Middleton - Surfing 2000

FORECAST FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIAN COASTAL WATERS
BUREAU OF METEOROLOGY SOUTH AUSTRALIAN REGIONAL OFFICE

"Monday 3rd of April 2000 : North to northwest winds 10/15 knots, shifting southwest to south during the afternoon and gradually freshening to 17/22 knots. Seas rising to 2 metres. Swell around 2 metres in the south".

Well it was, except the swell was less than 2 metres but oh so sweet it was at the 2- 4 foot mark with only 8 people out within eyesight. An exceptionally beautiful autumn morning it was too with it being almost glassy with the tide coming in. The day before, Sunday, saw all the weekend warriors arriving at their usual hour, which is the wrong one as far as getting a good wave is concerned. This attitude towards surfing suits blokes like myself to a tee as it means we can get a really good couple of hours in before conditions change for the worse and it becomes horribly crowded. Although the surf was bigger on Sunday I wouldn't say it was better than today as there was a hell of a long wait in between the big sets and with it breaking out so far that getting caught inside was not a pleasant option.
Yesterday, for the first time that I can remember I was sitting out in front of the point with my only other surfing companions being two females. One being the girl of course and the other being one of the locals who seemed like a decent sort of person, which made for a pleasant change. In actual fact I'd like to see more sheilas in the water as it seems to settle some of the blokes down a bit and they're better to look at than most. Sad to say though, that the girl was having another shocker out there and she wasn't a real happy little Vegemite. I tried consoling and a bit of confidence building on the way home but it didn't seem to work this time. I hope she'll be ok.

I had two sessions and on my second I decided to launch off the point as the tide was coming in pretty fast. I slapped on my legrope, picked up my board and waited as a large set rolled through. I looked down towards the south east and over that vast stretch of water that goes all the way to the South Australian border and was caught for a moment in reflection of how magnificent it looked and lucky I was. I thought about the Mountain Man, Mongolian Horde and even Maddy and I said to myself 'even though it's far from being the best break going around, I'm sure they would approve of it, especially on a day like today'.
After my sessions I was up at the car, changing etc, when one of the regular old blokes that had come out there towards the end of my first session was going past. We both noticed that he was bleeding profusely from his left foot and on having a closer look he had a large gash, through to the bone. He said that one of the young shortboarders had ridden over the top of him as he was paddling out. I thought that most of the guys out towards the end were pretty experienced riders, albeit young ones and I wondered why in bloody hell did this happen. This bloke seemed a bit easy going about the whole thing but then again what can you do? I suppose the only thing is that you just have to get out of the water, pronto.
Apart from this unpleasant episode it was another magic day for me and I'm glad I over did it by having a lot longer sessions than usual, because the cool change has now come through and it's raining. So I'm sitting here at 3:30 AM in the morning just wondering how many more autumn days are we going to have like this one this year.

More than half a gazillion miles (Part One)

Saturday 8th April 2000

Upon our arrival we found Middleton breaking more than half a gazillion miles out and huge. We had arrived extremely early to avoid the rush of the weekend warriors, who would no doubt be descending like a plague on this spot, as soon as they had heard the latest surf report. The tide was at its lowest and it was breaking out as far as I can ever remember it, with a slight offshore wind blowing and only two other guys out within eyesight.

It was far too big for the girl and she decided, wisely, to give it a miss while I wondered exactly where I'd go out. Going off the point was not a good option and launching through the bay was little better, until I noticed two tiny figures clambering over the rocks, almost the other side of "Suicides". One of those tiny figures turned out to be Peter Cox and if anyone knew the best spot to go out on such a day, then it was him. Within minutes I had the board off, was changed and walking down the road and past the bay, then down a pathway that led to the rocks in front of Suicides. Likewise, I climbed over the rocks and walked out through a small inlet over a rocky bottom until I reached deeper water, then hopped on my board to begin the long paddle out. I had gone no more than 30 metres when a series of big sets came through, which threatened to wash me back onto the rocks, near where I had just launched.

At one stage I got hit by a larger one and when it finished dragging me back in I saw that I was about a metre off a large rock that was almost covered by the water. I sat in the lull of a safe area for about five minutes, waiting for the sets to finish and then took off again. Each time I went over a small swell I had a good look to see where the guys were and then behind me to get my bearings, just to make sure I wasn't being dragged by a rip into a dangerous or heavy impact zone. I must have paddled another 150 metres before the next big sets started coming through and this was when my decision to paddle out from where I did paid off, as the waves weren't breaking so vicious here. Mind you I had a bit of luck with no big bombers coming through during that 150-metre paddle.

