2 days that changed our minds

After heaps of debating, we decided to head south. We got a lift to Bomaderry and took a bus to Ulladalla - which at the time, we thought was the place to be.
Set up camp, got hungry, went to the shops, ran into Thurston, Hubb and PLC. After hearing tales of the waves they scored a little further south at Bawley Point - we decided at first light we would hitch there.

Woke up early after a freezing and uncomfortable sleep and headed for Bawleys. Oh what a great decision this was. Our new found friends took us straight to the Nuggen car park. Looking out from the deck we saw off shore bowls and crowds. Knowing that Supers was just around the corner we had to go check it out. We jumped back in the car and arrived at the Supers set up. Walked to the point and we were greated with 4 tow surfers, 6 boogers, 3 water photogs, a boat with 2 more photogs and a star-studded crew watching from the rocks. After the froth had settled we saw Ben Player get the most insane wave i have ever seen. I've never seen any wave been ridden so well like he did on that one. A 8ft heaving slab, he paddled, scooped, dissapeared in the barrel and somehow made it out of it. Nuts if you ask me!

We decided that the crowds at Supers were too hectic (yeah, good excuse actually haha), so we went to Nuggen. We cruised to Nuggen point carrying all our equipment, 2 boards, 3 sets of fins, 4 backpacks, 2 sleeping bags aand one motherless tent. Leuhman tagged along and laughed at us the whole, shot for the help bru!

Nuggen was looking so sick, but crowded. The crowds consisted of: Winny, Hubb, Skipp, Novy, Morgan Brown, and a few other local ozzy's. Too amped!

Paddled out and saw exactly what every grom like myself dreams of seeing-All the pro's doing everything you see on the movies, but a few feet away from you. Was a crazy experience. I got a few waves and got a taste of what Nuggen can do.

Me, blending in with the crowds.

Novy flighing high!

After frothing at Nuggen we walked back to Supers. When we got there Benny P was towing in Eli Beach into heaving pits! They switched positions and Ben Player was surfing 6-8ft bombs by himself. He was shortly joined by Pierre Louis Costes and Glen Thurston. Was really something else and watching that session has changed my mindset about how good waves can actually get.

One of the many waves that changed our mind sets.

Pency in yet another mind altering wave!

Went back to Nuggen point and set up our tent as the sun was going down, we made an attempt at making a fire, but it failed horribly! So we retired to our sleeping bags and checked out the days pics.

We got woken up by Luke and Jimmy and were greated with this:

The view from our tent, what more could you ask for??

We surfed, packed up and headed to supers. The skis were out again and the crowds were already lined up on the rocks. Saw a few good ones slip through and I got out there. Got a few sick ones, got a few bad ones, got a few beat downs. Loving life!

Sitting on the rocks watching the skis going in circles, and all the pros arrived. I was amped so off I went. Sat in the line up with PLC, Novy, Alex Bunting, Jose Marquino, Tom Rigby and all the skis. The waves were firing, but to get a good one was stuff off hard! Managed to scoop 2 and decided that was enough for me and headed to the rocks.

Unknown lost in the mist of a cracker!

Bunting is a pure-bred hellman!

Me lining up in a good one!

Novy does unbelievable things!

We left to head back to our temporary home, Supers and Nuggen behind us, but not yet defeated!

All-in-all, seeing and talking to basically the top 20 pros in the world, watching them surf insane waves, seeing how different the bodyboarding community is here, sleeping on rocks, camping in the cold, missioning 7 hours to get home - it was so damm worth it!

The sky is falling

So the past few days have been a bit boring. Never fear, because off-shore winds and good swell is near!

We did a bit of searching - found nothing and settled for the consistnet wedge! We were lucky enough too see a tornado, we took some shots. We have also experienced babysitting - easy money!

Tooheys NSW is very good!

Si turning into what was a long barrel

Si doing his thing on the end bowl

Storm chasing

The tornado shortly before it broke up

A watery revo by yours truly

Bommie

Next week is on!

dropping ths kids off at school

so here's how the days event went down:

woke up early

went down to drop the family kids off a school

looked at the schools front garden and, surfed it.

The sight that appeared whilst dropping the kids off

Our morning breakfast

my first wave

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaa" - you can hear the angels singing

shhhhhhh....quiet!

we almost forgot

please enjoy

dont you wish your granpa knew stuff like this?

blowhole madness

so we woke up to howling winds and thundering rain, all i wanted to do was turn over and go back to sleep. opted not too and surprisingly enough, my tiredness soon turned into ampedness to explore our current backyard coastline.

