A Trip to the Beach

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Heading Home!

We're waiting in the International Terminal of Brisbane Internation for our Qantas flight home. It leaves in about an hour. Great to be heading home after all this time. See everyone so soon.

For some reason I did not sleep at all last night, but there's not much I need to do for the next 15 hours except hold on to a toddler from time to time and watch B-grade movies. Syndey slept really well, though, so that means she'll be up for much of the flight.

I managed to get in one last surf at the point on Friday afternoon as a giant south swell was coming up. It was great, but it was plenty big (about 5-6 feet) and I managed to grab a few good ones on my performance shortboard before the school kids showed up at 3:15 pm. I'm going to miss the great surf, small friendly crowds, warm water, and offshore winds.

On the other hand, Australian baked beans are rubbish and their pop-music is way too white so I've got good beans and R&B to look forward to.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Final Week Photos

We've had a long stretch of amazing weather coming into our final weeks and days here. We found some great hidden beaches, went to the Macadamia Castle to pet Kangaroos and Emus, and explored Bangalow. Clouds finally rolled in today, but that front is bringing a massive swell for Friday and Saturday, just in time for a final big wave session!

Mum and Catalina in the yard

Whites Beach

Naked baby

Guarding the Macadamia Castle

That's a BIG bird and, gosh, those rabbits are huge!

Whites Beach - amazing and empty!

From the living room!

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Minute Plus Ride!

I found another Internet connection that's working better so here are the final three videos we shot yesterday.

This first, minute plus ride is really two 30 second rides with a soft spot in the middle. Note that I was already riding for a few second when the video starts so the whole ride must have been about 60 seconds or more. It's probably the longest ride of my life, though I had one at Rincon and one at Steamer that were both close second once. Watch the whole thing. In the second half it gets fast and steep and I disappear behind the wave but I'm still cruising. I make that section in a near barrel, actually the best part of the wave, and then have three more off the lip turns before kicking out. It was such a long ride that I braved the rocks again and hiked back to the point! I should have brought my performance board but I really can't complain about rides like this, now can I? It covered a distance of about 2.5 football fields, is my guess.

The following suggests what it's like to get in to the water at Lennox Point. This guy does it very wrong and you'll hear me comment on how I know the feeling all too well:

If you time it right, it's not too bad, but if you watch carefully you'll see me hit a rock with my fins on entrance, but otherwise survive unscathed. I'm better at it now than I was five weeks ago but all three of my expensive fins have scratches or cracks now!

We're down to one week now. Catalina is counting down daily and we're all excited to see friends and family.

Offshore winds, sizable wave. Fun!

Lennox Point Hollow Ride

This one was fast and hollow and brief (by Lennox standards). Tomorrow's post will include a ride that was more than a minute long. The file is so big it'll have to uploaded alone! Now that's surfing.

Shannon Gets Some Great Videos

Shannon got a few great videos of me surfing solid waves at Lennox Point yesterday morning. The Internet connection is so limited here that it'll take me a few days to upload them all, but here's a taste of what it was like.

On this first one, I had a great time practicing my turns back into the meat of the wave: