urban surfing

Greetings to everyone back home. Stay away from those floods if you're in Nashville. The pictures I've seen look crazy. Just so you know, it drizzled here today for the first time in a couple weeks. The air temperature has still been in the 70s though, so no need to panic. I surfed in my trunks today, but got cold after about an hour and a half, not too bad. It's getting close to permanent wetsuit weather, but that's nothing I can't handle. Surfing back home in Chilmark often requires a wetsuit during the summer, particularly in the mornings. I'm convinced that Australia doesn't have a Fall season. It still feels like summer here, how wonderful.

On the whole we've had above average surf this week. The swell has been consistent for the most part, but the crowds this weekend became a bit frustrating, so my friend Nick and I decided to take one session off to get some good photograghs. On Sunday afternoon we walked around Bondi to take a few photos with our friend John's camera (zoom lens, expensive, etc.). Sunday tends to be a particularly active time of the week around town. The surf photos are from nearby Tamarama Beach, which has become my surf spot of choice as of late. We surfed the waves in the photos earlier that morning. As always, make sure to click on them to see the enlarged versions. I'm going to let the images do most of the talking. Here they are for your enjoyment, there's a whole bunch (captions included):

Apparently parrots that sit on people's shoulders are normal around here.


The Sunday markets at the Bondi elementary school. Typically a hipster haven. Trendy gear sold separately

Art tent at the markets.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Jim Morrison."

Campbell Parade, Bondi's main drag. Busy as ever. Notice the palms. Florida?


Pool at the Bondi skatepark overlooking the beach.


Local ripper. I'd hurt myself if I tried to drop into that pool. The surf was small at Bondi, so we headed down the road to Mackenzie's Bay and Tamarama...


Cliff meditation at Mackenzie's Bay. Very Zen.


Bodysurfer at Mackenzie's. Just about as close to nature as man can get.


Opposite side of Mackenzie's. Boogie Boarding is alive and well in Australia. Surfers here call them "speed bumps." How fitting.


Massive wave rolling into the rocks. The people give a good idea of scale.


Tamarama freight train. Look out for the lip.


Our Australian friend Christian and I checking out the action from the rocks. We ran into him getting out of the water when we arrived.


Our other Australian friend Paedor (pronounced Pada with an Australian accent) taking off on one close to the rocks at Tamarama.


A heavy wall rolling through. Steep takeoff. How about that for a left?

That's all for now around these parts. I'm looking into planning another camping excursion sometime soon, so I will update with those details if and when they become available. As always, thanks for checking out the pictures and feel free to leave a comment (if anyone actually read this far). It didn't work out too well last time I had a huge post...