Rip Curl Pro 2009 - perfection!

Here's hoping it soon turns on again this year!

Teahapoo in Slo-mo............lovely?

Kinda looks ok in slo-mo with some nice music. Well, this is what it is really like and I cannot believe what it must be like not to make it!

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Slo-mo monster tube - sensational!

You can watch it directly here, but I would recommend you double click on the vid to go to YouTube and choose the HD viewing option for an even greater viewing experience.

I just love the end of the sequence where the wave wells up in front of the camera in crystal clear focus.

This was shot using a $100,000 Typhoon HD4 and is the first digital highspeed camera with an underwater housing - allowing breathtaking slow motion pictures from underwater.

The housing was custom build by ScienceMedia (Dr. Rudolf Diesel) and can be operated like a standard underwater video camera housing. There is a monitor with a live picture on the back of the housing.

All camera features are accessible by push buttons, including reviewing the shot for evaluation while under water. The trigger and the buttons for iris, zoom and focus settings are on the left and right handle.

The camera is battery operated and up to four shots can be stored in the internal memory.

The camera may be used with different lenses and dome ports. The wide angle lenses 14mm and 17mm are used with the 240 mm wide angle dome port, which provides excellent pictures and delivers very interesting perspectives. Remote operation of the underwater housing & camera is also available.

Many thanks to The Endless Bummer for this one. Sorry mate, but I just had to pinch, elaborate and post!

Oh Shit!

I wish this was a bloody great cannon pointing out in front of me, rather than just the end of a paddle, so as I can blast my way through!

Surfing is fun?

I was reading an interview with DH in the latest Surfer's Path and I was tickled to note the conversation that evolved around the word "Fun?" apparently the commonest word to be found somewhere in the first bemused response of many surfers on hearing DH rides a finless board. His comment?

"It says a lot about where surfing isn't and where surfing should be"

Well it is in fact fun and DH clearly believes that is the missing ingredient for many "Surfers" today but not for us "Waveriders" of course as we understand that riding waves is fun!

Getting back to finless wave riding. Last year I bought myself a bodyboard, which I used to use prior to learning to ride waves standing up, to further enhance to the opportunity to get in the water and have fun.

Well, what a revelation that has been as I have had some hugely fun sessions on it even when the waves were pretty average.

As DH has discovered along with alaia riders and body boarders, who have understood it for many years, there is something fundamental about sliding across the face of a wave on a craft without fins.

I also like that one is closer to the surface of the wave, seemingly surrounded by all the energy and really being required to go with the flow. The face of the wave looks all the more impressive when you are lying/crouching down and looking along it.

I note that DH spends a lot of time crouched and I understand this is a trimming requirement as much as anything but he would be experiencing something similar especially at a break like J-Bay!

I also tend to take it out if the swell is big and the break crowded as it affords me the opportunity to get more waves as I can get into them way earlier than the stand up surfers. I am constantly amazed at how resistant small board surfers are to the notion of riding any other type of craft other than what they ride. Longboard? No way. A bodyboard? %*#@$ are you serious? But you know there is an upside, while they are struggling away on their ridiculous choice of wave craft, the rest of us, who know, are getting wave after wave after wave! Thank God for short boarders!

And 8 working days later.................

my new wetsuit arrived and it fits - yay!

I took a bit of a gamble and went for a large, as this is a better quality wetsuit than I normally wear, which is a medium in Rip Curl's Dawn Patrol. I hate when the legs fill up with water and I swapped my original large Dawn Patrol for a medium as that is exactly what it did.

Anyway, I can report that the new E-Bomb fits very snugly and that there is minimal entrapment of water in the legs.

So, if you happen to need a wetsuit at an excellent price then do consider Boardridersguide.com in the UK.

Ummm.... A plague?

Don't get me wrong now, I think everybody should be allowed to have the opportunity to learn to surf or have the choice of making their living from teaching people to do so.

But, it is a bit disconcerting when you see this number of learners out at your local surf break - 19 excluding the red vested instructors and that is just one session on the day!

So, if there are this many here, think how many there are on any given day everywhere around Australia, particularly in the more well known locations such as Byron and Bondi etc! Thousands? Fortunately, it is not any easy sport to learn requiring a considerable amount of effort, application and persistence over a period of time, so those who actually go on to consistently surf are probably few. Whew!

