Senior Citizens Surf Session

Sunrise on the South Coast

The Senior Citizen's Surf Sessions

On Wednesday, 7 March 2001 at 2:55AM I wrote...

"Right now it's pretty warm here, even at 3:00AM. But as soon as that sun comes up we're heading down South for some early morning 4-foot glass. We both need some good paddling practice just in case Crescents, Big Hill or Plomer are going off".

It's now the following morning and I'm recovering after having one of the longest sessions in months. It was a beautiful glassy 5-foot plus, all the time we were down there and I made a pig of myself.

We arrived just as the sun came up and were greeted by Jock Gordon and Ian Fuller, a couple of local mates who were checking out the conditions. Apart from these two blokes there were only two other guys around and they were out way over on the left.

I didn't think it looked too intimidating and was surprised when the girl decided not to go out. Having said that I decided to go out through the bay as the tide was very low and it would have been a huge struggle going off the point. The water looked just like a cool, oily mirror, only spoiled by a bit of seaweed here and there that had been flushed to the surface by the recent bout of south easterlies. Looking down to the west along the horizon it was crisp and clear but as I looked to the east the early morning sun through the sea mist was dazzling to my eyes.

Even though the surf was a reasonable size the waves were hard to catch, as they looked like they were just about to break right on top of me but the swell moved on its onward path into a deep channel between the sandbars. So it took me nearly a half an hour before I got my first ride and that was nothing to write home about. By this time there were a few other surfers making their way out. And it wasn’t too long before I had the company of a bloke on a longboard whose nickname I found out later from the locals to be "Louie the Fly" because of the helmet and strange large white goggles he wears. We had plenty of time to chat about this and that, as we weren’t catching to many and he seemed like a decent sort of bloke but his luck was worse than mine as it took him nearly 40 minutes before he caught his first wave.

In the meantime I managed to get one of my three best waves of this session and it was a little ripper, full of surprises. I took off and bottom turned, trimmed my board and just as I did it started to wall up in front of me, as if it was going to close out. I must be honest and say that my abilities were down because of the lack of water time and I was a little unsure of myself. I decided to take a risk and go for it and was rewarded with a close encounter with the ever-pleasurable part of the wave, the curling vortex. As I came out onto the shoulder I noticed that it was dying a bit in front of me so I attempted a sort of radical cutback; followed by another bottom turn that took me back into another vortex. I finished my ride off with a bit of dropping and climbing in the old Mal riding style. And even though it probably didn’t look and feel like the best ride of my life I certainly enjoyed it, as it sparked my stoke enough for me to carry on and try and do better.

After about two hours I decided to come in and as I reached the shoreline and looked back out I regretted my decision but I thought I’d have a small break and go out again. It has be too long between sessions and I had really gotten my stoke back and it was too precious a day to let go without giving it another go.

I got back to the car and told the girl I was going out again and convinced her that it was worth it and it was nothing that she couldn’t handle. I so was pleased when she said yes, as it never seems the same these days going out there without her.

Before we went out she said to me, "You’ll take care of me won’t you, you’ll keep an eye on me?" We went out through the bay again and I noticed straight away that she was doing it a lot easier than me, she was still pretty fresh while I was a little bit stiff from all the hard paddling I’d did in the previous session. About halfway out a really big set came through and gave us a bit of a pounding, she made it out while I floundered around in the middle of the bay for about 5 or so minutes. When I eventually got out the back I said to her, "So much for people looking after one another". She just sat there grinning sheepishly back at me with no reply.

I managed to get quite a few more waves in this session and I reckon I would have gotten the ride of the day if a certain somebody hadn’t been in the way. I had taken off on a real beauty and had a critical section looming up in front of me that I could see was going to be reasonably easy to make. But wouldn’t you know it, but guess who was sitting right in the middle of all this activity? You’re right, it was this German Lass with the braid in her hair! So just as I was on my way down to the nose I had to grab a rail and pull out to avoid hitting her. I’m pleased to say that didn’t do my lolly at her for being in the way again but turned my board around and headed back out. I wouldn’t say she had the best of sessions and ended up going in after an hour or so, followed by myself a few minutes later.

We then went home and even though it wasn’t a great session it was well worth it in regards to getting our fitness level up in the vain hope that Crescent’s will be turning it on next week.

PS. One thing that did put a dampener on the whole session was a piece of plastic wrapper, probably thrown overboard by a fisherman as it looked like a bait bag.

The Senior Citizens

On Tuesday, 20 March 2001 the surf conditions were true to the weather forecast; North East to North West winds with a change later in the morning. And we were down there, right at sunrise watching a more than reasonable sized swell pushing in. It was no surprise for us to see Ian Fuller, a local there checking it out and he came up to us on his bike and confirmed that he was going home to get his board to go out. He was hardly out of sight when another local, Jock came strolling down the road walking his tiny dog. He stopped and chatted to us briefly and then almost ran back to his house to get his board as well. I didn’t even bother to ask the girl if she was going out, as anyone could see it was definitely for experienced surfers only, so she decided to go to the point and patiently take some photos of our session.

