taking class, riding glass: April 2010

Picture this: you're at a Sydney bar at 4:30 in the afternoon with more people than you've ever seen there on a Saturday night. Everyone is standing shoulder to shoulder around a fenced off area, holding 5, 10, 20, and sometimes even 50 dollar bills in the air. People are shouting, hollering, clapping, speaking in accents from all across the globe, using slang words that you don't understand, and of course, trying to get you to gamble with them (everyone is friendly, don't worry). This event only happens once a year. They're all betting on a coin flipping game known as Two-Up, which is incredibly simple, but very entertaining. You win some bets, lose some bets, have a blast, and miraculously leave the bar with more money than you showed up with.

This is what happens all across Australia and New Zealand only one day of the year, April 25th, ANZAC Day, which celebrates the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC). It's similar to Memorial Day or Veteran's Day back in the USA, but the attitude is more of a combination between the 4th of July and St. Patrick's day, everyone is looking to have a good time. It was definitely one of the best cultural experiences I've had so far in Australia.

To make the weekend even better, I woke up this morning to solid 8 foot surf right out front at Bondi. The wind was on-shore, meaning it was a bit choppy out there, but there were still some great waves rolling through. Luckily, it wasn't too crowded because of the size of the waves and the strength of the currents. People were also probably recovering from Anzac Day. I had a great session this afternoon and am now relaxing on the couch, reflecting back on one of the best weekends I've had so far in Australia. Hard to believe I've been here for three months and only have two more left before I head back.

In terms of school (yes, I do in fact go to school here in case you were wondering), I had my most strenuous week of work last week, so it was great to be able to have an authentic Australian weekend in order to celebrate. Two presentations and a paper all crammed into one week was difficult to manage considering I live right next to the beach. When I come home from class all I want to do is surf, so I usually save my school work for later on when it's dark outside. I wrote a paper about Australian surfing legend Mark Occhilupo for my Sport, Law, and Society in Australia class, which was pretty interesting. The paper basically hailed him as the most significant Australian surfer of the modern era. It outlined his impact on the sport and his legendary comeback from obscurity to win his first and only World Championship in 1999 at age 33, one of the greatest feats in sports history. It's great to know that I'm becoming a student of the sport.

In terms of what's next for me, I'm looking into making some travel plans for our time off either before or after exams in June. Jordan and I are exploring a few options right now. It could be quite epic. I'll have more information at a later date. Until then, hang loose.

That's a kangaroo crossing sign if you've never seen one. It's been far too long since I've updated, sorry about that. The remote regions of New South Wales don't exactly provide the best options for regular internet usage, especially when you're gone for 10 days. The McDonald's free internet just doesn't cut it (so slow). No need to worry though, I'm alive and I surf every day, what more could I ask for?

Before I begin, I want to point out that I've updated the map on the right side to include all of the spots I've surfed while here, which now totals 15. Also, please feel free to sound off in the comments section. It's good to hear from people and know that somebody actually looks at this thing. Even though this post is long, please make sure to check out the pictures and videos. They're well worth it. Anyways, back to business.

My semester break was a spectacular journey to say the least. The epic adventure featured ripping right hand point breaks, 10 foot beach break swell, new surf spots, barrels, a shark siting (holy shit), classic campsite dinners, Australian hospitality, and some great laughs. After my third tour of the coastline, I feel like I know the area quite well. This surfing and camping exploration went a little something like this:

On Thursday (April 1st), I hopped on the Sydney public transit and picked up our rental campervan (it was really just a minivan with a bed in the back). Jordan and I began the journey by ourselves, traveling north to stay at Yagon for the first night. After waking up the following morning to nearly flat conditions, we decided to get right back on the road and head to Crescent Head. The surf forecast for Crescent was one of the best I've seen so far in Australia and it ended up holding true, with solid swell rolling through for a full three days. When we pulled up Friday afternoon the surf was head high and pumping off the point. See the pictures below for confirmation. Make sure to click on them to see the enlarged versions. The first photo was taken on Friday and the second on Saturday morning.

