Surf Ramblings

I was standing on the point at Middleton the other day with the old board under my arm, waiting for a big set to roll through. Looking out over the surf and the scenery and my mind started to wander. I wondered what would a bloke like yourself be thinking, if you were there in the same position. Probably the same as me and what a glorious life we have and how fortunate we are, to be involved in such a wonderful sport.

The girl and I had pondered on the previous start to a session just how many times we had done this. That is, walking down that cliff and out to the point and off, in search of that elusive magic surfing session. Her, perhaps fifty and myself, well! The number of times must be getting close to maybe a thousand or more.

Seconds later I was in the water, making that arduous long paddle out the back. Surprisingly, this paddle out was a rare dry haired one, especially from the point. Along the way out I saw a fellow surfer pick up a wave, he heads almost towards me as he slides down the face. I looked at his face not for recognition but I was fascinated by the look of concentration on it. I don't know about you but I wish every surfer, which I see in that situation all the very best. Sometimes if the wave is an absolute screamer and he looks like getting the wave of the day, I can't help my self and yell out 'Yeah! Go! Go!' as I feel the stoke that must be welling up inside of him. There is no jealousy or wishing that, that wave were mine only the feeling that in a few short minutes I may be in the same position myself.

Finally I made it out the back and looked around for some familiar faces and over to my left I hear someone call my name and ask a question.... Hey! Ron, how'd your trip to Crescents go?' I look over my left and into the early rising sun, squinting my eyes to see who it is and at the same time replying 'Great! Thanks, one of the best trips ever'. It turns out that he's one of the members of our club and we share a minute or two talking about our trip and what's been going on here since I'd been away, surfwise. While all the while the both of us are giving the horizon a quick glance, unless we're caught unaware by a big set that might be lurking.

Most blokes, I guess take a breather when they get out there but not me, if there's a wave coming through I'm onto it. And nowadays I think about the first wave that I ever catch at the start of every session and even though there's been so many now, I always look forward to it.

The water was still warm as we move into autumn and was an emerald, sandy colour with a zephyr breeze blowing from the shore. The sky was clear except for a few feathery clouds streaking towards to north making conditions perfect for stoking up a person into having a good session. The only other sounds I heard besides those of the sea and air was those of my two dogs barking on shore, which I reckon would just love to have been out there with me. I looked over to my right and out over towards Port Elliot and saw the signs of a nice big set coming. I let the first one pass and as I peered from the top of it I see a second and a third behind it. I waited for the third and as it got closer I started to paddle, thrusting my arms deeper and deeper into the water to get enough speed to catch it. All of a sudden I picked up the wave and in one movement I was on my feet, I heard the hiss of my board as I slid down the face and once again I was on my way to another journey to exhilaration. God! I love this sport.

I might as well talk about the bad sessions as well as the good ones. The surf on our coastline over the last few weeks has been extraordinary. So much so, that there have been days when it's been breaking out so far, it's not been worth the paddle out. Well, this Monday and Tuesday have been almost perfect, with Tuesday being the pick of the days as far as conditions go.

Did you ever have one of those days when you knew that the surf was going to be great, without even seeing it? And when you do finally get there, these feelings are confirmed and things start flying everywhere, just to getting ready to get out there amongst it? Well, yesterday was exactly one of those days. Only thing wrong was I was where the waves weren't breaking and spent most of the session paddling for the sweet spot. For most part it was bloody frustrating but I did manage to get a couple of half-reasonable rides. One ride I got was a screaming left hander and just as it disintegrated, encapsulating me in the shorebreak, knocking me off my board. I saw, to my horror another surfer paddling out in the direction my board was going. When I came up I yelled 'sorry mate, are you all right?' to hear almost straight away 'g'day Ron! How are you going?' When I saw who it was and realised it was Arab McArdle, the biggest "Dropper Innerer" on this great southern continent in the history of surfing, I quickly replied 'sorry, I missed you!' Joking of course. I thought I could talk out in the line-up but this bloke is outstanding, he can bore you to death with his chatter even while riding a wave. There's not a chance of getting a word in edgeways either as, he's got Blue Tack of all things, stuck in his ears to stop surfers ear.

One of the stories he was telling me out there yesterday was when Ian "Bongo" Bradley saved his life at Waitpinga many years ago. Little does he know it but all the crew for doing that, nearly lynched old Bongo. During the 1967 Australian titles at Bells Beach someone got to one of the large boulders that lay at the bottom of the cliffs and painted in huge white letters "Arab is a Goose!" He would have loved that. Anyway, I've gone right off the track of telling you about the lousy session I had yesterday...sorry about that. That session was so bad that I went out a second time, just to prove it wasn't me and the quality of the waves were to blame. I could've saved myself a whole time and trouble, as there was nothing wrong with the waves. Enough said.

