An Awesome Autumn

If there are two seasons of a year that the most ardent of South Aussies surfers look forward to then it's our spring and autumn. This autumn has left me with many indelible memories and it's been my good luck once again to experience the excellent quality surf that has been on offer this season.

From the 28^th of February to the end of May we’ve been in the water almost every other day, averaging at least 4 days in the surf per week. And I speak for both of us when I say if we could have been in the water 7 days out of 7 for the last 3 months we wouldn’t have complained a bit.

The surf has been so good on most occasions that we never recorded most the best days on film, also with the girl’s vast improvement in her surfing abilities I’m afraid there’s even less. Having said that there was the odd day here and there we did manage to capture a few of the lessor days for us to share and we hope that you enjoy them…

A foggy view on the drive down south

Friday, 11 May 2001

Report of yesterday

The girl and I went grocery shopping extremely early yesterday at 6:AM and on the way home we took the scenic route along the beach to see if there was any surf. To my surprise there was a glassy little wave sneaking in, which told me that there'd be a bigger one, further down south in the Mid.

So we raced home and chucked the groceries out of the car, slammed my board on and my gear in the car and headed south. It was unfortunate for the girl that she had to work because it was a glassy decent sized wave with one guy out at Threepoles and another by himself at Anzacs.

For a change I got some real good rides as the tide was just right and so was my wave choice and performance, it was a pity my personal photographer wasn't there. Even though it was overcast and looking pretty cool, I was surprised to find the water still had a bit of warmth in it.

I spent the best part of two hours out there, and as I walked up the ramp back to the car I noticed that the bloke was still out by himself at Anzacs where the left seemed to be working perfectly. As I looked further north I could see a multitude of guys out at Triggs and was so pleased with myself that I hadn't picked that spot to go out.

By the time I had changed back into my civvies and shoved the board on the car the sea breeze started to kick in, making conditions a little bit crumbly with the outgoing tide.

I think the swell might hang around for a day or two and maybe get bigger, as there's a big swell system just about to hit the Bight and Western Australia. I guess I'll be down there in a couple of hours to check it out, but I'll tell you it doesn't feel the same surfing without the girl.

The sequence of one ride

Saturday, 12 May 2001

Surfing solo, Again!

With the girl working the early shift once again, I had to go surfing almost by myself, I say almost because I took our two dogs with me for company, and they loved it.

I checked out the Mid first to find one guy sitting forlornly at Threepoles, waiting for another ankleslapper that might be looming on the horizon. Without further ado I jumped back in the car and headed to the South where it was a modest size but as glassy as hell, with the bluest of skies above. If ever there was a day and conditions to get you in the mood for surfing then it was yesterday down the "Far"

The sequence of another

To say I was eager to get out there as I ever have been would be a gross understatement. I even kept my eyes on the surf all the time I was changing, in case something awful might occur to obliterate these pristine conditions behind my back. So after a brief paddle out from the bay nearest the point I was immediately into it. I really do think that the conditions do have an influence on the quality of one’s riding and finally the whole session, as I was in the mood to really do the waves I caught some serious damage.

I think it might have been the fourth wave I caught, I can’t remember as I caught so many in that first hour. But as I picked it up, I was heading down the face of it to my left towards the direction that it started breaking from. As I hit the bottom of it a vague idea from my diminishing memory cells popped into my head, and I launched into one of the most radical bottom turns that I’ve done in nearly 30 years. In those brief seconds I thought I might have been a bit foolish and had been too radical, as I expected I’d go over the back of the wave. But to my surprise and with the help of the quality shape of my board I hit the lip and dropped back down to complete a very unforgettable ride.

The very next wave I caught was also a memorable ride, for the reason that upon completion and a voluntary wipeout I came adrift from my board. Even though I was underwater I couldn’t feel the tug of my leash as my board was carried forward with the wave. I surfaced to see it heading towards shore and I resigned myself to an infamous, long, Middleton swim in. All of a sudden I spotted a bloke about 30 metres in front of me who grabbed my board and held it there until I swam to him. I didn’t think about it much at the time but later I thought it was strange to see anybody out that far, swimming or body surfing, as nobody with any sense does either at Middleton.

