>Surfin stuff<


Sunday, January 11, 2004
Checked out the latest TRACKS with the 100 Greatest surfers of all time. For the record the top 10 are:

1 Kelly Slater (no arguments there)
2 Occy (ditto)
3 Tom Curren (dunno, haven't seen him surf enough)
4. Tom Carroll (definitely; actual water-man)
5. Taj Burrow (okay, alarm bells ringing!! Taj Burrow is the 5th best surfer of all time???????? What the ??) Billabong surfer
6 Mark Richards (agree)
7 Mick Fanning (more alarm bells, louder this time! Mick Fanning is the 7th best surfer OF ALL TIME! I saw him surf at Bells and he's hot, and fast..but ALL TIME??? Or maybe he's the RIPCURL candidate; keep that Tracks advertising dollar nice and evenly!
8 Joel Parkinson (wow, how amazing! three of the best surfers OF ALL TIME are current Australian surfers, and not a World Championship between them!; surfing in Australia sure is in terrific shape!)
9. Andy Irons (no arguments)
10. MP (no arguments from a man who bought his first TRACKS mag in 1972!

But come on! Is this real? Consider some of the others down the track:

11 - Layne Beachley (fair call, heaps of world titles, she can surf)
12 - The DUKE - surely a top ten contender?
13 - LAIRD - fair enough, if you call that stuff surfing.
14 - RABBIT - good call - breaking down the door
15 - NAT - a little low?
16 - LOPEZ - fair enough, only really stood out at PIPE and maybe at INDO later.
20 - Wayne Lynch - Hoax Caosters like to see a VICCO there.
22 - Bruce Irons - ??
24 - RCJ - too high, for just a tow-in surfer?
25 - Cheyne Horan - too low?
27 - Micky Dora - way too low
46 - Terry Fitz - sultan of speed is rated too low, as are most of the people who didn't actually compete on the TOUR this year.
63 - Jeff Hackman - too low a ranking for Mr Sunset

It's all a bit of a game, so you can't take it all seriously, but some of it is too laughable to be even a game!




Oh, and I meant to add this link to the PORTSEA CAM:

PORTSEA NOW!!


Summer; time of the great south-easterlies and the dreaded 'in between swells', too big for the beach breaks unless you're into riding reforms (and they're not good for my ears!) and too small for the Western Port waves. So, each morning it's log on to the Coastal watch site and see what intrepid reporter Steve Robertson has to say about the East Coast, and look at some blurry shots of Portsea, which this morning is all being made up for the IRON MAN lifesaving competition.

I DID have a good surf the other day on a little reef break, so clean that the waves kinda pulled over the rocks like a little bubble and you could see the reef and the seaweek and the potholes and the lava rocks below as you flew along these little punch waves. That was fun.


Tuesday, December 23, 2003
Still days and days of ordinary surf, with lots of in-between days and days of onshores. A couple of small beach break days that I missed a couple of weeks ago, and now so long since my last decent surf that I have to go thorugh the 'getting back into it' surf or two before getting surf fit again. It's a bit of a cycle, and not one I like!


Sunday, December 07, 2003
Not enough surfing in the last month, with work commitments and some ordinary weekend weather. I did miss one good Saturday morning, but am very keen to get back into it, with only a week till holidays.


Friday, October 31, 2003
Just finished reading a book on surfing, 'The Water's Edge', or more accurately a novel where surfing is one oof the main characters. Some bits even too hippy for me, but also some good stuff. Shall review it in more detail later.


Sunday, September 21, 2003
At last, got back in the water yesterday on a beautiful spring day, catching the tail end of a swell that has lasted all week and clumsily, stumbling back into some surf. It was nice to feel that cold water again, and remember how the coast looks from the water, in that soft spring light.


Saturday, August 23, 2003
No surf for a while as I recover from a bout of dizziness from my bad (eg. unoperated) ear after that really cold surf. I think the ear got a bit blocked and its still ringing a bit. So, I've got to pick and choose my surfs carefully this time of year, which mostly means no surf lately.


