One of the perks of being a TV presenter is that sometimes its necessary to travel to shoot inserts for Hip2b². I just got back from Durban last night after an interesting weekend at the Durban Beach Festival. And when I say interesting, I do mean interesting!

Firstly, our junior producer, Amanda, and I had no clue how to get around Durban. She’s never been there before and I was in charge of studying the map to make sure we didn’t get lost. Surprisingly, we didn’t get lost the entire weekend so we’re rather proud of ourselves!

Amanda also taught me how to eat curry with my hands which was a messy but fun experience. As for work, we got lots of great footage and met fantastic people.

The person I enjoyed meeting the most was Tasha. She’s a pro surfer and coaches the national junior surfing team. Not only was she incredibly knowledgeable about everything to do with surfing, she’s also just a really cool female and we had a fun chat about travelling the world, what it feels like to be out in the water every day and, of course, hot surfer dudes.

Back to the science stuff, I was surprised that there was so much science involved in a sport like surfing. From the material used to make the wetsuits, to the number of fins on the bottom of the board all the way to how weather patterns affect the surf, science is all over surfing. It’s also great for your body because you use every muscle.

Thanks to Tasha’s insightful lesson on surfing and her infectious love of the sport, I’m seriously thinking about going for surfing lessons this summer. I’m sure that the image of me on a surfboard invokes a belly full of laughs but this little geek has an edgy side and I’ve been considering trying my hand (or is it feet?) at surfing for a while now. Who knows? Maybe I’ll discover that I’m a natural.

This past weekend made me realise yet again that it’s good to get out of your comfort zone and do something new. Not only does it force you to learn more about the world but more about yourself. While I am happy to return to the safety of my space after these trips, I am also happy to come back knowing that I returned with new knowledge, new insight and a lot of new ideas for the future.