Anyway, I paddled back out, leashless and when I got out the back I turned backwards on my board, reattached it and continued my session. I guess in my haste initially I hadn’t attached it properly and so I was given a quick reminder about my negligence with this episode. I caught a few more waves but the conditions were starting to deteriorate with the sea breeze springing up and the processions of waves were becoming scarce. So I caught a small one in, got changed and went home for a very late breakfast and a bit of a nap, or so I thought. I had just finished my lunch and was lying on the lounge, drifting off, when there was a loud banging on the door. I got up to answer it, to find an old mate and local surfing legend Jimmy Miller, who had called around on a previous invitation from me to explore the wonderful world of the Internet on my computer.

I never did get a chance to have that snooze but I did, however, manage to drift away in daydreams about that ride and that extraordinary bottom turn.

Monday, 21 May 2001

Ready for the 4/3 soon

Pardon me if I bore you to death with another story of a surf session but I find due to my failing memory this is the best way to keep a record of events of these halcyon days I’m enjoying, be they good or bad.

There was no doubt about us going to have a session down south yesterday morning, and the only questions were how big it was going to be and how crowded. As soon as we arrived at Middleton we found the answer to those questions quite pleasing, as there was only one person out, enjoying a reasonable sized wave. Our reluctance to get out there in a hurry was due to the coolness of the weather and the overcast skies which seemed to be signalling it was time to get ready for the 4/3 wetsuit soon.

By the time we had changed and entered the water we had been joined by a short boarder who must have been a first timer at Middleton, as he had initially tried to go off the point from an impossible launch site. It reminded me of an occasion a couple of years back when two Taswegians tried the same thing, only to find it wasn’t a very smart move to jump straight into a pile of slightly submerged rocks and into oncoming big surf.

The three of us waded out until we could no further and started, what I thought was going to be a relatively easy paddle out. But as it’s always the way when it looks easy: we copped a big set which had the girl struggling for about 15 minutes while the short boarder and myself got out there almost straight away.

At last some photos of the girl

Even though conditions were really clean, it was extremely deceiving when paddling for a wave, as just when you thought you had caught it, the wave would roll into a deep channel and change its form into a benign rolling lump. It was one of those strange days when it looks better from the cliff top than it is out there.

I could have called this story "Drop-in Sunday", as the first three waves I caught I was dropped in on by the short boarder, followed by the girl on the next two waves. Not that the rides were ever going to be anything special but I would’ve loved to find out. When the girl dropped in on me she immediately fell off her board on both occasions and duly blamed me for stealing her wave. I guess you can imagine by now it was a little tense for me out there with the girl who insisted on playing German U-Boats with her board, me being the target.

I tried to put all the friction behind me and endeavoured to find out the secret of what it was going to take to get a successful ride. Before I could blink, it started to get awfully crowded, as we were joined by a mob of weekend surfers. We knew most of them as mates, on the other hand it was bad because it looked like becoming "drop-in heaven".

During the next half an hour I managed to get a couple of good rides and was decidedly feeling much better within myself, whilst the girl had moved about 50 metres away and well outside of torpedo range. Every now and again I would look over there with a fair amount of trepidation, only to see her smiling back at me, and that’s when I really started to get nervous.

At a later stage I had just finished a ride and was sitting out the back, saying to one of the locals, Steve, that it looked like being cold salad sandwiches for lunch. Then all of a sudden I looked around towards shore to see the girl had picked up a wave and was making a decent job of riding it, even if she had dropped in on someone else. I turned back to Steve after she finished her ride and said, "Well it looks like being a roast chicken lunch now!"

There’s no doubt I was pleased for her and those that had seen her ride told me how good it was. Probably young Chris Bowen gave her the biggest rap, as I would’ve expected from him, being the gentleman he is. My biggest worry now was she had done so well I was going to hear all about it on the long drive home.

The Girl's improving surfing skills

I think I still may have had a little angst inside of me, as on one of my better rides there were all types of craft paddling back out towards me. Why people insist on paddling back out through the best avenue of riding a wave, I’ll never know. One particular dill was doing just that, so I thought I’d give him a good scare and bottom turned around him, just missing him by a few inches. I think it had the desired effect as the idiot kept asking me afterwards if he was sitting in the right position; I of course replied no and suggested he should try a little further west, like Port Elliott.

