Surfing in the Desert - Video from Gnaraloo, Western Australia, July 2010

3 weeks, 5 days and counting...

So the slow process of sorting through the 3000 odd photos has been made slower by the fact that I broke both my arms our first day back in Australia. Plans for a quick trip down to Yallingup before heading back to work were replaced by trips to Emergency rooms and x-ray centres. The lesson has been learned: Skateboarding and jetlag don't mix.

So now I'm counting down until I'm no longer cripsey and can get back in the water. It's been almost 4 weeks now. It'll depend what the Doc says at my next appointment in 2 weeks. If the splint can come off my left wrist then I can, with any luck, be wave sliding on the first day of Summer.

In the meantime, I've been getting mobility back into my right arm with physio exercises, checking the swell charts to see what I'm missing - nothing - and surfing vicariously.

Some visual poetry from Flickr... mouse over images for credits.

Inspiration by:
umeplumme
sgblyth
meisi
Maddie J
felipesiebert
J.boltz
Sosidesc
JerseySurfing
Zaz by Roxy surf
PatrickSmithPhotography

La nostra casa

We're home!! And very happy. There's so much to digest! We've been away for 2 months. Wow.

Big highlight this morning, besides waking up between our own 1000 thread count sheets, was rediscovering all the clothes we DIDN'T take with us. I'm quite stoked to be wearing a fresh pair of purple jocks, which haven't been shrunk in hostel washing machines...

The girls were a little unsure when we first walked in, but they were pretty happy to be sleeping with their mum on the bed this morning. I walked in to see Maxi snuggled into Hannah's nook, purring furiously. Mini has sniffed all of our bags, then remembered that my lap is awesome.

Vegemite on toast this morning. It was heavenly.

Wow. I don't even know where to start. I think I'll update in a day or so, when I've had a chance to stop. Spent 13 hours stuck in Auckland International yesterday, so pretty blitzed.

But so happy to be home.

Oahu Wahoo!!

We haven't wasted any time packing the last few days with adventure! We made sure we still had time to kick back and relax, though!

 

A quick trip into Haliewa for some cheap rashies, wetsuits and MORE shave ice! 

We found a Japanese place for dinner. They had big wave surfing playing on the wall.

 

More surfing!

 

Heaven on a plate! This is more garlic than we've seen since we left home! A 

dozen garlic prawns for $13 from a Shrimp Shack on the side of the road. North Shore style!

 

Waimea Bay in the Summertime.

 

The mountains here are so jagged and steep. We drove over to Lanakai for dinner with Rhonda and Heidi and Tim, people that Jo met in Fiji who live there. Lanakai is quite an old suburb with amazing houses right on the beach (not unlike the North shore!) They have a 'toy shed' filled with surfboards, SUPs, kayaks... all the goodies you could need :)

After a trip into Honolulu and across to Waikiki, we decided against surfing in the ridiculous crowds. There were at least 100 people out at Canoes! Instead we did a quick bit of shopping. James felt the best way to entertain himself was by drinking an entire pineapple... 

Likelike, Pupus and Poki

This place is making me feel strangely timeless. We are having trouble remembering what day it is and I can't seem to write in a linear fashion here.
So.
Today we met Rhonda, Aaron and a local guy, Ash at a north shore spot that was breaking, Malekahena. no crowd. It was very nice. Did I mention the water? It is so warm here. Especially after 15 degrees in California! It would easily be in the mid twenties.

One minute it looked like this, then the next, like this...

The break was in a nice bay straight out from this cute camp site with Hawaiian style bungalows. It was breaking a long way out over reasonably shallow reef, but the waves were very rolling, without much oompf. We even had a little rain shower while we surfed, before the sun came out again.

Now, back to Monday. We went for a snorkel in the afternoon. They have tradewinds here, so in Summer the wind is essentially continuously easterly. Snorkelling in this proved a little interesting as the current was going one way and the wind the other!! Visibility wasn't great, but we do plan to do another snorkel, while Kristy does a dive in a famous place, Shark's Bay. Its meant to be great for snorkelling.
So, after deciding it was a bit windy, Kristy and I still wanted to snorkel. I with one good flipper and one with a broken strap, snorkel shoved up the side of my mask strap. But follow my intrepid leader I did!! We went out around some rocks, from our beach and two bays up to Turtle Beach.I couldn't see a bloody thing, above or below water and had to keep pulling my flipper on.
Meanwhile Jo and James were walking over hot volcanic rock to get to the same place, burning their tootsies! James pushed on, feet gored, and had a relaxing snorkel. Jo literally took the road less travelled, ended up shimmying up a fence and down a palm tree to get back on the highway and walk home. We had some high adventures to tell.
And it was all worth it because this is what we found:

Kristy spotted this one as we were entering the bay!

These guys are huge! Recharging in the sun :] There were about 4 on the beach.

They're called basking turtles as they're one of the few that just come to chill out on the sand.

Enjoying the Pacific

Paradise

Island Time

Heeeeeey.
We've been a bit slack with the updates because we've been having such a blast.
We explored Haliewa, the small town near our house, been to all the surf shops, had shave ice, found longboards for a nice cheap $70/week rental, Had dinner at Haliewa Joes, twice. We've also had a home cooked meal and pancakes for breakfast! My, we have been busy. Sorry, mum, no food photos. We were too busy gobbling! But I did have great ribs and an amazing sirloin :)

Shaka, man.

Famous Shave Ice (Love that Japanese influence here) from Matsumoto's!
James got 'rainbow' flavour....

