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| Legendary Surfing Community Website |
Saturday 19th May 2012 Time:
04:02am San Diego /
12:02pm London /
09:02pm Sydney
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"A
Fun Approach To Surfing" OceanFever.net
- Your Surfing Community
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Off To Australia Part 1
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April
in Western Australia, offshore, plenty of swell, low crowd level and heaps of
heaving reefs, or so we had been told. The reality was, for British bodyboarders
DannyWall, Damian Prisk, Ryan Phelps,Geoffrey Leonard and Mark Jackman, offshore
yes, very little swell and a big crowd problem. In fact the lack of swell was
a real problem, just days before Ryan's and Dan's arrival, Prisk and Mark had
scored the local big wave spot 'Northpoint' all time with just top locals and
a few travelling pros on hand to surf it, but what now confronted the boys was
The Margaret River Bombie at an all time low of a foot and everywhere else struggling
for any semblance of a rideable wave. With weather charts looking about as exciting
as Belgium, fishing and golf were the only option. The Bournemouth boys, Mark
and Honest Geoff, were straight to the golf course whilst the tight folk of
Plymouth and Portreath were off fishing, with borrowed rods, so they might get
a free meal. |
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High hopes
of salmon and lobster were soon dashed when the only living creature in the
sea willing to take a bait was a herring, small but edible, and when caught
in sufficient numbers enough for a barbie. But these little critters were
hardly sport, in fact the only exciting bit was when someone's line broke
and they had to swim for a float whilst everyone else sat on the rock humming
the Jaws theme.
After
an endless five days the swell finally arrived, albeit in a very
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small
portion. The only rideable reef for the next couple of days was a consistent
and very popular righthander known as Cobblestones. Its consistency in times
of little swell proved to be its downfall as every booger and his dog was out.
Prisky, Mark and Ryan all still choose to wash the dust off themselves and try
and snavel a couple of the hollow righthanders on the near dry inside ledge.
Wall and Geoff sat it out and watched as local ripper Sean Virtue took the place
apart with his new sponsor and No Friends Guru Ross McBride for company. The
number and standard of the local boys meant that there was slim pickings for
our boys, but over the next couple of days Ryan got his fair share of waves,
everyone else got annoyed with Ryan getting his fair share of waves. But as
the days dragged Cobbles began to bore even Ryan and the last resort wave almost
became a swear word. |
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Finally
Saturday night dawned and the tension was released with a trip to the local
pub and one or two quiet pints, this deteriorated into a spend all your money
on booze as there won't be any swell ever again style night and whilst everyone
became more and more incoherent, Damian, the designateddriver, sat on the sidelines
silently chuckling to himself knowing full well that the next morning would
dawn with him and him alone up for a surf. 5.30 am Wall and Phelps' cabin stinks
of sick, the Bournemouth pair hate early starts anyway and were dead to the
world, the wind is lightly wafting |
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offshore and the only taker is Damian.
On arrival at The Box look out there
is a new swell but not enough for said death pit, so Damo tears across town
in his four litre Ford Falcon and arrives at Gas Point, barely visible in
the half light and very empty. Day still manages to faff a fair bit and is
beaten to the lineup by local standup and ex booger Gene Hardy, but this does
not matter because even as the lineup fills with an assortment of locals and
travelling pros, Day is still getting barrelled off his nut in the safe knowledge
that the rest of the crew is ill in bed. Four hours later Daimo eventually
leaves the water due to a lost fin and a cloudy conscience. On return to the
Cabin everyone is up and semi conscious, Damian describes the surf as "OK
s'pose" and tucks into breakfast, when the video of the session is replayed
and the boys see Damo's deepest barrel, tears of jealousy and cries of "why
did I get pissed last night??" echo around the cabin. The hungover contingent
now want to surf more than ever and with only an hour before the onshore,
speed is the key. The Box is looking okay and everyone bails in but only a
couple of waves are caught before the wind swings and the day is wrecked,
well not for Damo obviously, there's a moral in there somewhere!?.
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