triplog

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.

I’ve spent the last few days in limbo, otherwise known as the Gold Coast. After hanging out in Burleigh on Sunday night, I’d headed further south, all the way to Tugun (about two suburbs away), when I got a call from Keenan - I’d thought he was living somewhere just south of the border, but turns out he was one suburb back the way I’d just come, in Palm Beach. So we hung out for beers and dinner at the local surf club on Monday night - it was good to catch up, we figured out the last time we’d seen each other was around 5 years ago - then on Tuesday morning I bid him farewell and was all set to head south into NSW.

I made it as far as Tweed Heads, when the clutch on the troopy decided to give up the ghost - it had been threatening a caper like this for a while. So off I went to Keenans mechanic, Roger, where I was told I couldn’t the car back until Friday. Keenan kindly put up with me as a house guest for the rest of the week (I owe you, mate) while I waited. And waited. With no surf.

Anyway, this afternoon I finally got reunited with troopy (and dis-united from over a grand), and hit the road south. I intended to drive through Byron Bay, just to see what had changed, and then keep going further south until dark… but lo and behold, as soon as Main Beach hove into view, those plans went out the window. There was surf. My home state (sorry Jane!) had laid out the welcome mat.

I managed to keep it together long enough to snap off the pictures above, then bolted for the water. It was offshore, warm water, head high and getting glassier with each passing minute. Oh yeah…

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!

I’m still bludging around the Sunshine coast, waiting for this weather to clear and the surf to do something. Anything. Just not incessant howling onshore slop (plus ça change, eh?).

On the other hand, they do have some fine skate-parks here. Every little beach surf club/foreshore area seems to have one - the photo above is of the one at Peregian Beach, south of Noosa heading towards Coolum - and yesterday the rain actually cleared (but no luck with the wind or swell), so they stopped resembling half-drained kiddies swimming pools.

I ended up cruising south past Coolum and Maroochydore looking for a board shop (more on that later), and ended up spending a large chunk of the afternoon skating the Alexander Headland park (I’ve put a link in to it on a Google map, was hoping for a ’street view’ but they don’t seem to have it for this area…). It’s a nice big open park, a bit older than some of the other ones around here, and accordingly the concrete transitions are a bit rougher. Some good skaters here too, and a fair crew of sullen-looking emo/stoner skate kids hanging out across the road at the local skate shop. Ah, the derelict teenage years.