We enjoyed three days in row of good to mediocre surf down south with Saturday being the pick of them. How does 4 foot plus and glassy sound to you?
I wasn't the only one that thought the conditions were ok, as we had a couple of southern right whales frolicking out in the Bay for the better part of the weekend. Yesterday being Monday, I went out at Surfers by myself and even though the winter sun had a bit of warmth, the offshore breeze was almost zero, the size wasn't there, unlike the previous two days. It was just an ok session with keeping the fitness up, as the main reason for going out. There was one thing that was a little bit unnerving and that was the colour and the lack of clarity in the water. It was a murky brown and reminded me of some of my batchelor stews that I used to make, I was lucky that I didn't cop a gob full. Who knows what was lurking underneath all that muck, as I know full well that bronzies, skates and fairly big stingrays often patrol inside of the shorebreak there. I remember a long time ago, just as the sun was setting seeing a dorsal fin cruising along, just a few metres offshore. I stood there amazed and sort of mesmerised by the ease and almost blatant way that it glided along, in between the sets, then I thought 'Hang on! I was only out there a short while ago'. Often you'd be coming in after a session and as soon as your feet hit the bottom, you'd loose your balance as you trod on a skate trying to get away from you, bloody good thing it was a big Ray. Even though this coastline looks a little boring, it's far from that, as it's always changing and there's always something that makes every session unique.

Ron Taylor wrote:
>Me and the Cheese and Kisses had a Dad and Dave to-day, finally! and
>after two flamin weeks of flattazza. ''Twas nothin
>'strordinary but at least we got the plates of meat wet.
>In fact it was little bit daggy just lookin at it, but once we
>got out there we managed to snaggle a couple of little rippers.
>Strike me pink! it was as cold as charity out there though, after
>laying doggo for so long.Tonight's gonna be a three dog
>one but I reckon it'll be beaut tomorrow arvo.
> Cop youse later.

Here's the translation for the Oz speech impaired. "The wife and I went surfing today after two weeks of flatness. Nothing great, but at least we got our feet wet.The conditions were rather poor, but we caught a few decent waves. To my surprise, the water felt cold. No doubt because I'd not been out in a while. I expect tonight will be quite cold, but it should warm up by tomorrow afternoon.
See you later".

What a damn frustrating evening it was last night (Tuesday). I couldn't log on to the local weather bureau to see what the winds were doing for today, so I had to revert back to the old tried and true system of sticking out the wet finger. Nevertheless we left home at 7:00 AM to arrive and find the Mid blown out with a north westerly wind. With the amount of swell hanging around in the Mid I knew it would be a reasonable size down South, and it was.

I must say the mood was a foul one and not conducive to productive surfing, even so I persisted and the two of us went off from the point. Although the size of the swell was not huge it was very consistent; the tide was high making the inside shorebreak one hell of a struggle to get through. We almost made it out but we copped a fairly persistent number on waves belting us, and the girl signalled to me that she wanted to turn around and go out through the rip in the bay. Being in the indifferent mood I was in I followed her in and 10 minutes later we were out the back via the easy way. The waves were consistent but getting onto them was another matter, as only the bigger ones were worth going for. While the smaller ones were holding to much water, mainly due to the incoming tide. I managed to get a couple of rides here and there but nothing memorable, so after about an hour and a half I came in.

By now it was about 10:30 and the morning sun was giving off a bit of warmth. I hung around in my wet clobber soaking the rays and having a Durrey with a can of Cola, at the same time watching others going out and performing. After about a half an hour I got this silly thought in my head and said to the girl, "Bugger it! I'm going out again", and off I went. When I got out the back I noticed that the wind had swung around a bit more to the west and now had a real chill in it. I thought to myself, "This is bloody stupid, I'll just catch one and ride it all the way in and that's that!" Well I went for a big one from way outside and to the left of the point that appeared to have a good shape to it. I knew I was far enough out that when I caught it I had no fear of hitting the point, as the distance was adequate enough to miss. What I didn't know was that this wave turned into a real belter and held its shape, almost all the way to the beach. I finished up riding it the furthest that I can recall having ridden a wave here, in I don't know how long. It was definitely my wave of the day and certainly worth all the trouble of going out, even if only for that one wave, but most of all it changed my frame of mind remarkably.

I received this email tonight from a very old friend of mine, Kiwi White who is a local tuna spotter and Surfer over on the Eyre Peninsula....

"We had excellent waves last weekend only to have the pleasure of our efforts marred by the tragic events. I knew Jevan Wright personally and had nursed him on my knee as a kid, I only saw him just a few days before the attack. Today I talked to a witness to the attack at Cactus, his narrative was so explicit it sent chills up my spine. He said this shark wanted the surfer no matter what and the attack was so vicious. A couple of the locals surfed at Cactus last Thursday, and I believe Mick Tomlinson has been out at Blacks since.

I have been doing some diving in salmon nets since and have had lots of shark thoughts while doing so. Hopefully we will all get over this and enjoy our time in the water again soon. Yesterday there was a big swell down at the "Fisheries" right hand point but the wind was blowing a 30-knot westerly, making conditions horrible. This morning the swell dropped off, so I took a friend down there and we did not even bother to go out Well friend thanks for keeping in touch, don't forget to come for a surf over this way some time soon. Regards Kiwi"

It would appear that some of the blokes there are entering the water with a certain amount of trepidation, while I guess others are waiting until the recent events have slipped back into their subconscious mind. Who could blame them!
The last time I went out was last Wednesday with two other blokes and I have to be honest and say that the thoughts of what happened on the West Coast, prior to this was clearly in our minds. One of my companions, Chris Bowen turned to me while out there and with a sheepish grin on his face said, "It smells a bit fishy!"

