Feeling frothy

Where the bloody hell are the waves?

A couple of weeks ago in between careers, I went away for three days in search of some awesome waves to attempt to ride. After a week of beautiful sunshine when we hit the road the windy rainy cloudy weather rolled in and the temperature dropped. Ah well, there were 3 days of surfing ahead and nothing was going to stop this frothy feeling. We had rented a 70s era house at Jan Juc complete with telescope trained on the waves, wood panelling and record player.

Light warm-ups pre-surf

We hit the waves the next morning feeling pumped despite the wind blowin' a gale and the waves being pretty much blown out. We travelled from beach to beach trying to find a good spot and in the end settled for some messy lookin' things. Nothing was going to stop us. Not the cold, not the incoming rain clouds, not the numbness of feet. We had still had ways to froth.

Wetsuit and ugg boots? Sizzling hot Super Grommet!

Wetsuit + ugg boots + me = Teletubby

Out we paddled into the bubbling white wash. The only surfers for what seemed to be miles around. I hung back with Super Grommet to yell 'paddle! paddle! paddle!' and bond more with my beauty, dame cinco. Me being me, I find my most dangerous moments are when I'm in 3 inches of water trying to scoop my board up to head back out. I had the board bounce off up and hit me square in the chin. Ouch. I really have to work on board recovery.

As I was gathering myself together and heading back out, I looked up to see Super Grommet sail past me in what can only be described as a homage to 1980s figure skating. Halfway up, halfway down, arms stuck out ... it looked a little something like this:

Impressive. Definitely the catch of the day.

Bench surfing.

It's surprisingly easy.

There's so many awesome things about staying down the coast for a weekend. You're with your mates and can talk about surfing non-stop, eating and drinking is a must, post-surf entertainment involves a few of my favourite things - crosswords, wine, surf movies. And then there's always the excitement of another day's surfing ahead. Woopah!

Post-surf debriefing. Essential.

The wind had picked up the next day and even though the sun was shining it was bloody freezing. The waves looked like a frothy washing machine and not in a good way. As we had a new surfer in the gang, Mad Dog, we just had to go in. He'd just returned from Indo and was peaking out with excitement. He was going to give Super Gromment and me some tips so in we went and good things happened. Super Grommet stood up for a moment! And I was so bummed that I missed it. I was too busy trying to stay afloat, watch the white wash barrel in over me and keep an eye on the 12 year old grommets out the back carving and cutting back and doing whatever else you do when you surf instead of "surf". 

This is what standing up for the first time feels like.

After being barrelled and rolled around and not doing much else the ladies retreated to the beach to watch the real surfers. It was then that I noticed a man with clipboard behind us taking notes. A while later the 12 year olds trotted out to greet the coach with their shortboards that were so small they looked like skateboards under their arms.

It got me to thinking that we needed to give Mad Dog a clipboard and coach us. I suggested this to him and he replied, "Sure, girls! First thing to remember ... it's not surfing unless your standing." True dat. I'm beginning to feel good about the standing bit now it's the direction of my surfboard I'm worried about. I want to stop being a giant torpedo firing into shore and actually ride the wave. I can't imagine the frothy feeling I'll have when that happens. I'll probably look like I have rabies. Yeeeah!

Froth hard and froth well.