triplog

I’m on my way back to WA and Jane! I finally finished up in Sydney - apologies to all the people I didn’t have a chance to catch up with - and hit the road this morning around 9am. It’s been a long day. I’m now camped at a little rest area off the Sturt Highway at Lake Benanee, with a small pack of grey nomads around me. 950 odd kms down, just over 3000 to go.

If you wanna see closeups of the map of the route I’ve taken so far, try this link.

Talk about culture shock. Probably why I haven’t updated anything for a while, I’ve been sitting in a corner curled up in a foetal position and twitching spasmodically.

Not really.

Well, almost. I arrived in Sydney on Monday night previous, after catching up with Craig and Liza in Coffs Harbour on Saturday night and then spending Sunday night and Monday up near Newcastle, sorting through the container-load of stuff Jane and I have stored up there, in preparation for moving it all across to WA. Seven a.m. Tuesday saw me on a bus to Surry Hills, crammed like a sardine in amongst all the other commuters. I’ve pretty much just worked since then, bar another trip to Newcastle last weekend to drop off more furniture and get everything ready. While Sydney can be beautiful, the shock of the commute and the hectic nature of the city made me realise why I left to start with. It wasn’t until yesterday (Thursday) that I managed to get a surf in - scored a nice 3-hour session out at Long Reef with Marty in the morning, then managed a late out at Curlie.

Jane’s been in WA (working in Perth and down south) for the last few weeks while I’ve been doing all this, and she’s found us a house in Dunsborough. While still in the general Margaret River area, it’s not as far south as the block was - it’ll be a bit of a luxury being able to walk or ride into town for dinner and a few beers, not to mention Jane can now walk to work. And the surf breaks are a similar distance away as they were when we were staying at Spence’s block, we’ll just be driving in from the other direction.

The plan now is to finish up here this weekend and hit the road across to WA to rejoin Jane by Tuesday at the latest - according to Google, it’s 3970km door to door.

Organic doughnuts? They weren’t open at the time, but Jane has a thing for doughnuts, so I felt compelled to at least capture the sign. So there you go, Jane, this one’s for you.

Late yesterday afternoon I cracked - I’d driven from the Sunshine Coast past (and kinda through - I wanted to avoid a toll bridge) Brisbane, down to the Gold Coast and through the insanity that is Surfers Paradise. I was more than a little stinging for a surf, but Huey would have none of it. I went out for a grovel anyway - half a foot onshore mush at the south end of Broadbeach (the massive beach that runs past Surfers), at a spot called Miami. Good to get wet, but no joy on the waves front.

Feeling at a loss, and slightly cold, I went for a walk/skate over the next headland, and found Burleigh Heads. No surf to speak of, but the place was jumping - Sunday sessions in full swing, from random families and people using the council bbqs along the beach-front, to a full drumming circle (hippies come out of the woodwork) and in another spot, a whole bunch of people fire-twirling (!). I ended up heading back to Miami to get the troopy, and spent the night in Burleigh, hoping the wind would back off overnight.

This morning the wind had indeed dropped off - nay, it actually was mildly offshore for a while! I went for a skate to check what the surf was doing, and snapped the photos above. I figured I’d let the pre-work and pre-school frothers get the early in, then I’d head out for second shift. Which would have worked out fine, but when I headed out there, thinking the grommets would have to head in soon, I found out it was some sort of student free day at the local schools. So I got my first taste of the Gold Coast crowds . Still, I managed a couple of turns on some waist-high grovelers - the new board is way fast and loose - and I definitely got a feel for the potential of this place. Not surprising, really, it is rated as one of Australias best right-handers after all.

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!