A young lass on a shortboard came out shortly afterwards and joined us. In my usual manner I greeted her with a, "How ya going?" She replied that she was a little nervous and the only reason she was out there was because she wanted a wave and we had broken that invisible ice. A little later several others joined us in the 3-4 foot poor quality surf, with hardly anybody venturing out beyond the first break. We weren't out there all that long and after we came in the wind dropped considerably, improving the conditions quite remarkably. I was extremely disappointed with my early session and after a half an hour decided to go out again, as I always do if I have a bad one. I managed to do a little better, enough to keep me satisfied for the day.

Since then the weather has been horrible, with persistent onshores. Just looking at the weather report now and for the Gulf its east to northeast winds 5/10 knots and afternoon sea breezes 12/17 knots. While down the South they forecast variable winds around 5 knots with afternoon sea breezes 10/15 knots Seas to 0.5 metres, but up to 1 metre in the afternoon. Swell one to two metres.

So I guess we could be in the water again as soon as tomorrow morning, albeit with some strange thoughts still lingering. The strange thing is that is was less than two weeks ago that one didn’t mind being way out the back, by one’s self. I guess I’m not the only one who’s having these flashing thoughts of a 12-15 foot big white coming up from underneath and ripping into me. But I know the compulsive need for another surf will eventually take over and we’ll go with the same wild abandon.

I’m still in a quandary, as to whether we should head up east or go west and my decision time is running short. The only other alternative is to stay home and surf locally when the surf is suitable but we both really need a break and there is none better than going away. You blokes are so far away from here that I guess you feel a lot safer being away from what appears to be THE danger zone. Are you really?

What a terrifying season of the year: it's hard rubbish collection time. The girl gets that glazed over look in her eyes and the valuable collection of treasure I have been storing that she calls rubbish, comes under threat of being thrown out. It's that time of the year that sends shivers of fear up and down my spine. There is only one other thing that I'm more fearful of and that is her almost daily tour with that most horrid of all appliances, the dreaded vacuum cleaner.

For the last few days now and while the surf's been flat, she's been busy going through cupboards and boxes etc, only to surface every now and then with some precious item, saying, "Can I chuck this out?" She came downstairs this morning and said, "Hey look I found a heap of photos in that old box up there, underneath and behind the watchamacallit!" My eyes lit up as she handed them to me and much to my delight, they were some old shots that I took in Victoria, at Easter time in 1967.

The memories started flooding back of an Easter when the surf at Bells etc was huge and firing. It was one of the glassiest Easters I can ever recall, when almost everyone who surfed in Australia descended upon the Surfcoast to witness the Australian Championships. All up and down the coast there were hoards of blokes out riding, what looked like big lazy waves that were rolling out of the early morning's sea mist. The water still had some autumn warmth in it, while every break was buzzing with a multitude of blokes on them.

Even at Point Danger there was a handful out there getting punished every now and then from sitting in too close. From Point Danger, looking west we could see that even good old Torquay was looking beaut with some oily looking big ones coming through. And although it's one of the biggest, easiest decent sized waves to surf, I'm afraid it still attracts all kinds of surf craft imaginable, even to this day. You still shouldn't ever be surprised to share a nice looking shoulder with a Surfboat or some crazed kayakker, along with all other types of floating paraphernalia.

The biggest problem of course was trying to find a spot that wasn't too crowded. Like kids going through their Chrissie presents, we travelled up and down about 100 kilometre of the Surfcoast and finally settled on a spot that no one was out at, Cathedral Rock. We soon found out why it wasn't crowded, as on its day Cathedral Rock can be the most chunderous of breaks going. Some of the guys surfing that day were Bill Prior, Bob Bolton, Stoker, Des Clarke, and Greg Frost, just to name the few I can remember. I'm pleased to report that these guys did their state proudly, showing those other interstaters that we could manage even sillier wipeouts than they could.

At some stage during the day I ran into an old mate of mine, a Victorian that I had surfed with in the earlier sixties. We had been quite a formidable pair then, terrorising the Patrons of the Torquay coffee shop, caravan park and other establishments, much to the recognition of the local constabulary. Besides being good company for me the lad could even surf a bit. So could his father, who made it ideal when we wanted to surf Bells, as we had no transport to get there. He hadn't changed much, as was still telling the same old stories about his surfing experiences, only the names seemed to have changed over the years. I suppose the pity of it all is that when I left Torquay and came home to South Australia, we lost contact and I never saw or heard from him again.

That evening we joined, what seemed like thousands, of local and interstate surfers at the Torquay Pub, which was going off as good as the surf was. The only problem for the blokes was that there were hardly any sheilas there. Somehow I managed to win the heart of one of the few that showed up. I won't go into any gruesome details of how events in that respect turned out, but just let me say that things got pretty ugly. In the true spirit of the surfer of the day I promised to meet her at Bells Beach next day at the final but never did, nor did I ever see her again.