Got down to the beach and saw the wind was strong but not too bad! We saw some potential and we saw 2 sick as blowholes! These things are mad and are bloody loud!

We also splashed at the local beach called South Bombo - was super fun.

Here's some shots:

the main Kiama blowhole

me at another blowhole a few bays down

si showing his stuff

The past few days...

So we've moved on from the infamous Mark-up River, feeling tired, hurt, bummed and broke!

We moved onto greener pastures - the east coast. After a stuff load of money and about a day of travelling we have reached the cosy Plett-like town called, Kiama. Its situated about an hour and a half drive south of Sydney and if you, like Si and myself, opt for travelling by train, 8 hours is the length it takes. We did do a bit of a touristy thing which included many arb trip cats, plenty asian school kids speaking in full Ozzy tongue, many friendly people, a few famous places and one over friendly local explaining in depth, with the use of props (my smelly Pep shoes), those famous places - over and over again.

Oh, and one stuff off grumpy old man!

The photos below are some of the experiences

Airport boredom

Train waiting

Si taking it all in

If only tides and swell was on our side

You know how it is

Kiama evening

The chasrts are looking promising this week, hopefully we'll be able to get some waves.

We will keep you all updated

box pilgrimage

So after a week of fart arsing around we decided to hike down to the main beach and check out "The Box". We got a lift which took us straight to the car park and we were greated with less than ideal conditions. As we were comtemplating going in we saw 2 bombs come through and then our mind was made up.

The wave was really wedgey with loads of barrels and plenty of ramps. We all had our fair share of barrels with Jared, as per usual, flying above the rest with the ramps that were plenty.

The last wave i got absolutely destroyed me and after getting undressed we were greated with this:

The hike home after a surf that made our lazy week way worthwhile..

Hopefully we can get Box again but with better conditions

Skatepark hooligans

We were horribley bored so we found a cement skate park, and footskated the hell out of it!

...under the cover of darkness of course...

Ozzie kid hooligans

Pik with the bat wing

Jerry going old school with the Canonbaaaaaall

...the days adventure tires us so...

After a Hella mission


We decided to go surf this morning....normal for us....except we had about a 10km walk, cos NO we dont have a car...so cool, lets do this, we'l hike despite our warnings from the locals that people dont get picked up hiking, we thought we'd press on and start walking....20mins of nothing, so we started walking back, but stil hiching, then someone stopped to pick us up, PERFECT! we got to the beach, had a bit of warm water fun, then....THEN....hiked back........AN HOUR OF HIKING, and a motherless far distance still to go later, a kind elderly coupled decided to pick us up....tooo stoked! that walk = not cool!!

On the plus side, we did do some insanely budget shopping at the locals Coles store and scored some delicious deals to whet out taste buds and keep us going on those loooooong walks, cuase that definitly wasnt the last time..especially with this week coming ;)

jared.rides.well.yes

Pik cutting the early morning butter

Jerry-bag, again, opting for the warm water flip

we're down under

herewith lies our experiences over the past couple of days

airport trolley racing

an ozzy ninja

demon roo

scoping the coast line

gas bay - the first place we surfed

the tourist thing

We'll get some wave photos soon - dont get your knickers in a knot

Been going down...

Whats been going down???

• K53 driving- PASS

• MONDAY MISSIONS - R13 500

• 3 DAYS - WA

You probably wandering why so much for a Monday mission?? Well, that's the price it costs to replace a gear box on my car. Good thing I'm leaving in a couple days - one less thing to worry about.

I also thought I'd give you a taste of what K53 driving is like:
Approaching robot to turn left:
foot off accelerator, rear-view-mirror, left hand blind spot, indicate left. Rear-view-mirror, break slowly. ten metres before stopping, put clutch in. Come to a complete stop. Handbrake up, put car in neutral, feet off the pedals. Wait for the other traffic lights crossing your path to go orange. When orange-put clutch in and select first gear. Get clutch control without using the accelerator. When robot is green-put down the handbrake, check rear-view-mirror, check the traffic on the right if it is safe to go through the robot. Check your left hand blind spot then steer. Dont cross ur hands and don't change gears until you have turned the corner completely....Times that by 20 mins and then you should have your drivers.

On a lighter note I dug into my old photo archives-not too deep and found to barel shots at two different right hand wedges. Both shot by Damon Crawford. enjoy.

warmer water

not so warm

Check out more of Damon's pics with the following link