Surf

The NSW coast has been hit by a series of big swells
I got out in it for a few hours last weened and this Weekend just passed.
Sitting in a giant swell whist mountains of water crash past you is fucking exciting. I'm not that good a surfer. I'm a good swimmer, comfortable swimming around in it but only a weekend warrior when it comes to negotiating the surf with a 1.7m pointy fiberglass board with blades (three of them for good measure). I caught some good ones, got smashed and rag-dolled through the washing machine a few times. I judged that my bigger 'fun board' was too big to duck dive easily in this swell and I needed to be sure I could get under the waves - the tradeoff is that as you select a smaller shorter board they are slower to paddle and when you try to catch a wave you have to be exactly in the right spot (you can't paddle in or out as fast to be in the right place) and you tend to end up higher on the face before you have the speed to 'pop' (i.e. stand). You do not want to be up high on the lip of a wave tied to a fiberglass block resplendent with points and blades as the wave breaks or it will throw you forward and you will get to experience water in a whole new way. Shorter boards are also less forgiving about body position on take off and if you are too far forward they will nose dive, catapulting you forward into the abyss only to be met by the lip as is crashes down and aquatints you with the bottom before it surges you around a few times. But short boards move over the water more nimbly once you are up and running.
I did a bit of both but still managed a few long and exciting rides on some of the biggest waves I have ever played on - certainly the biggest I have been on in the last 10 years.

'Stralia Day

What could be more Aussie than getting blasted by a few bluies down the beach on 'Stralia Day?

A misty but hot Australia Day spend down at Freshwater Beach. Bit squishy in surf due to the carnival taking up most of the beach.

A bucket of prawns in the sun.

New Years Eve was spent with mum, Alex and the kids enjoying the tunes belted out by a local chick in the beer-garden under the country club. It has a casual beauty, sandwiched as it is between the bowling green and the golf club car-park it overlooks the ocean, dunes and lakes, kangaroos pause in a mob around the t-off just below the fence and a strong sea breeze brings a briny haze. A few locals are trying to make a go of a burger business, barbecuing up the scotch fillet stakes for filling the local fresh "still warm from the oven" focatcia style buns, the local market gardens providing the salad so fresh it still drips sap.

Entree is a bucket of prawns, literally. Enjoyed with a chilled sav blank and a Coopers or three.

It's a picturesque 3k walk back around the lake to mums house.


This is country.

A few days down at the beach house

We were going to go up to Fingle Bay for a friends 40th but the starter motor on the $x$ carked it and couldn't be replaced in time so instead we headed south to the beach house at Rosedale. We copped a fair bit of rain and a huge swell - and me w/o my board :-(
I made do with the old shark biscuit and managed to catch a few although the swell ended up being so big I was too tired to fight it and ended up missing even the easiest of waves. Photos for those inclined or with a fast connection are here else these ones are prolly the best:
I love the look on his face when I try to catch him

She smiles most of the time regardless.

Me on the esky lid

And finally a shaky cam of me not catching any waves - too busy watching the dolphins swimming past. The surf here was about 1m, through the day it built to over 3m of pounding crunching nastiness.

Camping - Indian / Diamond Head

100 km of sand to ourselves (nearly)

Bloody Brilliant

The official beach safety report - Conditions: Bloody brilliant mate, water temp - as good as it gets.