Bells, that morning was big and glassy. I managed to get a good spot to watch and photograph the action amongst the multitude but unfortunately the conditions deteriorated rapidly and the shots I took turned out poor. However I did get to see some fantastic displays of good quality surfing, put on by the likes of Wayne Lynch, Midget Farrelly, Nat Young, Peter Drouin and many others. As it turned out some of their displays even equalled the performances put on in the pub the previous night. There was one incident that I clearly remembered and that was when Nat Young had lost his board and faced a long swim in and paddle back out. Believe it or not but Midget Farrelly who was paddling back out from a ride, saved it from going all the way in and towed it back out to him. This brought a huge response from the gallery, as if their feud was put on hold in the name of good sportsmanship. You know I've forgotten and little do I care who won that contest, even to this day. I still don't know.

All I remember is how good they rode, how good the surf was that Easter and how lucky I was to be there when the Surfcoast was working on one of its all time best days.

Some time ago I commenced posting in this newsgroup with a question asking, "Does anyone in this newsgroup Actually surf?" The reason I asked that question is that I had been reading the posts in here for quite awhile and my first impressions told me that there were good reasons for asking it. As most of the topics discussed were anything but surf related. The response to this was varied with some openly admitting that they couldn't surf and there was even one that offered to do me bodily harm if I ever appeared on their beach. To this latter reply I smiled and thought to myself "if this Arsehole only knew who he was dealing with".

Now the time has come to make the statement; many of the contributors in this newsgroup don't surf and are posers of the worst kind. Instead they've brought the sport I've loved for so long into disrepute, so much so that I find myself no longer able to sit back and keep cancelling the angry retorts to posts that I've held in my draft folder.

Amongst the worse is the person that I call "The fence sitter" who writes mainly about the food and other items he pours down his throat. He sees someone being abused and instead of having the guts to come to this persons defence, he writes some stupid quip to make himself appear humorous. When another is personally assaulting this idiot, as that is all he really is, he crawls to that person with no dignity, like a snivelling coward, to go easy on him. I wonder what his government will do when they find out that he's been fraudulently posting to this group on their time. How do you feel about that, A. Surfers; here you have a bloke who's spending your good tax money to get his jollies?

I know of another person who also does the same thing, and the courts don't take too kindly from people who steal from their employer. This other organism that I speak of here is unfortunately closer to home than one would wish. But I'm sure that there will be enough subscribers’ left in here that will eventually see him for the real dog’s breakfast he really is and ignore the shit out of him. The sorry thing for him is that I know exactly where he lives and works and I have several means that I can call on to make his life a living hell.

There have been other creatures that have ventured onto the alt.surfing stage for a brief moment and in all the short time they have been around they've caused nothing but trouble, with no personal surf content in their meanderings at all. These Arseholes should be taken out and publicly be given the "cat of nine tails" verbally, by the group. Arseholes should not be tolerated by anyone of true surfing substance.

I feel pity for you poor unfortunate US-centric minded posters who have to put up with your miserable, crowded and polluted surf breaks. You are so ridiculously stupid that you're not aware of how bad your surfing lifestyle is. It's really pathetic and tiresome to continually read about some obscure local storm etc that might miraculously appear on the horizon to brighten up your forlorn surfing lives. It's a sad state of affairs when the poor Seppos have to travel to places outside of their own country to escape in the attempt to get some good quality surf? For some time now I've grown tired of wading through all the crap that appears in alt.surfing to get to the good stuff. I've enjoyed all the new things I learned about surfing at the various breaks in the different countries that some of you live and surf in. But more than anything else I've enjoyed the banter with blokes like Doc, Rico etc.

In light of a current thread that's popped up in regards to the girl here, I'm pulling the plug on posting to AS. Put it this way; It's the thread that broke the Camel's back. In all my surfing life I've never had trouble with the female of the species about being involved in this sport of ours. With me it's just the opposite, I applaud it. But recently one has come to my attention and this is where I have to say something about the attitude of this vile and cunning individual. I don't give a flying fuck about what country you live in, but as far as I am concerned name-dropping is worse than dropping in on someone's wave. Combine this with suck-holing and mindless questions that never seem to cease, along with lame surf trip sagas, that calls for drastic action. This new little bitch on the block who calls herself an Internet Guru and has a web site full of "404 Objects Not Found" (incidentally this message was recorded on the 19/10/00 at 4:47:51 this morning while trying to access one of her pages). This doltish thing published to alt.surfing that she wanted a reply in answers to some questions. Then she infringed copyright by posting a part of a personal email and made the whole thing public. If that wasn't enough, a few posts later she does the same damn thing again. Is this person a moron or not?

After that stupidity another clown enters the arena, obviously half milo and offering to fix things up with the, usual for him, churlish offer. A number of months back my girl went to a lot of trouble to supply this Dill with URL's so that he could come here to live and find employment.

I've enjoyed sharing the experiences of my surfing life but it's been much more than just that, as I've tried to get across the actual lifestyle, mood and environment that is, what it's like surfing in Australia. Bruce Gabrielson in his recent page titled "My OZ Surfabout" gives a reasonably good picture of what an outsider can expect when visiting this country at....
http://206.102.92.130/ses/surf/papers/OZ/OZsurf.html

So with this last post to AS I say may Huey smile upon the true alt.surfers, as they know who they are and for the rest of you poor Arseholes I offer you the following.

