Yesterday I went board-shopping. It’s not a frivolous expenditure, seriously - after all the west-coast surf-lovin’, my quiver is down to a solitary 6′6 Dahlberg. I’ve managed to destroy 4 boards since the start of this trip, including a (supposedly tougher) Salomon S-Core. So I figured I’d get back to basics - a simple, traditional fibreglass all-rounder. If you’re not into surfboards, feel free to tune out now.

I’d been keeping an eye out in various surf-shops over the last few days, but was getting hampered by the ’surf-as-fashion’ scene. (Start grumpy old-man rant here…) What is it with modern surf-shops? Most of them appear to have become pure fashion outlets, with a few token boards displayed in an attempt at credibility. So it was with delight I spotted an ad for Alex Surf Shop, an honest to goodness board store, on the back cover of a local free surf mag, the ‘Sunshine Coast Surf’. And as promised, they did indeed flip the modern surf shop paradigm on its head - racks and racks of boards, with a couple of racks of boardies and rashies crammed up the back of the store almost as an afterthought. Woohoo!

Given my track record, I’d intended to maybe get a cheap secondhander… but this is Queensland, everyone’s on small wave boards, rounded square or swallow tails, so the second-hand range was a bit limited. I wanted something a bit more suited to a larger range of surf, including WAs powerful waves, with a round tail or rounded pin. So it was to the new boards my attention turned… anyway, long story short (geez I manage to waffle, Jane thinks it’s because she’s not here so I’m starved of conversation - taking it out on the blog instead)…

Where was I? Oh yeah, long story short (sorry), I narrowed it down to 2 Simon Andersons from his off-the-rack range - both 6′0 rounded pins. It came down to the classic under-arm test. The SXE model (sexy!) just felt better, plus had a little more tail lift and thus maneuverability.

Oh, and the other photo? I did a surf-check out along Noosa headland (through the National Park) this morning, and despite what I said about the town itself, the park is actually really pretty. And there’s koalas!