Where did you surf today ?

[Hatchnam]

Pumping 3-4 foot, offshore bowling runners. Surfed the 6'0 single. Got a great left set all the way to the beach. First move was parrying off some frantic nerd that tried dropping in and almost went over the falls on top of me. After that was dealt with, then linked up a series of top turns and roundhouse cutbacks all the way to the shore. Might go again later seeing as I have a "work from home day"

[buddy]

Getting a little off topic there hatchy.

[crabmeat thompson]

i told some asshat on jetski to fuckoff this morning. First time in the ocean I've ever said those words...

after he took my advice, there were the funnest waves around. long, fast walls and a hollow pocket.

[Trev]

Mostly locals again this morning. For an hour.
Then, two of Nick's mate from Dicky Beach surf club on skis, three SUPs, two dad's sligngshotting their kids onto waves, and a fcuking low flying drone.

[Davros]

Ah the serenity

[Nick Carroll]

Fun! 3-5' Newport doing its finest impression of Saquarema. Fcuk I rip.

[Cranked]

Fun! 3-5' Newport doing its finest impression of Saquarema. Fcuk I trip.

Fixed

[steve shearer]

oh man, that was just divine. Had a real Victorian feel about it; that wan yellow sun illuminating a sky awash with high cloud and a real light wind. Just wafts of light breeze coming from around the compass. You could smell hints of coastal rosemary and nectar filled tea tree flowers, then a salty fishy smell of baitfish and seaweed. It was intoxicating.
The waves just had the slightest patina of texture across them, it freed up water through the board. It was like surfing on ball bearings.
Light crowd, about half locals and half travellers. 2 or 3 wave sets, overhead, swinging in from the perfect direction.

[Davros]

Frost like, as in Robert

Autumn is the best

[steve shearer]

I've had so many magical surfing experiences this autumn.

Like being in a wide awake daydream.

[BA]

Fcuk I rip.

I think Loofy hacked Nicks account.

[Nick Carroll]

Nah I rip.

I've been surfing a lot lately and some of it has been really cool, but not magical the way steve describes.

But one of my racing squad, a big strong girl who has really connected with board paddling, has decided that fcuk it, she wants to do the Molokai race. Which is in two months.

She has held a lot of fitness from the abortive Aussie titles so it is not unreasonable, though it is a stretch. She is planning on doing the race in the toughest but coolest and most pure way possible, on a 12 foot "stock" paddleboard, solo.

She messaged me last night saying she wanted to do an "interval" session and would I go with her and run it and of course I said yeah.

So we met at midday in front of Newport Surf Club, a near windless day, a lot of inshore movement with the solid little swell pushing in from the SE. Warm. We walked down the sand, figuring out how to get the fragile boards through the surf zone, and did that easily enough, and headed out to sea past the reef.

Once you're outside the headlands, the whole thing changes. Water moves differently. Bumps reverberate off the rock lines closer inshore, but the water itself sort of settles, growing bigger and more silent. We went south for a while, to a point about 3ks off Mona Vale, then turned and went north, sometimes prone, sometimes knees, across an ever broader blue. Glassiness, warm water, silence.

[Nick Carroll]

This girl likes the silence and I like how she likes the silence, she is feeling the water in a way few surfers ever do.

[Skipper]

Ah, the silence. It's a divine encounter I relish on the harbour after hours, while the city sleeps, drifting engine off around the heads. Albeit in a boat, safe from harm.
I can't shake the 'spook' factor paddling my paddle board occasionally across the bay here in bondi. I long to venture further out and south. Or north even towards the heads, but....i just get spooked. I can't shake it.

That late autumn light was sweet this arvo, and there were some fun inbetweeners closer to shore.

[PeepeelaPew]

...

[Davros]

Yes, that's a bit exclusive

[crabmeat thompson]

I feel the water baby. I feel it!!

[tootr]

Wanking lyrical.

Oops, I mean waxing lyrical.