Those lazy, crazy Days

Sunday, 12 November 2000 3:01:41

It’s almost here, don’t you just love them; those lazy, crazy days of summer! Endless days of heat, flies and south easterly breezes that turn up just as the swell pattern is looking promising. I’ve seen 54 so far in my life and surfed more than I care to remember of them, I just wonder now how many more I have left to surf. If I strain the old grey matter hard enough I suppose I can remember some summer days that were classic, like that day at Seaford when the wind was offshores all day and the size was big and the swell consistent. It seemed as though places like Surfers and Middleton always had northerlies blowing in those good old days but perhaps that’s just my memory being kind to me. If the truth were known it would really be that there were more days spent in Kelly’s Billiard Parlour or on the cliff tops at Seaford flicking bottle tops over the edge and onto the roofs of the shacks below, than there were surfing. In my early days of surfing, the blokes that I surfed with were older than I and used to put a tent up in the Moana caravan park and we’d use it for a home base for surfing the Mid, amongst other things. I’d leave home with my mates on a Friday night and spend all weekend down the coast, coming home late on Sunday. I reckoned my parents thought that this was good, as it didn’t seem likely that I’d get into any trouble down there and they considered surfing as such a healthy, worthwhile sport for me to be involved in. Little did they know it that there were a lot of things that went on down there that would have made them shudder if they had have known about them.

In those days there were a lot of sheilas hanging around the coast, as I guess surfing was the biggest craze going and every girl wanted to meet a bushy, blonde headed surfer boy. I didn’t have a lot of time for sheilas in those days, not in the day time that is! I was far too busy trying to get a wave to ride and hardly even noticed them at all. But once the sun went down my attitude changed completely, especially when some of my mates had spent most of Saturday afternoon trying to round up a few to come to our tent that night. One particular night they managed to talk about a half a dozen to come to our tent, with a couple them being sisters. Before the night was over I had most of them trying to score with me, while my mates were sitting back there missing out. I must admit I knew how to spin a yarn and with the aid of a cheap bottle of Rum and Coke I had no problems doing that, and I guess the girls liked the bullshit I was spraying. Just thinking about it now brings a cheeky grin to my face when I think of all the "I love you’s" and "will you marry me’s" I must have put forward, knowing full well the next day I’d be out in the surf with a very convenient, bad memory loss. Eventually one of the sisters I took a bit of a liking to more than all the other sheilas and saw her occasionally, when I was down the Mid and when it suited me, but it wasn’t anything really serious and I virtually remained a free agent.

As time went on and I got to know quite a few of the regular surfers of the day we’d have a fire on the beach at Seaford and party on something fierce, with some of my mates going crazy and trying fire walking stunts etc. One particular night when the moon was very full and bright we went out at Threepoles for a midnight surf. It wasn’t that big, perhaps 3 foot but it was something different and one of those things you’d do once just to see what it was like. Mind you I was completely sober when I tried that, as I always thought that salt water and alcohol don’t mix and even maintain that attitude to this day. As the sixties progressed things changed, blokes started bringing their girlfriends down the beach to sit in their cars and look pretty for them after they came in from a session. One chap, I can’t remember his name, had his girl in the back of his Panel Van on a day when the surf was really crash hot. His mates kept on coming up and banging on the van to come out and go for a surf, as he was going to miss out. His reply was, "I ain’t ever gonna get a lovely sort like this again, being as ugly as I am, so I’m gonna make the most of it, so bugger off!"

So! Some of us who were around in that time period might reflect and say out loud, those were the "good old days" but in reality they weren’t really. There were more summer days of no surf than there were of actually surfing. And when there was surf it used to get as crowded as hell, especially back in the mid-sixties when the surfing fad really took off. I think I was extremely lucky to have those few short years before the craze began because we all know that that those days will never come again.

Respect.... Yes!

Wednesday, 17 January 2001
I spent most of yesterday going through most of the photographs the girl has taken over the last few years, trying to find one just right for my new web page banner. She's taken a lot of damn nice photographs and the choice was not that easy, and so I asked her advice and between us we finally came up with the one that's on my site now. While scanning a number of the others there was something that I noticed that they all had in common and that was the expression on my face...that look of determination! I hardly ever notice anybody else out there while I'm riding a wave...Let me explain that a bit further...

I'm almost fully concentrated on what's going on around me, what the wave's doing, what I'm doing but at the same time I rely on my peripheral eyesight for anybody who might be in the way, paddling out etc. I rarely see anybody else's rides as I spend most of my time out the back trying to get and stay in the right position. Mind you things have changed in that respect over the last couple of years with the girl surfing, as I have a responsibility that she's not in harm's way.
In my youth I was a member of four Board riding clubs but never entered into any of their competitions. Don't get me wrong I feel that competition surfing has a lot of good about it as it helps to promote this sport I love and through competition the general public gains a bit more respect and knowledge for the sport of surfing. I just don't see any competition in surfing as I approach every ride of mine as a struggling artist trying to paint the best of my abilities onto that watery canvas.

God knows I've had some horrendous wipeouts in my time but who hasn't? I don't know what goes through your mind at these moments but I often think to myself that I've only gotten what I deserved for being complacent. During the last session I had a Middleton I had an awful wipeout on a not such a really big wave. I cannot recall ever being worked over before like I was during that instance. I was held down and rolled around like a rag doll, expecting at any second to hit the bottom with my head or whatever. Just after I came up from that belting another surfer who saw it said, "It's been awhile since I've seen someone take that sort of thrashing", or words to that effect.

