Yesterday, a session at last!

We haven't had a wave since our last trip to Eyre Peninsula in November 2001 and hadn't expected another until sometime in February of the new year. So after all these weeks a wave, albeit only a two-foot one, conditions were perfect with a light offshore wind blowing and an air temperature expected to reach the high 30's. Without any great discussion we hit the water at "Surfers" at about 7:30AM and despite the lack of fitness we both enjoyed what I call a "splash and giggle" session. Of course there was the obligatory wave where the girl dropped in on me, and when I decided to do a radical left hand bottom turn away from the breaking face, I heard the desperate call of my name..."Ron!!!" I spotted her out of the corner of my left eye and straightened up to avoid a collision, knowing that she would have a bit of a problem changing her general surfing direction, which strangely enough always seems to be the right. Anyway, I didn't mind, for at the least she got one good, long ride and I'm sure she was more than content with that and that was all that mattered.

Another highlight of the session was when I went through a wave on my way out after a ride. I had my mouth open and copped a belly full of salt water. And at the finish of another ride the rail of my board slammed into my arthritic right hand thumb, giving me a painful second or two...It's fun surfing as you get older! Our session wasn't long and afterwards we went down to Parsons and Waitpinga beaches to see if here was any action there. Unfortunately for the multitudes that were trying to surf at both beaches the sandbars weren't working but it didn't stop more blokes from going out, if only to escape the heat. The word must have gotten around that there was a small wave down south, because on the way home we passed literary hundreds of cars with boards on top. I have no idea of when our next session will be during this unusually cool and surfless summer, I only hope it won't be another six weeks away.

No one out?

On Friday 22nd of March the surf was small, peaky but glassy adequate. Sufficient enough for the girl to give her new board a go.

The seaweed that had built up from the previous few weeks had all disappeared, much to everyone's approval, as the smell of it was becoming quite obnoxious. Now there seemed to be a larger number of small bait fish around, which in turn has enticed a large number of dolphins into the area. Even before we had gone out someone had remarked on how many there were and how spectacularly they were feeding.

I'd just finished a ride and was in the middle of pulling out of a wave just as it was about to close out. For some unknown reason I looked at the patch of water just in front of me and spotted a large copper coloured fin break the surface, glide effortlessly to my left for a few metres and then disappear beneath the foamy water. Never have I seen a creature move so completely confident and effortlessly in its own environment. There was no one within shouting distance, who I could have warned, not that it mattered, so I decided to paddle cautiously in the opposite direction from where I last saw it. When the next reasonable sized wave came through I decided to catch it and end my session. Who knows the shark may have gotten a bit inquisitive by my movements and decided to have a taste test. Anyway I'd had enough rides

As I got to the small bay near the point the wave died on me and I had to paddle the rest of the way in. I yelled out to the girl who had been standing on the point, "Did you see the shark?" but I got no answer. Good thing I wasn't taken by it otherwise no one would be reading this.

On Saturday the surf was a similar size but was better lined up with the very slight offshore winds. But just like the previous day the ocean life was still abundant. There was this one small dolphin that just would not go away. It swam around my board in ever decreasing circles for about a minute or so, until a larger one broke the surface right along side of me. I nearly shat my wetsuit!

Monday saw us down south before the sun came up, and before "Maureen" had started her usual pre-dawn session. This woman goes out EVERY day before the sun comes up and surfs the same spot on a regular basis. I don't think anyone can remember a day that she hasn't. We saw her go out and were nonchalantly watching her, talking to other locals who turned up from time to time when something out of the ordinary happened.

She was paddling out and as she went through a breaking wave a large dark shape broke the surface close to her left and appeared to be checking her out. She stopped paddling, as she appeared to be taken aback by this apparition. The next thing this dark looking creature bobbed up on her right hand side and looked even larger than before. I reckon after that Maureen must have been carrying some extra weight in the bottom of her wetsuit. Instead of what she may have thought it was, it turned out to be a large, curious seal.

Sequence of one ride

Two sessions in one week

We were standing on the cliff overlooking the smallish looking, glassy surf yesterday morning with a few of the locals when one of the blokes, Mark voiced his thoughts aloud..."I'm gonna make a real pig of myself this autumn. I'm gonna lie to my staff about this and that to get extra time off, and surf myself silly". I couldn't help but grin with huge approval, as he had voiced my intentions exactly for the up and coming season. I mean it really has been an atrocious summer and one session a month really just won't do.

The sun climbed further out of the early morning sea mist and as the warmth hit our bodies, decisions were made about going out into the lacklustre surf, even if it was only to give us some relief from another week of boredom. The water seemed a bit cooler than last week and the tide was extremely low, in fact it was about as low as I've ever seen it, making it seem like a very long paddle out. The girl hadn't been out for a few weeks, so she struggled for about 15 minutes, finally making it out after and two attempts. I had made it out the back relatively easy and joined the only other person out there, Barbary, another local.