Kristy with grape, raspberry & green apple.

In this photo you should note the fabulousness that is our reflection. We're very cool.

Yesterday we did some sightseeing. It was a big day. We basically drove around half the Island. Saw all the surf spots that aren't breaking, cos it's Summer; Waimea, Pipeline, Sunset, Rocky Point.

Four rented mals on the roof of the hire-car. We been tying those bad boys doooown!

Kristy & I standing up very straight at the Chinaman's Hat.

On the Kam Hwy

We drove all the way around to Kailua on the east (windward) side, near Lanakai. No waves here either!

In search of waves, we checked out Diamond Head, which was blown out, and finally ended up at Waikiki. Well, we had to do it at least once. There were a lot of people in the water and the waves were lovely, but few and far between.

Waikiki is just like you'd expect it to be. Whilst the North Shore is quiet, a little run down and unassuming, Waikiki is high-rises, Japanese tourists and ukelele music. We actually surfed 'Queens' which is pretty exciting as I've seen videos of this place. The waves were great shaped, but the stress of the crowd got to all of us.

After a whack of surfing and the trip back to the North Shore, we caught up with Jo's friend Rhonda and her boyfriend Aaron for dinner and cocktails.

Hawaiian Champion

This is another post with me gushing about meeting a celebrity that no one else cares about... We arrived in LAX and were waiting around, only to run into former UFC Lightweight Champion BJ "The Prodigy" Penn, who is Hawaiian. He had lost his fight the night before, but he still agreed to pose for my daggy fan photograph, which I really appreciated.

Hangin' loose with The Prodigy

I was fully pumped for the rest of the day...2 UFC fighters on one holiday!! Such nice approachable guys, considering what they do for a living. It's not every day you meet the greatest lightweight fighter in history. Mahalo, BJ! So excitement!!!

Hawaiian Sunset

Well we made it!! This is the last leg of our trip before returning home to Perth and some semblance of reality.

It was so great to see the girls after 7 weeks with no familiar faces. The house is great, right on the beach as advertised. We can see the lookout tower for Waimea from where we are. No big waves on the North Shore at the moment though, that's for Winter time.

After dinner last night in Haliewa, we jumped in our spa! This is the view from our lounge room.
We all had a great night's sleep, well, Kristy is still sleeping ;) and will be off in search of food and then waves today!!

Mahalo!

Aloha from Hawaii!

We have arrived safe and sound and were collected very conveniently by Jo and Kristy in our swish rental car - another Ford Escape!
We have found our fab house on the North Shore and have established that there is Wifi. With the necessities now out of the way, we are off to find FOOD!

Photos to come, OBVIOUSLY. :D
It's so great to be reunited with friends and Hawaii, at first glance is BEAUTIFUL!
After dinner its spa-time under the stars and embarking on THE SEARCH tomorrow.

Mahalo.

Santa Cruizin

 

Our very excellent accommodation overlooks the pier, Cowell's Cove and is walking distance to the boardwalk. Score! Above is the view from our terrace.

NAICE!

This is our retro kitchen. The pictures are for you, Jess, as I'm thinking you'll love it. 

Before the mist/fog rolled in!

With our room we managed to score free passes to the boardwalk which proved to be terrific fun. We went on the bumper cars, a few zany rides with lots of lights... I went on the Giant Dipper, a rollercoaster built around 1911. I screamed my lungs out the whole ride.

Bumper cars

Looking like a tourist from... San Clemente??

What's a night at the boardwalk without fairyfloss?

OM NOM NOM NOM NOM!

The highlight of the night was most definitely the Buccaneer Bay Mini Golf!! 18 holes of hilarity! The course had canons going off periodically, pirate animatronics, moving obstacles to get the ball through and even some blacklit, fluorescent holes. Sadly, we both came in around 20 over par. :S

One too many rides on the Tsunami?

 

The next day we checked out the wharf and found some sleek friends.

They are smelly and noisy but very cute. They are very sociable and spent most of the time barking and growling while they all got comfortable lying on each other in the sun.

We found our way over to steamer lane which was pretty serious. I didn't think it was breaking because you can't really see it from our side of the bay. It wraps around the northern point of the bay. With the current swell direction, the guys were taking off into the cliff, so a bit of a critical take off and some agro going around.

 

There was even a kneeboarder out! Serious wavage. A steep take off, a few barrels and a lot of kelp.

 

Young guys timing the cliff jump in between sets.

After finding such serious waves we needed some serious food. We found: pizza the size of my head. So good!

 We then checked out some of the other breaks, south of the main drag. What we found was a lot more chilled out and conducive to a relaxing surf. The Hook, so called because of all the kelp that gets caught in leg ropes and on fins, and Pleasure Point. I'd read about this place in Caught Inside, but didn't know what to expect. It looked pretty nice. Loooong rolling waves. There were even three peaks scattered across the bay the spread people out.

Pleasure Point

Before heading up to Santa Cruz I shot out here for an hour or so. The waves picked up with the incoming tide and the sets were really fun. A nice vibe out in the water and a seal to boot.

The stairs ...

Scored a 9'4 McTavish epoxy for this break and a wetsuit which was 5x4x3mm! That's serious neoprene! Although I think the water was pretty balmy compared to Morro Bay.

The fog which rolled in about 4pm the day before lifted while I was out to reveal the blue sky :) The previous evening, people simply surfed in the fog!

Next stop, San Francisco!!