At the start of any session I've ever had there has been this unmentioned agreement between myself and the ocean such as, I commit my body and soul to its keeping knowing full well of all the perils I may go through. I'm trying to recall the last time I got to the stage of being at the water's edge and turning around and going back and not surfing a spot and I can only remember once. That was at Angourie, in the mid sixties. I'd surfed there before but never enjoyed it, as there was something spooky about that break that I didn't like and I've never surfed that wave since. Isn't it amazing that some people who have little knowledge of the surf look at the sea and almost consider it as a predator, for example the 17-year-old who drowned at Middleton the other week. He made a commitment when he entered the water but what he didn't have was the experience that everyone of us should have and that'd be something you can't buy.

I learnt my big lesson at Bells Beach back the early sixties getting caught inside of the "Bowl" paddling out and duly got punished for not spending more time studying the break before I went out. The size of those waves were huge that day and I would say they had a 18 foot face but oh so awesome in their beauty that they needed to be ridden and were ridden well by guys far more experienced than myself. I was lucky I learnt a lot from that and ever since I really have a real good look before I go out anywhere. The quote of Greg Noll, " It's not the size of the wave that gets you, it's always some quirky thing" is quite relevant, as I recall one late afternoon many years ago surfing out at Threepoles when Dave Humble bought the farm. The surf wasn't big but we figured he wiped out over the shallow part of the reef there and hit his head on it. He was found floating face down in the shallows, just as the sun was setting and no one saw what actually happened to him.
In all my years of association with the sea I've never been scared of it but I've always maintained the highest respect for it. Isn't it amazing how a ball of energy, ever so small or large can lift you to the highest levels of elation and in the next moment have you whimpering like the poor sook you don't want to be?

In reference to...Respect....Yes!

Even at the age of nearly 56 I would still like to paddle out at these famous or infamous breaks like Waimea, Sunset, Pipeline or etc for the experience of the aquatic atmosphere of these breaks. But to ride them for myself would have to be another decision and one made on the comfort level I would be feeling on the occasion. When I've stood on the remote beaches of the like of Castle Cove, Gibson Steps in Victoria and Sandon Point in New South Wales I'm afraid commonsense has taken over. As at these places there is no easy way out or in and if you get into to trouble you're putting other person's lives at risk in coming to your aid if you get into strife. I would also dearly love to paddle out at the Loch Ard Gorge, just to experience the full mystery that surrounds this enigmatic place of historic tragedy.

If my favourite break/s was/were to somehow reach an awesome size I would be one of the first out there, as after 40 odd years of experience of how it works comes into play here and it would be more fun than awesome. There have been nights when I've had dreams that my local beach, just down the bottom of the hill here, has had huge, glassy swells pumping through. I wish!

Awesome comes to me very rarely these days, as the ability of my youth fades and on the rare occasion that I do get a good ride, I've gotten an accolade or two if I'm lucky. Surprisingly enough I've been never been called an "Old Fart" and told to get out of the water, so I still must be doing something right.

The breaks that worry me in my recollections of places I've seen like "Marlo" on the southern Gippsland of Victoria and "Dalmeny" on the south coast of New South Wales and a few other "Secret" spots that really have appealed to me but I've never surfed. We were at Dalmeny a couple of years ago, having lunch and watching the surf. It was a strange looking right and not always that makeable but it seemed to say to me, " come on out and try your luck!" And I would've done so if that vehicle alongside of us with the South Australian numberplates, with a board on top had hung around a bit longer. I was just about to go up to them and say, "how about going out with us?" but they disappeared before I could ask the question. I really regret not being a bit pushier on that occasion!

I remember an email from a good friend who said to me once, that there are still spots on the far south east coast of this continent that only a few die-hard fisherman go where the waves and breaks are perfect for surfing. The only problem is that you need a 4-wheeled drive vehicle to get to them. On one of our sojourns back from the east coast we took one of these tracks and saw species of fauna and flora unique to this area plus rare glimpses of a wave breaking in complete solitude on a pristine beach but only from a distance. It'll be many years before you see a "McDonald's" sign in places like those! Have you ever stood on a remote beach with a break working perfectly with ideal conditions and just looked, I mean really looked at it and said to yourself I wish I could share this moment with a few of my mates?

If I get only one Ride

Thursday, 1 February 2001 20:03

Even though I’ve been following the entire recent weather and surf reports etc, I honestly have to say my heart has not been completely in it and I can’t explain why it hasn’t. Nor can I explain my thoughts and actions this morning, or for that matter over the last few days. All I knew was that come hell or high water that if there was a wave going today and I was going to be one of the few who was going to go "Surfing". I’d been closely watching all the data that one can get via this cyber medium and with more than a couple of years of surfing experience behind me I knew that today would be the only day a wave would be available for god only knows how long.

