yagon monster

There's nothing like going for a surf during sunset, especially when you're in rural Australia surrounded by fun waves, crystal clear water, three other surfers, and miles of empty beach. Let me put it this way: taking a 45-minute drive down dirt roads on the second night of our camping and surfing adventure last weekend was well worth it. Aside form an enjoyable beach break session at Scotts Head on Friday morning, our trip hadn't quite lived up to expectations until the late afternoon on Friday when we landed at a campground right next to the beach in an area called Yagon, just a few kilometers from Seal Rocks, roughly three hours north of Sydney. When I crossed over the dunes with my camera in hand, the picture above is exactly what I saw. Pumping left-hand waves were pressing up against the rocks and producing clean open faces as a result of the offshore winds, exactly what we needed after a long day of wave hunting. The picture is a bit deceiving, as most of the waves were breaking farther away from the rocks and were perfectly safe to ride. We didn't have much daylight left, so of course we hurried back to the van to grab our boards. I haven't run that fast in a while.

Overall, we definitely experienced mixed results during our trip, but at the end of the day we had a great time and got to surf fun waves, so I can't complain. Hanging out with a few Australians we met at the Yagon campsite was classic, and it's safe to say that I'll definitely be going back to Seal Rocks. The area has a wide variety of breaks to choose from and very few crowds. Most intriguing, though, is a local folktale about a wild ape-like bush creature that apparently haunts the area, known as the Yagon monster. We never saw anything while we were there, but there are countless testaments I found online of people claiming they'd seen some strange things moving around in the sand dunes at nightfall. Sounds like a plot to scare away surfers from crowding the waves if you ask me, but fascinating nonetheless. Here are a few pictures from the trip:

The full crew outside our apartment with the van before leaving Thursday afternoon. It had a pretty crazy paint job. Also notice the coat hanger antenna, very classy. It also didn't even have power steering, gotta love cheap rentals. I look stoked, John looks like he's impatient and just wants to go surfing, Caleb = Cali bro, and Jordan has a phenomenal afro/cheesy grin combo going.

Guess what was listed on the protected species sign at Seal Rocks. Great Whites are extremely rare according to what we've heard. Pretty crazy stuff. Apparently there's a grey nurse shark (safe to humans) breeding ground somewhere close to the area that attracts a lot of scuba divers.

The view from the top of the point at Scotts Head (that's me checking out the setup). The scenery was quite a sight, which is normal for this part of the country. We were able to score some very fun chest high surf at the beach break on Friday morning. The water temperature was likely over 80 degrees. It was probably the warmest water I've ever surfed. The point break wasn't working that day, but from what a few locals told us it can really go off there during a big swell. Apparently it's possible to ride the waves up to 300 meters on a great day. Too bad we missed out on that.

Sorry for the delay on this post. Although it might not seem like it, I am in fact going to school (don't worry Dad). I had a busy week with a poetry test on Monday and a paper due in my Australian literature class on Thursday. School has been going great so far and the classes are much different from back home in terms of structure. It seems like they put more emphasis on having only a few major assignments in each class as opposed to lots of smaller ones.

Life in Bondi has been the same as usual. We got a couple days of great surf during the middle of this past week, but the crowds were as big as ever. There were easily a few hundred people in the water when I surfed on Wednesday. Sometimes it's hard to find waves to yourself here. I've never had that problem back home in Chilmark.

That's all for now. We have our semester break coming up at the end of this week and it should prove to be a lot of fun. I've just made plans with a few friends that I'll talk about in my next post. We plan on getting shacked in some pretty exotic locales.