This is a story about a family who embark on a sea change moving from Melbourne to the coastal city of  Newcastle.  It’s about the crazy impact this move has on the kids in the family, Ella and Creaky, and the resilience of young people to handle change. Ella is fifteen and finds herself in a new town having to start all over again leaving behind a full and happy life complete with best friend and boyfriend. In Newcastle, Ella doesn't know who to be or what to do but she slowly starts to make new friends. A dancer for most of her young life, Ella is thrown into a new world where surfing is the city’s obsession and she takes it on with all the joy of a new challenge. Through Ella’s newfound love of the sea, we learn a few secrets about her mum's controversial past as a gun surfer.  Above all, this is a story about family and love and the secrets we keep. It's a book about girls doing things. Through Ella, we are infected with a passion for dance and surfing.

You can find out all sorts of bits and pieces in this download here : a series of questions from Walker Books and Good Reading Magazine.

Surf Ache is now available at all good booksellers. Category: Young Adult Fiction Age Range: 12-15 years  Publisher: Walker Books Australia

Here are some nice things people have said about the book...

"FIRST, praise for what this story is not. It is not about vampires and werewolves, does not feature a dysfunctional family, there is no strong sexual theme and no time travel. All of this is refreshing in the teen-girl-fiction scene. There is a reference to marijuana use and dealing, but both are condemned. Gerry Bobsien has written a good story about interesting people centred on a very Australian character. Ella, who is in year 9, starts the book sadly, transplanted from Melbourne, where she had ballet, a bestie and a boyfriend, to Newcastle, where only surfing matters. Eventually she begins to shine as a dancer, then on a surfboard, on which she proves a natural. - Jill Rowbothan, The Australian 

"It's a rivetting read. Surfing has surely changed for women since the time of Puberty Blues, (Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey) came out in 1979. In Surf Ache, the girls are on their boards in the sea, not just lying on the beach. The Girls here, like those in JC Burke's Starfish Sisters, are forthright, active, good at surfing and willing to give their all to the sport." -  Viewpoint, NZ

"The newly released Surf Ache by Gerry Bobsien is a stellar example of how things have changed, and continue to change, as more women and girls are surfing both in the water and in the corresponding literature. One of a growing number of teenage surf fictions aimed at young women, Bobsien’s book is set in contemporary Newcastle, where the 14 year old heroine, Ella, has just relocated with her family from their home in Melbourne. Ella leaves behind a boyfriend, a life of ballet and a host of school friends to find herself in the middle of a very different cultural world that centres around the beach and waves. To sum it up, Ella starts surfing and through this learns a lot about her new home, her family and herself, and makes new friends along the way. The book has it all – romance, triumph-over-adversity, friendship, family reconnections and choices...Ultimately though, what is great about this book is that this book doesn’t speak about Ella’s surfing experiences as if they were separate from surfing experiences more broadly. In other words, Ella is simply a surfer, not a girl-who-surfs. She is included unproblematically in the water and Bobsien never writes any kind of negative event based around Ella feeling excluded or badly treated just because she’s a chick." - R. Olive I just Surf. 

"Finally, a teenage book without angst, dysfunctional families or spoilt brats! What's left to write about? Well, Gerry Bobsein's passion for surfing shines through this novel about Year 9 student Ella Alonso's move from Melbourne to Newcastle and her discovery of surfing...There is the requisite bitchy rival but here friends and family are warm, caring, and likeable. It is interesting to note Ella and her friends are not hung up on clothes: Ella "never quite had all the right gear. Mum and Dad refused to fork out for the latest this, that or the other. Ella was used to it". (p110). The confidence and happiness of these kids comes from being able to follow their passions in a supportive environment. The characters are real as well as likeable, with romance and competitions keeping the pages turned. There is much on the art of surfing which may lose some, but you learn a lot about it. We have come a long way from Puberty Blues - the guys and girls are on equal footing here." K.Gardner Readplus.