The coolness of the conditions got to the girl before me and so she went in after what was quite a long session for her, and I followed about a quarter of an hour later. I had gotten some real good rides and was quite pleased with my session but as soon as I got back to the car I was reminded just how close we’re getting to our winter. I reckon it took me nearly all the rest of the morning to feel warm again. But having said that, looking at the swell map and the forecast for today I daresay we’ll be down there again in a couple of hours, with perhaps a bit bigger swell.

Tuesday, 22 May 2001

4/3 soon but not quite yet

On Monday, 21st of May 2001 1:22AM I wrote, "I daresay we’ll be down there again in a couple of hours, with perhaps a bit bigger swell."

A nights sleep for me after a good, long session in the surf can be broken up into 2-hour naps and if I get 4 hours straight sleep on any night then it's highly unusual. So when I drifted off to sleep again at 5:AM and was awoken by one of my dogs 2 hours later I wasn’t surprised. I quickly checked out the coastal waters forecast and it said variable winds below 10 knots, which got me motivated into getting the necessary gear ready for another session.

On our arrival down south we found the surf very glassy and significantly bigger than the previous day with a number of people out in the water already. The surf must have been more than half-reasonable, as there was a small mob of the Mid-Coast out there. And even though a few of these people ridicule the surf of the south coast, it’s the first spot they go to when they’ve been sufficiently starved of water time.

Unlike Sunday we had very little difficulty getting out the back as we decided to go out through the bay and it was quite an easy paddle for us, despite the problems that other people had. Once out the back we found it difficult to pick up the waves, even though they were bigger they still had a lot of water in them. I managed to pick up a bigger one almost straightaway but for the next half an hour or so I wasn’t so lucky.

After about an hour a few members of the Maladjusted Longboarders joined me. And almost at the same time it seemed like the breaking pattern of the waves was changing for the better. Even so, the changing conditions didn't improve my riding very much because most of the rides I was getting were mediocre.

I had a fair notion a big set was coming so I started paddling further out and over to the right in order to get into the right position. There was not another single soul that was out any further than I was as I wheeled my board around to go for the best and last wave of this set. I caught it, sprang to my feet, completed my bottom turn and was about to do a few manoeuvres when I became aware of another person surfing the same wave behind me.

A short boarder who must have been sitting closer to the shore, on my left had picked it up and from what I’m told was riding right up my clacker valve. I was unaware of his presence until I was right in the middle of doing a fairly radical cutback. I heard him holler something but by this time I had gone too far in the cutback to avoid a collision. Our boards crossed and as they met I lost my equilibrium then fell off to the left hand side of my board while he, with the better balance continued riding it in to its finish.

I guess I could have made a big deal of the situation and waited for him to paddle back out and have a verbal confrontation. Instead I turned and paddled back out to the lineup. I suppose I must have been in a more than reasonable good mood that day, as the incident didn't seem to bother me much. Mind you the boys out the back were far less impressed and offered to have a red hot go at the bloke for snaking me.

Even after I came in the girl made a comment about what had happened to me. And for a brief second the thought of taking a photograph of this bloke and publishing it to the net to make his lack of surf etiquette known to the world. I daresay that if I had been riding better than I was this day I probably would have gone along with it. Anyway there's always the future to do something like that.

Thursday, 24 May 2001

The Girl wrote: After 3 days of surf (mediocre sessions for me, to say the least) in a row, we decided after initially humming and haring, to give ourselves a break for a day and do chores around the house.

It's amazing how little hours there are in a day when you've only got one day off work! Strangely enough, even though we have been really spoilt with the surf cooperating this beautiful autumn, it made us feel bad to have chosen to stay at home. It feels like you're missing out on something. Well, today was another story! I was up at the crack of dawn, knowing that we'd go down south today. Poor Ron was suffering from my Jekyll & Hyde-syndrome, since he was copping my PMS-symptoms! I must say, at first he was quite congenial about me being in my "I love you/I hate you" mood, but as the day wore on, he did explode, poor man!

My hormones told me I was in a photographic frame of mind, so while Ron got changed, I grabbed all my gear and wandered down to the point to set up the tripod and camera. It was a magnificent day, blue sky, sunny, no wind, glassy and smallish, maybe 3 foot to the sets.

