While all that seems wonderful watch out for the “BIG PRAWN”, its just another one of Australia’s “Big Things”, built in 1989 making it 20yrs old this year! The Big Prawn is 6m x 9m and is made out of concrete fiberglass. The Prawn is conveniently also the location of the Ballina Transit Centre, which means it’s where most of the man bus companies stop!

Ballina Australia, has some of the best surfing beaches in NSW, especially Lighthouse Beach/North Wall, Shelly Beach, and Angels Beach all of which have sandy bottoms (I too have had a sandy bottom on occasion).

Jill and I arrived in Ballina a smmmmiiidddgggeeee late, we ended up getting lost a few times and had to actually get one of the lifesavers to come get us! Which cheesy enough was a life saver for us!

We were lucky to meet up with the club captain Brent Minieri, from the Ballina Lighthouse and Lismore SLSC. Brent and Stuart gave us a quick crash course in what to expect in the beach and what its like during a typical day at the office.

The lifesavers are typically identified by their yellow and red uniforms and the swim caps that they wear and most travelers don’t know this but these guys are volunteers! How crazy is that eh?

After our interview with Brent and Stuart, we started to take pics and shoot some beach scenery when Stuart approached us and mentioned that the guys might be keen on taking us out on the rescue boat to “give us a real feel for what it’s like”.

Jill and I thought this would be a fantastic idea (at the time). The funniest part was when Tim suggested we get a rash guard or wet suits on because we might get “a little” wet.

We were soaked after the first wave.

Tim and Brent took us out and we were scared out of our minds! We couldn’t imagine having to go out and rescue someone in a boat that could flip at any minute. The guys told us we should sit on the sides but we cowered in fetal position at the floor. Pure terror in our eyes with every air born leap over a wave! It was as if Tim was literally surfing the wave with the boat. It was terrifying yet exciting at the same time. Well for Jill mostly just terrifying…

Seeing as we were with two life savers we weren’t that worried about drowning, but we weren’t quit ready to go for a swim yet!

After we arrived safely on land we hugged the sand and did our closing. We wished SO badly we had taken the GoPro camera with us, but seeing as it was an impromptu experience we learned our lesson and took our back up whenever we could!

Thanks again to the guys at the Ballina Australia Lighthouse and Lismore SLSC!