Finally, after about 15 minutes I made it out to where the other blokes were sitting in what I presumed to be clear water. Coxy said 'g'day' and proceeded to tell me about his latest trip to Tasmania that he had during the week, while I checked out the horizon and then the shore just to see what was what. The water was reasonably clear and almost devoid of all the seaweed that was building up around the bay and rocks in general. When I looked back at the shore it was pretty hard to see anyone there, being so far out and a little bit hazy. For the first time in ages I waited a while to get some strength back before going for any waves as I usually start my sessions off straight away if there's one coming through. Even though we were in relatively clear water it didn't mean that we weren't going to be caught inside by a big one. Minutes later a huge set came through and started feathering a further 100 metres out. The three of us scratched our way out to meet it before it broke but finally had to turtle roll under the whitewater and out the other side. The good thing about those big ones was that the whitewater only rolled down the face of the wave and had no real crunch in them. Even so they looked intimidating, as they got closer to shore they definitely were.

The time passed very quickly and before I knew it there was about another half a dozen guys out with us, with some stretched out across the bay. I hadn't had much luck catching anything as only the bigger ones were worth going for and even some of those were a little bit fat. There seemed to be a very strong drift towards the east as, when I looked towards to the shore we seemed to have moved from Suicides almost to the right in front of the point. This was good as I was in familiar territory and getting back into shore wasn't going to be a problem.

Finally a big set came marching through and I let them all go except the last one that had a reasonable amount of shape to it. This wave was bound to be hard to pick up and when I did it was a fairly late takeoff. As soon as I had the slightest inkling that I had it, I was on my feet and racing down the face of it, heading right. For about a hundred metres or so the wave held its shape and I managed a few manoeuvres to make the ride more enjoyable until it started to wall up very quickly into a crunching outer type shorebreak. Although the wave and ride itself was nothing special it felt good to get back on something with a bit of size in it. After I flicked out of it I headed back out and then a strange thing happened...I heard a voice coming from behind me on the shoreward side. I looked, even though I was positive that there was no one behind me and of course saw no one. I thought, perhaps I might have had one too many turtle rolls and my ears were playing tricks on me. And a few minutes later I heard it again. By this time I was almost out in clear water again, so I stopped and sat up on my board and had a good look. Next I heard a loud siren going off and as I looked towards where it came from, which was the shore, I finally realised that the voice I heard was someone talking through a loudspeaker. I had forgotten that the State Longboard titles were being held here today. Even so it was quite spooky there for a few minutes or so.

I got a few more rides, which were similar and made a point of getting off them early to save getting a pounding when paddling back out. I finally snagged a real big one from way out the back and decided to finish my session and ride it into the beach. The ride was that long, as by the time I hit the beach my hair had dried and was probably a half an inch longer :-).

By the time I got back to the car the competition was well under the way and the car park was nearly full. I was so pleased that I'd gotten out early before the crowd rolled up. I said hello to a few of our club members and still in my wetsuit drove down to the bakery to get some well-earned breakfast. After about an hour and a half I had the strong urge to go back out again as it seemed to be getting better with the incoming tide. This time I went through the bay as it looked less intimidating than before but oh so wrong I was in this assessment. I got about halfway out, got belted good and proper and was held in the impact zone for about five minutes. At one stage a big hairy one broke right on top of me almost unexpectedly as it jacked up. So I quickly dived away from my board and for some strange reason I grabbed my legrope, I suppose to yank the board back quicker once it had finished the washing machine cycle with my body. As the wave dragged my board forward with it I felt an excruciating squeeze on my hand as the legrope tightened. So much so that for the next 15 minutes my whole hand was numb and I thought I might have done some real damage. Nevertheless I continued on and finally made it out the back.

When I finally got out I did my usual trick and said g'day to all and sundry that were in hearing distance. When I looked at some of the expressions on a couple of these blokes faces I could see that some were a bit nervous about being out in this larger than usual stuff. So I tried to break the tension by talking about my experiences with big whites and a recent hold down I had at "Big Hill". One young guy on a boogie board who was right alongside me looked like he was trying to catch flies, as his mouth was open that wide.