The girl has been working late shifts, which meant that there was no way I was going to wake her up early just because I thought there might be a wave. I had to be definitely sure because she needs her sleep after finishing late, so I waited until the sun came up at 6:34 to check out the newly installed surf cams in the Mid and down the South. And when I did check, there was nothing in the Mid, it was flattazza but through the dirty lens of the Middleton cam I could see small lines coming through the early morning sea mist.

So at approximately 7AM I slammed the boards on the car etc and a quick cup of coffee down my throat and by the time I’d finished doing all that she was up and ready to go. I must admit that it was good to be with the girl, in the car and heading for another session, together again with the usual idle chit chat about how her working night went.

When we eventually had our first glimpse of the sea, we got an impression of what exactly to expect of the surf for the next hour or so. We could see that there was a wave on but with a slight cross-offshore breeze. At first I thought that there was no one out, but as we pulled into the car park we could see that there were about a half a dozen or so west of the point, sitting on the left. The girl said, "there’s Ian" meaning, Ian Fuller, one of the regular locals that we’ve both become rather fond of. He had just finished his early morning session and was walking up the stairs, on his way home. As he came towards our car he looked at his pretend watch on his arm, followed by a quizzical look at us, as if to say ‘ this is a bit late for the likes of you two!’ Of course he gave the usual banter that we should’ve been there an hour ago but we weren’t listening, as we were too busy getting ourselves ready for our session. However, we did manage to have a bit of a chat and catch up with some of the recent happenings around the place. Towards the end of the conversation he mentioned that the water was quite warm, and as we strolled out through the shallows near the point he was proven to be right. The water was warm and there was a lot of seaweed around, but that’s not unusual when you’ve had weeks of south easterlies blowing constantly for the last two months or so.

Even though the surf was small, 3 foot, the tide was extremely low so the paddle out after so many weeks lay off wasn’t that easy. After persisting for 5 minutes we made it out to the back. The most amazing thing about Middleton and I’m sure that anyone who has surfed it regularly will agree that as bad, or as good as it looks from the top of the cliff it can be exactly the opposite once you’re out the back. I’ve been out there on big glassy days when it looks terrific and had some horrible sessions, and on other occasions when it’s looked ordinary and had terrific ones. And I’ll tell you honestly that’s had nothing to do with my attitude on any given occasion, it’s just the way Middleton is.

Let me give you a mental picture of what it was like being out there today. The water was that usual misty amber green out back, with hardly any breeze to speak of except for the warm north easterly that occasioned itself upon us, with a large number of crested terns dive-bombing the small bait fish around us that were obviously in abundance.

With the cross-offshore the waves were peaking everywhere and to get a good ride was going to depend more on good luck than experience. I managed to pick up a good-looking right hander but one of the shortboarders who was out there thought it was good as well and decided to drop in on me. So instead of a confrontation, which I wasn’t at all interested in I decided to pull out and paddle back out for another. The second wave I caught was an absolute pearler but I’m afraid my abilities were down and I could never quite make that exciting part of the wave, the curling vortex.

I must say here and now that the girl’s surfing abilities have improved remarkably, and even though she wasn’t getting too many rides she is becoming more discerning as to the ones she paddles for. The Mountain Man would be proud of the apprentice, as she’s come a long way from the frustrated lass at Hungaries!

Finally, after about a half an hour of being out there a real good looking right hander came through, which found the girl on my left and myself paddling for. We both picked it up and as I sprung to my feet I noticed the girl was only a minute part of a second on doing the same. I was so aware of her take-off, as in the past her performances have been nothing like this. With my peripheral view I could see she had full control and I would say her takeoff was as perfect and good as I’ve seen by anyone. After that I’m afraid I lost sight of what she was doing as I was in the pocket and had the wave to contend with. It was a good wave and needed a real sculptor, not a bloke like myself who hasn’t been near a wave in two months but I gave it my best and was quite pleased with myself considering all things equal. I climbed and dropped at the appropriate moments and for a few seconds I even had the audacity to take a stroll to the nose to squeeze through a tight section.

I finished my ride with a not so much glorious wipeout and as I surfaced and grabbed my board, I looked around to find that the girl was just a few metres away to my left, which meant that she had had just as long a ride as I did. I was ecstatic that she had done so well and I do believe she was as well, as for the rest of the session she spent it with a smile on her face. She even went as far as to say whilst out there, "if I get only one ride like that one then the whole deal is worth it". What an attitude! It’s a damn shame more surfers don’t have the same, including myself at times.

We had been out there an hour or so and both decided to get the next wave in and call it quits. I managed to pick up one that was peaking in closer to me and as I stood up on it I turned to the girl and waved a smart arsed goodbye, as I thought this one would take me all the way into the beach. Well what do you know, the wave died on me halfway in, so I started paddling for the next one, only to find that she had caught the one behind and made it to the beach before me. Perhaps the surf wasn’t that great or the conditions ideal but one thing to remember about the whole session was sharing a wave with someone who is special to me.