Sunday, July 27, 2003
Yesterday, standing on the cliff checking the surf all along the bay, and two guys standing there doing the same thing, are talking about the buoy readings; on the Hoax Coast!?

So I go to the Triggers site and find this site again; still not quite sure what it all means, but it sounded all Hawaii-like just the same!

Victorian Channels Authority


Saturday, July 19, 2003
Did get a surf last night; the first for a couple of weeks, and colder than it was a couple of weeks ago. Booties mandatory, hood an optional extra for any windy days. Got my first 'ice-cream headache' as I got caught inside and had to duck dive through a couple. The waves were suprisingly glassy, and a little bigger than I thought and it was uncrowded too. Only other guy out when I first paddled out. Lasted 45 minutes and got a few, then arced up the seat warmers on the Subaru for the drive home!


Check out this new site from some of the hoaxters: a new DVD ZINE magaziney kind of thingy, which promises to be a great new innovation in the surf mag business.

First issue coming later this year.

isurf-dvdzine


Friday, July 18, 2003
Water temperature down to 13 degrees, the last day of the holidays, a light onshore, hardly any surfs coz I've been to NZ, the internet doesn't look good, the Trigger bros. surf report doesn' t look good....what to do?............may as well head down and have a look!


Thursday, July 03, 2003


Remember Crystal Voyager: that trippy George Greenough on a ruber flat inside the tube movie with Nat on a keelboard? I used to like the soundtrack but could never find it anywhere; so a friend digitized a tape he had. Sounds a bit noisy, but when that 'Sing a Song of Changes' song came in, it all came rushing back.

Going to NZ for a week or so tomorrow, so shall check out the surf spots when I can, though it's mid-winter and I'm not taking my board.


The first surf for a couple of weeks today, small waves, but a beautiful Winters day with very little wind, and nice left out the front of the steps. I egged the first couple at the takeoff, which was frustrating and got a rush of cold water into the wetsuit, reminding me of the truth of things. Then, as the small crew had decided I couldn't surf and started to go to drop in, the third wave worked, and I got that old old feeling back, trimming fast along the glassy sunny winter wall.

After that things got better. I got four or five good ones and everyone settled into a bit of a rhythm. The water was so clear that I could lineup where to sit by checking a big white flat rock (that I thought was a stingray at first) which was just about the spot to sit. There was a bit of SE in the swell, so some of them were swinging wide, but some were really fun.

When I came in there was a shell lying on the beach exactly where I paddled in. And not another shell up the beach either way. I took it as a good sign.


Sunday, June 01, 2003
Sore and tired after a couple of days of surfing in Western Port: clean conditions and super-glassy, and some intermittent waves coming from a long long way away it seemed. Long lulls, the four or five wave sets, then another long lull. Paddled around trying to find something decent, but it promised more than it delivered. First day of winter=first day of booties! Also, wanna get one of those insulator thermal rashies, which might be enough to eke my old XISLE 4/3 steamer through another winter.


Saturday, May 24, 2003
Beautiful Autumn conditions again; sunny skies, a small clean swell and a light offshore, but not many banks around still and I ended up surfing an over-shallow beach break left at low tide with lots of waves closing out, and some not breaking through. One kneeboarder was out there too, but he went in after a while and I stayed out there for a while by myself, which was kinda fun.


Sunday, May 18, 2003
A couple of good surfs in the last couple of days enjoying the rapidly cooling water, the hazy still Autumn weather and that sense of the crowds beginning to thin out a bit. Lots of guys around at Gunna but some other places not too bad. Into the 4/3 now though, and booties coming soon no doubt!


Friday, April 25, 2003
Went away again, late in Easter for one night to Phillip Island, getting Right Point pretty clean and fun just before dark, then next day getting some small clean beach-breaks pretty much to ourselves. It was a classic Easter for weather, if not for surf, with Bells being moved to Johanna again, but this fun surf was about as good as it got for me.