Warren Thompson?

I used to own a BIC 10' noserider and I have now returned to that place, making the final change to my quiver following our move to Denmark, by ordering a 10' traditional single fin from local shaper Warren Thompson to complement the more progressive Walden 9' 6" Magic. Warren has been living in Denmark for the last 6 years, knows the break very well and consequently has made a lot of successful longboards for local riders.

Currently, on the weekend, the point is dominated by 3 or 4 teenage girls who ride Warren's longboards with little regard for surf etiquette. I have partly ordered this board in order to enable getting a few more of the waves off those girls and, in good humour, have been referring to it as my "Weapon of Mass Destruction!" Interestingly, Warren has coached those girls in the past and, during my conversation in his shaping rooms about the new board, even he agreed that perhaps it was time they were brought in to line a little and I think he might be having a word or two in their ears about the matter.

Warren has surfed and shaped all his life and this has resulted in his requiring new shoulders as he has worn the originals out! He had one of them replaced a year ago and is able to body surf a little now but has surgery for the other and another year of rehabilitation to look forward to. He can still shape boards though - Whew!

Warren has quite a history as a wave rider, apparently taking riders to Hawaii on surf trips and shaping for Don Brewer but there is little is known about him and I am thinking that needs to change so am contemplating asking if he would be willing to be interviewed for this blog so look forward to that!

Maybe you understand now...................

.........those of you who choose not to ride waves. So often my need, or why I have worked so hard to fashion a life around the opportunity, to surf is met with a shake of the head at least or a barrage of derision at worst. It is a lifestyle, it has to be and once the decision is made to return to the ocean only death or similarly extreme circumstance will stop one!
Here is one man's struggle to transcend. This humble film is about Michael and his daily ritual to find his natural self through wave riding.

Thanks to Warbles

Michelle's Fish....!

......is probably sold to local farrier and guitar legend in training Andrew S. She has decided to get rid of it as it is probably a fraction too small for the wave conditions that prevail locally.

It is a 6' 3" 7S Aussie Fish, which is a Semi Fish design with much less volume in the nose than the traditional old school Fishes that were designed in the US.

This design is a cross between a performance shortboard and a true fish design that is great to ride in small to medium surf. It paddles easily and will help you make the most of being on the face of the wave and features a single concave bottom that delivers extra speed and drive while turning.

Here are a couple of pics of Andrew trying the board out in appalling small and onshore conditions that were still enough to convince him that it was a board that would work for him.

Wetsuits? - ever wondered.......................

.....if we are being ripped off here in Australia?

Well, my 2 year old $300.00 Ripcurl Dawn Patrol 3/2 finally gave up the ghost the other day.

It had been starting to fall apart since the day I got it. Gaping holes in the legs, great seams of wetsuit repair goo all over the place and a great hole below the zip which finally got so big it was exposing my cute little white arse!

So I went surfing ( on the internet ) to see if I could get a replacement for a better price and I did not limit myself to Australia.

And bingo, I scored a top of the line Ripcurl E-bomb 3/2 ( $574.95 here in Oz and the cheapest I had seen was $400 ) for? - wait for it.....................$208.69 including shipping from the UK for god's sake. Now it is probably gonna take a little while to get here but for almost $200 less it is worth it!

"Sorry, what was that you said?"

"Oh, where did I get it from?"

"Right of course, well it was here"

Geez - the guard is changing!

Parko surfs great, scores a 17.47 and still gets comboed by the amazing Dane Reynolds who scores a 19.20.

Looking forward to a cracker of a semi between another of the new guard, Jordy Smith, and Dane.
Although Bobby M is surfing really well on his backhand, Taj should knock him over in the other semi and then we are set for a mighty showdown between the the old guard and the new!

What a great event it has been so far and we still have the rest of the year to look forward to and I reckon AI might just figure in the equation a bit more prominently as it progresses too!

Doesn't look like much but..................

.................it's all relative as following a week of hell wind from the E/NE both Michelle and I had a fine time out there today.

I started off at the point picking off some great waves on my booger before heading off round the bay where the waves had a little more size. Jolly good fun it was too!