>Surfin stuff<


Sunday, March 31, 2002
Just got back from a couple of days down at Bells Beach, Torquay, looking at the Bells Beach Pro Contest. Didn't actually get to see a lot of surfing and though there was plenty of swell, there was also a howling onshore wind that threatened to blow the grand-stands down at one stage! Was most impressed by Mick Fanning, who surfed faster than anyone else and easily won his heat.

Mind you, the format for pro surfing still seems pretty stuffed to me. Three guys (later, two) out at Bells with a big sweep and a long, long paddle means that lots of waves go unridden and for a spectator it's like watching ice freeze over. Good fun though, the the Tracks karaoke party back at the Surf Museum was good fun too.


Thursday, March 28, 2002
Pro. surfers are good at it aren't they? Last weekend I watched the No Fear Trials at Gunna for a little while with guys like Glyndyn Ringrose, Damien Hardman, Troy Brooks etc. ripping up my local beach. They move faster than normal surfers, they turn sharper, harder, quicker. The hot local looks slow all of a sudden, the pros. are all over it like a rash.

What I don't like is the way they don't respect the waves I do. I mean, the waves for them are just a platform, like a race-track or a diving board, or a stadium for them to perform. These were good waves for our coast, and I felt the pro's just kinda expected that.


Saturday, March 23, 2002
Had the pleasant task of seeing a surfing comp. through to fruition last week;girlsurf 2002, a contest designed to encourage girls into surfing, sponsored by the school where I work. It was a very good day, with nearly a hundred girls from eleven different schools getting into 2-4' Crunchy Point. It was a pretty big job organising the thing, but worth it to see how stoked they all were. The only problem was that I didn't get a surf all day and the rest of the weekend was tres' ordinary.




girlsurf 2002


Sunday, March 03, 2002
Had one of those surfs to remember last week; a small point break right hander, clean and glassy with no-one out except my brother and me. We surfed it for nearly two hours, taking turns, hooting each other, and in between sets sitting out the back talking or just looking at the green-hilled coastline in the clear, still morning. In the end I was so tired that I could hardly paddle but neither of us wanted to go in, and the surf end...