Tuesday, April 15, 2003
Just got back from three days surfing on the West Coast, staying with my brother and though we only got beach breaks, it was uncrowded and fun, and the water isn't too cold yet. On the second day we were surfing a peak when two girls paddled out, followed on the beach by a giant entourage of cameramen. It seems they were a Thai film crew filming a TV ad for soy milk. It was peaky, windy, rained on and off, and a giant rainbow appeared. It looked kinda nice, though I don't know if it would sell soy milk.


Friday, March 21, 2003
And tonight, a very different surf, onshore and about 3' with not many people around, driving down after work in bursts of rain to get some good fun ones, and one that was actually more than fun, and good.


Saturday, March 15, 2003
And this week, a meeting cancelled, watching the cam, a light onshore...take the opportunity.

I find myself. walking down the old sandy track I walked first in 1973, before the houses and the national park, to a little A-frame peak, highish tide so don't surf too far or you'll end on the rocks, but you do keep surfing it coz it keeps walling up, a bit full, and peaky, but some nice lefts and the water warm and seems clean and suddenly mid-week, when you least expected it, you're surfing again.


Saturday, February 22, 2003
Went down early this morning after watching the swell waver around all week and when it was still this morning had a small surf at Gunna at low with only a few guys around and occasionally one of the set waves running off along the waist deep sandbank, and occasionally I got enough speed to make a couple. It was nice sitting out there, chatting with an old friend about poetry and books and kids and a whole lot of other stuff between sets.


Saturday, February 01, 2003
First pain-less surf for about six weeks today as my arms begins to come good. I was going to write about how good it felt to do those small things, to drive down early through Red Hill and Merricks, out of the blue sky and into a quick bright shower of rain, to wax the board up, to pull the wetsuit on with the sound of the wind and the waves around me.

And it did feel good. But the thing that struck me most this morning was the burnt out hillside over the surf break. Sometime, a week or so ago, a fire had gone through and the hills overlooking the beach were bare and black, studded with silver-white gums with their leaves all bronzed somehow. For the first time you could see the shape of the land, the ridges and the concaves and the gullies, and in the hillside an old water tank, and its lid further down the hill. It smelt of ash too, you could smell it out in the water, and see where the fire had begun, and, just before the houses on the road, been stopped. After all the talk about fires up around Omeo and Bright this week,it was strange and confronting to see evidence of them here; the grass burnt down to the high tide line.


Saturday, January 18, 2003
You sure don't know what you've got till it's gone. Just got back from a week away camping at Wilsons Prom, and my arm too sore to surf! It feels fine just walking around, but trying to push up on a surfboard gives it an exruciating jolt! I tried four times, stood up on precisely 6 waves for the week, watched the surfing action, even paddled out on a boogie board and took some photos one day, but didn't surf. And it really depressed me.


Thursday, December 26, 2002
Took the board up to Malacoota for a few days last week but didn't get any waves. It looked like there were some promising spots, perhaps not the beach breaks, which looked to be without banks. Maybe on a small day with an offshore. Unfortunately the board didn't leave it's cover, and there's nothing sadder than coming back from a trip away with the board still having the original sand on it from the last sessions.


Monday, December 16, 2002
Managed to sneak in an early surf on the weekend at one of the hight tide reef breaks and watched bemused as two old (older than me) guys hassled two other old guys over the 2' onshore waves on offer. It was sad.


Monday, December 02, 2002
Played 'race the cool' change after work tonight, and this time I made it, with very good 3-4' waves on all the banks, including the sooper-dooper (but oh so crowded) left at First Car Park. A bit of a rip running through most banks, but good waves to be had, even late in the afternoon!


Sunday, November 10, 2002
Finally got back in the water after the car-less saga. Crowded, and it turned onshore after about an hour, but it sure was nice to paddle out there again, and see the land from the sea, and the waves from the back, and feel the board skimming along (ever so slowly) on some little ones.


Saturday, October 19, 2002
Desperate and car-less for the last few weeks, hoping for a cold change each weekend so I'm not missing too much!