I looked back towards shore to see how the girl was doing and finally I could see what I thought was her silhouette against the morning glare. I called out to her, "Did you have a hard time getting out Lovey" and strangely enough I got no reply back. I thought she might be a bit shitty after struggling for so long but I found out later to my embarrassment the silhouette was that of local Jock Gordon. No wonder he paddled further down the beach towards the left. I managed to get a few half-reasonable rides during this session but the girl really stole the show. And her final wave looked real good from where I saw it, as it took her all the way to the beach. I came in a few minutes later, only to go out again for another session after a brief spell. I've been finding lately that my second sessions are often better than my first ones. This proved to be the case yesterday as well, I got some better rides and managed to practice more radical bottom turns. All in alI I had about a two-hour session, and despite the quality of the break it was reasonably enjoyable. Just looking at the clock now, it's 2.30AM on a warm and windless Tuesday morning and I'm looking forward to making it two sessions in one week today.

Saturday, 18 May 2002

On Saturday morning I loaded up the car with the necessary surfing equipment and current personal (2 dogs), almost positive in the belief that I was going to get a wave that day. I must admit that I had some misgivings as it started to rain as we left sleepy Adelaide. I had been checking out all the sources throughout the night and even though there were raging offshores forecast, before the change, I thought the swell would be strong enough to at least give me an early morning, good sized wave.

For entertainment I had one small Kelpie constantly yapping at me, how excited she was to be going surfing with the crew again. Well at least three-quarters of the usual crew, anyway. The rain continued to drizzle all the way down south with a real heavy downpour greeting us at Mount Compass. There were hardly any other cars on the road until I hit the Adelaide hill road, where I passed another surfer, only to be held up a few kilometres on behind a milk truck that was going at a snail's pace. When I got the chance I roared past him, almost at the same time as the sun was coming up. Even though it was a grey and misty sunrise I could see from the top of the hill some white water activity around the Goolwa area. I thought, "Good! At least there's a wave breaking". I raced through the small township of Middleton and down the final road, giving Jimmy Miller a beep of the horn as I passed him riding his bike into his home. "Sorry Jim!" I said to myself, "but I'm not going to stop and have a chat now. I've got waves to catch and I'm desperate".

Turning the last bend in the road, the one that gives you the whole picture of what is going on, really sunk my spirits. It was breaking all right, with a strong offshore and the tide was way, way out and it was ever so small. Too small to even consider a "desperado" session. I hung around for a while to see if there where any bigger sets coming through but there weren't. In time some of the locals came down and we wallowed together in our self-pity. Steve said the usual, "You should have been here yesterday". Chris Bowen was mumbling to all and sundry, "We've got a state title on today and I don't know where they're going to hold it". Ian Fuller pulled up on his bike but I never got a chance to talk to him, as I said, "See ya's!", hopped back in the car and drove home. That afternoon an evening it pissed down with rain, and the only highlight for such a dismal weekend was a spectacular thunderstorm that came through mid Saturday night.

A bit rusty

Well after all this time we finally had a decent session yesterday with the waves being 4-6 foot with glassy conditions at first, followed by a moderate offshore wind later. Quite frankly I didn't think I was going to go for a session, being a bit rusty and lacking my usual enthusiasm but when I saw how good the conditions looked I wanted to get out there straight away. For some reason the girl hesitated, saying to me, "are you going out now?" I replied, "of course I'm going out now, why not?" She said, "well aren't you going to wait until it gets better?" She mentioned that she'd been talking to some of the locals. I thought great, and explained to her that if she wanted to surf with everyone and his dog she could, but I was going out now.

We both went out then and through the bay together. The tide was almost at its zenith when we hit the water, at first I didn't think the water was so cold but after a few minutes it started to creep through this old body. Even though the waves had a bit of size to them they weren't so easy to pick up because the tide was very high and the waves had a lot of water in them. I was lucky and got a wave almost straight away while the girl struggled. It wasn't such a hot ride, I wasn't expecting to do much better, considering how much time we've both had off.

For the next hour and a half I paddled for just about everything coming through without much luck. I caught one decent sized wave and was getting ready to punish it but some dill was paddling out, right through where I was going to ride it and in trying to avert a collision I missed out on a real good ride.

Cold as Charity

Is the best way to describe the climatic conditions of yesterday's session. Even as I took those last few steps to the water's edge I could feel the coldness of the sand creeping through my booties. As I hit the water the coolness of it confirmed my worst fear, this was gonna be one helluva icy session.

The waves looked good from the car park, 4-5 foot and peeling nicely off the point but once out there they seemed to disappear. So I spent the next hour and half paddling this way and that, trying to find the right position without much luck.At least I achieved one thing. I promised to sink an engraved coin of our young German friend, Holger, who surfed with us here last October. I think he wanted a symbolic piece of himself to remain at one of the places he surfed and enjoyed during his stay in Oz. Funny! I did the same thing at Crescents a few years ago with a gold ring I'd been wearing since 1966 but it wasn't intentional. The bloody thing slipped off my finger while paddling out.

Back to my icy session, I did manage to pick up a good wave towards the end of it. All was going well after the take off and bottom turn until I started to try a few manoeuvres. My muscles were so frozen up from the cold that I couldn't move, lost my balance and fell off. After that I gave it away and came in. It took me nearly a half an hour to get out of my wetsuit, etc and the rest of the day to get warm again. I can tell you I'm looking forward to getting into some warmer waves up north.

Back to Castaway Home Page index

Photos by Sibylle Martens

©Ron Taylor & Sibylle Martens