More than half a gazillion miles (Part Two)

Sunday 9th April 2000

If Saturday was any good then Sunday was even better, albeit a bit smaller, it was the glassiest I can ever remember seeing Middleton. It seemed to scream with its pure beauty come, make love to me with your boards, and we did.

Once again I pondered about where to go out and decided that out through the rip in the bay would be the best, even though it was half clogged up with seaweed. Today, I thought would be an excellent day for the girl to go out as it was at about her experience level, so she joined me. We changed into our wetsuits, waxed our boards and marched down the road to the bay. I took off first and trudged out through the incredibly thick weed, holding my legrope a stiff as I could, so as not to get so much caught up on it. The girl did likewise and was doing okay until she got on her board and tried to start paddling out. I was a little further out than she, sitting on my board in reasonably clear water, while she was hollering at me as though I'd planted the weed there to trap her. Finally after a bit of cursing in German and a little logic thinking, such as doing what I did and we paddled side by side out the back with not a hair out of place or wet.

There were two other guys out there, over in front of the point and as we joined them I sensed that they were feeling the same as we were, stoked to be out there on such a beautiful morning. In fact the conversation was extremely friendly which was disappointing for me, as it was going to make it a lot harder to be nasty and drop in on them :-). A few minutes later we were joined by Coxy and between the four of us we did all right getting the odd good wave or two.

Things were going along nicely until a big set came through, I let the first couple go and waited to see what was left behind them, while the girl and another bloke caught one of the first. Unfortunately for me there was nothing on offer but I could see a larger set looming on the horizon. So I paddled out even further but this was a real rogue set and broke out beyond me but it didn't cause me any hassles as far as getting worked over by the whitewater was concerned. I then started to have a look to see what the girl was up to as it had been awhile since she caught that wave of hers. It was pretty hard to see much closer in with it being so early in the morning and with a bit of sea mist around, so I called out to the other blokes who were further in, could they see her. They both said that she was in front of the rocks by the point but she was okay as it was pretty shallow and if she was having strife she could even stand up there. Now, I know the girl pretty well and if she was where they said she was then it was panic stations. I started paddling in and then I heard her calling out for me, so I started paddling faster. It was lucky that there was a fairly long lull between the sets as she was just about buggered when I got closer to her. There really wasn't much I could do except urge her to paddle towards me even though she was near exhausted. She bitterly complained that she couldn't but did it any way until finally she was with me again and we both paddled away from the point and into less dangerous water. We both made it out the back without any more drama although she wasn't a happy little Vegemite. I told her to rest there and when she regained her strength, to catch a wave and let it take her into shore, with her lying down. As usual she didn't take my advice, ended up catching a couple of waves and getting the best rides of her short surfing life. Don't worry I heard all about them and I'm still hearing it.

Eventually she went in and ended up siting on the point taking some reasonable photos of the guys in the competition, while I made the most of the conditions before they got too crowded. I can't say I had one my best sessions ever on this day but I did manage to pick up one really good long wave, which to my surprise the girl even saw and photographed it, to which I'm very grateful for. I came in after that ride, not wanting to end the session on a sour note by getting a further ride that might put a dampener on it.

My last session for the weekend was quite a humorous one when I look back on it. I went out through the bay with a couple of other mates of mine and as soon as we got out there the sea breeze started to pick up making it a little bit sloppy. After about an hour I called out and said 'I'm going in', as I guess I'd been spoiled by the previous two days sessions. So I made my way across the point and into the contest area, which just happened to be the only way back into shore safely. I fluked a decent sized wave to take me in when all of a sudden one of the competitors dropped in on me and decided that my right should be a left. Well of course we both collided and thankfully no damages or injuries were sustained. I continued on into shore and then I heard the guy on the loud speaker system saying 'Would that bloke on the red board move further down the beach, like Goolwa'. I thought to myself 'Hey! Arsehole I don't have a loud speaker system to scream back, I'm just coming in, so F&%$-#ff'!

Apart from that and a few other minor incidents of getting crunched in the surf etc, all in all it was one of the great weekends. We managed to make a couple of new friends and refresh an old one with the sea and when all is said and done, isn't that last one the most important to us all?

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Photographs by Sibylle Martens