Some of the rides on the biggest waves could easily last for over 200 meters. Pretty hard to believe. Unfortunately it was quite crowded, due to Easter Weekend, which became frustrating by the middle of Saturday when there were over a hundred people out there. Due to the crowds, we decided to explore some of the nearby beaches, which ended up being more exposed to the incoming swell direction. We surfed at a beach break close by with only a few other people out. The wind was offshore and the surf was a solid 8 feet with occasional sets rolling through that were 10 feet. It was definitely the heaviest session I've surfed in Australia, but I didn't at all feel in danger because it was so clean. Most of the waves were closing out, but I ended up getting a couple good ones that stayed open. Here's a picture I took from the parking lot.

On Sunday we drove up to Scotts Head, which is about an hour from Crescent. We were able to score an excellent and uncrowded beach break session there that was honestly some of the most fun I've had surfing in a long time. Jordan and I were out for around two hours and caught about 30 waves each. It was near head high and very clean, but not too difficult to catch and ride. I didn't bring my camera for the long walk down the beach. Sucks.

That afternoon we made the drive back to Crescent, where we decided to surf the beach break right next to the point before sunset, little did we know this wouldn't be such a good idea. Most people were surfing the point and there were only a few others out at the beach break. We'd only been out there for probably 20 minutes when the unthinkable happened.

After I caught a wave that took me near the inside, I heard Jordan yelling my name from about 40 yards away. He was signaling toward the beach, saying that we needed to get out. I was in about waist deep water, so I hopped onto a bit of whitewash and headed in easily. Once I reached the shore, I could hear what he was saying. "Holy shit I just saw a shark out there." I quickly turned to survey the water, and just as a big wave was rolling through, I briefly saw a triangular shaped fin and a dark outline glide parallel to the beach and disappear shortly after. If I had to guess it was probably in the 6-8 foot range. I've seen dolphins before, and this definitely wasn't one. It made sense as it was near sunset, which is typically when they feed close to shore. After consulting a fisherman down the beach, we learned that you can sometimes spot what he referred to as "Bronze Whalers" or Copper Sharks on this stretch of beach at that time of day. They are somewhat dangerous, but attacks are rare, as they typically hunt bait fish. Scary stuff, but the journey rolled along.

The following day (Monday) we stopped in for a quick surf at Scotts Head again, which was excellent, before we headed about three hours inland to meet up with our friends Garrett and Nick in a small town called Armidale. They had been visiting with family friends on a private ranch for Easter weekend and had taken a train to meet up with us. After breaking out the tent and spending the night in a campsite in Armidale, we continued along toward Byron Bay, where we would meet up with our fifth and final traveler, our friend Jason, who'd been in Byron for a music festival that weekend. We spent two nights in Byron and the solid swell continued during our time there. Here's two photos from nearby Broken Head, where we scored some great waves. The waves pictured here are actually at the back beach at Broken. I wanted to paddle out there, but the other guys weren't so keen on surfing alone, so we paddled out at the front beach break where it wasn't quite the same, but still very good and hardly crowded. I guess the shark story had some of us a bit rattled.

After our two nights in Byron, we headed back down the coast toward Sydney, spending Thursday night in Scotts Head and Friday night in Yagon. The surfed wasn't quite the same as before at Scotts Head, but we were able to find a nice point break that was working well on the way down to Yagon at a place called Wallabi Beach. It wasn't at all crowded which made for a great session. It doesn't get much better that surfing an uncrowded point break. Here's a couple photos from the spot.

The final leg of the trip went well, even though Yagon didn't serve up too much clean surf. We managed to sneak in a great session on Saturday at Avoca Beach before returning the camper back to Sydney. Overall, the trip was a major success, as I got to surf some of the best waves of my life, see some amazing parts of the country, and spend some quality time with everyone on the trip. If the previous photos weren't already enough, here are a few more pictures and a few candid videos of us that were shot with Jason's flip video camera. Captions included.