varying breaks and areas.

Over the three days students were able to continue to hone their camp craft skills ensuring they had planned/packed correctly, were able to comfortably camp in tents and utilised a Trangia for cooking. A key element of Outdoor Education is being able to reflect upon current and past experiences, on Thursday evening students engaged in a Sunset Solo, where they can look back on the experience in solitude while watching the sunset across the Spencer Gulf. Students will now continue this reflection as they complete their AT2 assessment task across the remainder of Term 1.