Frustration

17^th February 2001

It shouldn't be long now when this incredibly long, hot Summer is over as we've gone past the middle of February and March the 31st is officially the end. I will be as bold to say that we here are all expecting the promise of those regular Autumn swells, along with the warmth that will still be left in the water. Just about everyone I've talked to has had a shocker of a summer and if you one session per week here, then you would have been called dead lucky.
I can't believe that we had 15 days straight back in spring of good sized, consistent surf and not only on the South Coast but also the Mid. Even Bullies fired up again on Monday, 16 October with a decent sized, good looking swell but has done very little since. I can remember quite vividly on a couple of occasions in Spring when I had just finished a session and lingered in the shallows, looking out at the surf with wonder. I recall the appreciation I felt at the time, as to how lucky I was to have surfed and witnessed another special occasion. Who hasn't done the same from time to time, who hasn't ended a session and gazed back out to the lineup as if in offering a prayer of thanks? Also who hasn't thought to themselves at the same time, when will I next be in this situation again?

As we all know surfing is one of the most difficult sports to learn and it's just as well that once you've reached an efficient level it's just like riding a bike. What I'm trying to say is that even after many weeks layoff, when you go out for a wave it only takes a couple of rides before you're performing somewhere near your best. There are surprisingly a few good points about being away from the surf for an extended period and one of those is that if you have a loss of stoke, you're sure to regain it. One of the bad points is that you loose that high level of fitness that the hard core surfer needs.

So when the forecast for last Sunday said offshore winds it was an almost automatic reaction to go down south, almost regardless of swell size. To make a long story short all I'll say it was awfully small but the girl continued her good form and I enjoyed the workout, it wasn't good but necessary.

They're here

Wednesday, 28 February 2001 18:38

I reckon I could feel it in my water in the early hours of this morning, or is it that I've been around for so long now that I just know the signs. It doesn't matter either way but I'll go on record and say that this awful summer is over and the autumn swells have arrived. I'd been on the Net most of the night checking swell maps and weather forecasts, then as soon as I saw the first light from the sun coming up I checked out the wave cams. Right from seeing the very first images I knew my feelings were proven to be true as I saw that the swell had risen and conditions were near on perfect.

Within seconds of seeing all the images I got busy slamming the boards on the car and the gear in the back, while in doing so I woke the girl up with all the noise I was making. Even driving down there I noticed a difference in the clouds from the ones that have been hanging around all summer long. The wind was non existent but I knew that there’d be an onshore coming up early as forecast, so it was imperative that we get down and out there as fast as we could. We were extremely lucky because there were hardly any cars on the road with this time of the morning being usually busy, and those that were had no boards on top and were heading the other way.

As we reached the open road I pointed out to the girl the slight morning mist on the grass in the fields that was glistening in the light of the early morning sunrise. The sight of this only improved the amount of excitement in the car and especially for me, for I knew that this was a good sign if there was any swell around down south.

When we arrived we found it just to our liking, around head high with a very slight north westerly breeze creating that wonderful offshore effect on the waves that we all love. I also noticed that there were only about 6 blokes out in total within eyesight and they were spread over as couple of hundred metres. The tide was at it’s lowest, so it wasn’t going to be easy going off the point and I’d made up my mind that going out through the bay would be the best approach.

While we were preparing ourselves Ian Fuller, a mate of ours was making his way along the beach below and was shouting something that I couldn’t quite hear. From his animations I gathered he was saying that the best way out was the one that we had already decided on. I nodded in agreement and yelled out to him and asked if he was going to join us and he signalled back yes. By the time he reached our car I was halfway down the road, while the girl was still fiddling around and locking up the car. She told me later that when Ian approached her he said. "Ron looks like a bloke on a mission" and he was right I was. I had gotten my stoke back and I was not going to waste any time talking about it, I really wanted to be out there and into it.

I took my time paddling out there, and so much so that the girl had caught up with me by the time I almost reached the lineup. The water was that milky turquoise colour and quite warm despite the low air temperature of about 20C. The first wave I caught I shared with the girl and I wasn’t surprised that she popped up to my left as I flicked out of the right. Her surfing abilities have improved out of sight, despite the lack of opportunities over the last few months. I watched her closely on a number of waves she caught and I must say that she’s really looking good on her takeoffs now. Even though the surf looked good from the shore the conditions out there were entirely different with the larger waves breaking ok and easy to pick up but falling away as they hit a deep channel as they moved closer to the shore. At one stage while we were waiting for a set a particularly large lot came through and broke way outside of us. The girl said that there must have been twenty waves in that set but in reality it was more like ten. Anyway we took quite a pounding but it was good for us as we both needed that paddling exercise after so long a layoff. And seeing that we’ll be up at Crescent’s next Monday week, hopefully surfing everyday, we’re going to need some extra stamina to get us through.

We caught quite a number of rides in the hour or so while we were out there but none really worth writing about. Another larger than normal set came through and I sat back and watched as the girl took off on the third to last one. That was the last time I saw her during our session because she had ridden it in too far and had a look out the back while riding it and saw that she was going to have a huge struggle paddling out the back again. I paddled out further as there were still a couple of bigger ones threatening to catch me inside and it was at about his time the onshore sprang up and started chopping up the wave faces. I caught one or two more and decided to take a large one and rode it all the way in. When I reached the shore I looked back out to drink in with my eyes all the little events of this little episode. I thought to my self, "the summer is over and the autumn swells, well they’re here and so is my stoke".

"Those seconds in the green room are far to fleeting and it's only when I sit back and reflect, I realise just how glorious and precious those seconds are"

Ron Taylor

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