It had been a while since we'd seen Middleton really big, and I kept wishing for Ron's sake that we would get a decent size swell soon, not only as a challenge but also for some interesting shots. Ron had it to himself, except for one boogie-boarder and Jock, who were about 100 metres further down. I was keen to try out my new automatic winder for my camera, and I must say it worked a treat!

I got about five of Ron's waves on camera, which completed the film. Watching the conditions, I really had the urge to get out there, even if it was just to get wet. I was waving at Ron, trying to indicate to him that I was going to come out, knowing that he probably thought I was warning him about a HUGE non-existent set on the horizon.

I clambered up the stairs, put the gear back in the car, went to the toilet (gee, what a long way when you're in a hurry!), ripped off my clothes which stuck to me like glue, and squeezed myself into my frog-outfit, took my board out of the cover, waxed it and marched down to the water's edge. When I joined Ron, who greeted me with a happy smile, I threw the little disposable water camera over, for him to take a few shots of myself.

It's always a nuisance to sit in the impact zone while the object of photography is trying to catch a wave, but Ron is the master of making a big deal about it, complaining that I didn't paddle for teensy little piddlers that were gonna die down anyway, always afraid he might miss out on a ride, although he had had plenty already!

Nevertheless, we almost had it all to ourselves, aside from a handful of boogieboarders/shortboarders. I was happy and quickly caught about half a dozen waves within 15 minutes. This was just what I needed to boost up my confidence! It was one of those days when you didn't feel like getting out of the water, the sun was shining on my back and made me forget the cold. After about 2 hours, Ron decided to go in and caught a ripper of a wave, that went and went, while I was watching with envy. I went in not long after.

The last session of autumn

Friday, 1 June 2001

End of autumn

Well it's the first of June today and officially the start of winter, it's a little bit sad to see the autumn end because it's been so excellent and so many good days were to be had. I don't think the girl will forget this season soon, as she will probably recall in the future that this was the period of time she excelled and really improved in her surfing abilities.

Why, even yesterday, on the last day of autumn we were treated to one of the best day's surfing for the whole season. It wasn't huge but just a good size and terrific conditions, which had most of us out there performing at our very best. What a pity that the 6 of us couldn't share it with the rest of the weekend surfers :-)

Even though the water was a fraction cooler than our previous session, the sun still had some warmth in it with the waves being glorious, and I can't remember seeing anyone getting a bad ride. There were left and right peaks breaking consistently everywhere you looked, which made the chance of someone dropping in a virtual impossibility.

I can recall quite vividly one of the rides I got and if I can I'll try and relate to you why it was so special. It was one of the larger waves of a big set, and it was already starting to break from the left with a perfect looking shape. The girl was on my right, a little further inside as I paddled and caught it with the curling vortex rushing to meet me before I could get to my feet. Just as it threatened to pitch and take me over the falls I was on my feet and hurtling down that steep face.

Huey! I love those takeoffs when you realise that you're going to be intimidated but you know that your abilities are up to the challenge. In the next second I slammed into a mildly radical bottom turn and ended up riding it in, almost into the shorebreak where I had an inglorious dismount. Ah, what the hell! It didn’t bother me if I disgraced myself after such a ride. After all I had had a better wave earlier and there were many more to come after that. It’s just that this wave was so wonderful looking and will probably remain in my memory, always, for it’s aesthetic beauty. Even the girl who had watched my ride gave me one of her rare compliments, so it must have been a reasonable one.

We are so lucky being surfers; we have more ways of seeing the ocean than the rest of the non-surfing public. We see the ocean from a completely different perspective that is sometimes so hard to describe. No session I’ve ever had has been the same as any other; they’ve all been different in some small way. This one I’ll never forget though, for the simple reasons that the waves were ideal for me sizewise and the conditions were so perfect and pleasing.

I'll tell you it was a real big effort to come out of the water and drive home so early but the girl had to start work on an earlier shift, so it was no good complaining. Anyway I’ve had a look at the swell maps and it looks like being good again this morning, so we’ll be down there again in a few hours.

Can you think of a better way to end an awesome autumn and start a promising winter?

The last day of May

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Photographs by Ron Taylor & Sibylle Martens

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