By the time I had changed and was ready to go out Ian had already launched himself from the bay and was rapidly moving out with the aid of the huge rip. As I walked to the bay I noticed how easy his paddle out had been but I wasn’t going to be that fortunate, as I copped a really big set halfway out. Despite the rip being exceedingly strong and straight there seemed to be a sideways drift on each side of it. So one had to be wary that one of the sideway’s drift didn’t carry a person onto the rocks at Suicides or pushing a body to the other side and back into the middle of the bay.

After a number of successful turtle-rolls I made it out there to where Ian was by himself, while further over towards the left of the point another two surfers were sitting by themselves. When Jock turned up out there, there was a total of 7 surfers within eyesight and I would say that for the entire morning session there were no more than 8 out there at any given time. Speaking about Jock; I can’t remember seeing a bloke riding a wave and looking so happy, or is it just the crazed look he seems to have on his face. I mean, there he his charging down the face of a wave at the age of sixty-seven with his eyes and mouth wide open and most of his teeth back on shore. Who cares? I don’t, it’s just good to see a bloke whom seems to be enjoying his surfing as much as Jock does.

Unlike my previous session the waves were easy to catch, which in a way was deadly, with the swells coming through consistently and wave choice was going to be very important. Because if you picked up the first or second wave of a set and rode it too far, then you were going to have one hell of a paddle back out through a couple of extra large ones that would most likely be following. Even though Ian was riding the left into the bay and relying on the rip to get back out he got caught inside on a couple of occasions and took a bit of a pounding. And although it looked pretty clean out there from the cliff top there was a slight cross onshore making it a fairly bumpy.

A lot of my rides were short ones but I also got a couple of others that were a good enough shape to entice me to ride them further than I should have, and it was lucky for me that nothing bigger was coming behind when I did. Every now and then a real big set came through, the first and second waves of the set would feather and threaten to break outside of us but we’d make it over, only to be caught inside by an even bigger one that did. It was one of these that caught me in a lapse in concentration and way inside. I had just finished a ride and was on my way back out when about a 5 wave set came through, so I started scratching for the horizon. I didn’t even make it over the first one, let alone the second or third and had to turtle-roll each one in turn. Then for some reason I can’t remember, for I think I must have got spun around by the last one and was too buggered to get my board pointed in the right direction. I was facing the shore and the biggest one of all broke right on top of me and picked me up and took me with it. I was sort of was caught up in a sideways fashion on my board in this huge mass of boiling whitewater hurtling towards shore, and for as few seconds I lost sight of every thing. When I could see what was going on I noticed I was still pretty much inside the bay and there was a real chance I was going to end up on the rocks. I kept my cool and summed up the situation. There was no point in ditching at this stage and trying to paddle back out as I’d gone too far. So I thought I’d ride it prone and see if I could angle enough to the right and miss the point. If the worse came to worse I could ditch much closer in and try to sort the situation out from there. As it was I didn’t have to and just missed the point by a metre or so and made it to the beach. I daresay that had I hit the point the local council would have sent me a bill to have the bloody thing fixed up.

I wasn’t that happy with myself and I felt like goose, so after making my way up the cliff and having a couple of words with the girl I walked back down the road to the bay and back out again. I would like to tell you that this time I had an easy paddle out but I didn’t, even though I had a real good look beforehand from the top of the cliff. When I finally got out there I got a bit of ribbing from the boys, as Ian said, "What! Did you go in to change your underwear?" I just treated that question with the contempt it deserved and kept on paddling. I should have reminded him of an attempted paddle out from the point last year, only to be forced back to the beach and then to go paddle out through the bay. I should have reminded him of an attempted paddle out from the point last year, only to be forced back to the beach and then to go paddle out through the bay. Ian’s a pretty funny and cheeky bloke and has a nickname going for everyone who surfs Middleton. I’ll bet he’s even got one for me which couldn’t be anything else but derogatory.

The conditions had changed during my brief spell out of the water. The wind had dropped and it was starting to glass off, also for about 15 minutes or so there wasn’t much coming through. But looking over to the South West I could see the dark clouds of the cool change coming and it wouldn’t be long before the wind came up. About a minute after I mentioned to one of the blokes about the drop in surf, the set of the day came through and cleaned us all up good and proper. On these occasions one feels quite alone, or at least I do. On the other hand, when I finally emerge from a thumping I usually look around and count heads. I wonder if anyone else ever does this?

I caught a few more waves and decided to catch one of the larger ones that would take me all the way into the beach to finish my session. I took off on a big bomber that closed out just after I had straightened out and laid prone on my board. I wasn’t aware that Ian, who had paddled further over to the left, had caught the same wave and as I was looking around I spotted him angling in towards me heading for the small bay near the point. I rinsed myself off under the shower at the ablution block and walked up the stairs to the car where I joined Jock and Ian who were standing there discussing the future possibilities of the surf. Eventually the both walked home with their boards under their arms and it only seemed like a few seconds after they left that the northerly freshened up, putting the end to another session for that day.

As we were driving home I noticed and commented on the number of cars heading South with boards on, saying, "I really can’t get over how anyone could wait til ten or eleven AM before they think about going surfing when conditions are so good".

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Photos by Sibylle Martens