Low tide - BUH BOW

It seems that whenever you have a great day and feel like you're getting things together, the ocean soon sends you something to bring you back down. We checked out the beach this morning, but just couldn't quite get ourselves motivated to get in. Cottesloe - too crowded, the reef? not frequent enough, sandtracks? no waves, Leighton - meh... So we watched the comp at Iso's (would have been out here if not for the comp) and came home. I went out this arvo for another look and thought the tide would be fine. It wasn't. Too shallow for the reefs so I ended up at the swimmers' beach again. Ate it so many times trying to surf on this little peak that no one wanted. Still, beats hassling with the twenty 15 year old shortboarders :) I'm reminded today that the right wave and conditions make all the difference. The saving grace was the dolphin that surfaced 2m from me and hung around for a while. So special seeing them swim past. Bloody freezing. I am now drinking tea and eating crumpets with honey. :]

Isolators

2.5m @ Rotto. Light offshore. Tide: 1.0m I was hardly isolated out there today! Minimum 20 people in the water at any time made for some interesting manoeuvres when you realised that there were people infront/behind/under you! I had the best surf I’ve had in aaaaages! I caught 7 waves while I was out and was proud of so many things. My first wave was a warm up one from the left side. Broke pretty quick and I cut back to go right. Took a little while to adjust to what was catchable on the high tide. Nice and deep though. The second I caught from the right edge, made the drop on my knees, but once I was up managed to catch up, get around the section and get into the pocket! Sweet! My third wave was a head high left!!! I whooped and hollered the whole way along and couldn’t stop laughing when I was paddling back out. It was a sneaky wide set wave so I caught it on the inside and everyone else on it was further down the line. Amazing feeling seeing it walling up next to me! The fourth was a little bit interesting, I was looking to go left and about 5 of us all caught it. The guy next to me was going right! So I managed to cut back and not run into him, and then got a really nice ride. After that I moved further across to the left. Was sick of catching waves and not being able to go because someone had already got it or I was about to kamikaze in to someone waiting further in. Sitting on the left was great as most people were after the rights and there were lots coming through unridden. I pretty quickly caught three. The first had about 6 people on it. The chick in front of me did and amazing bottom turn from high up on the face and then flicked off. As we were paddling she said ‘yep yep!’ and I’m not sure if she was saying ’yep I’ve got it’ or ‘yep you’ve got it’. Either way I had right of way and as everyone seemed to be on it, I guess it was ok. The next one I had to myself. I angled really sharply as soon as I stood up which was awes. The last one I caught a bit late and made the drop on my knees but finished with some great carving then flicking off the back. I felt like I was surfing today!! It’s been a while since I’ve had a decent fix and today was it! Gnaraloo was full on and Tuesday at Sandtracks just felt wrong, so it was great to be chilled. No pressure, no worries, just fun. I wasn’t looking at my feet, I was looking down the line. I didn’t nose dive at all. I was managing to catch them ok and the longboard felt really good! I met Greer today. She’s the Wahine rep for the Cottesloe Longboarders’ Club. Membership opens December, so hopefully James and I will join up then. She’s really nice and about my age. She’s been surfing about as long as us, went to Bali earlier in the year and is pretty keen which is awesome! I also had a few chats with some of the guys who also belong to it. They were pretty cruisey and happy to have a joke. Gonna check out the Club Round on Sunday!

Gnaraloo

My first trip to Gnaraloo was a real eye opener. Such a beautiful place with amazing surf! This is the biggest break I've seen and surfed.
We didn't have ideal weather while we were there unfortunately. A series of very powerful fronts through the southwest coincided with our trip and we felt the effects up north. We had a number of days of strong onshore winds and other days had less than ideal conditions - strong NE or SW winds.
Swell size fluctuated but was a lot bigger in general than when the group had been in 2008. Last year was apparently small everyday and mostly offshore. Would have been ideal for us getting our confidence up. Having only been surfing for 18 months, I was conservative with the conditions I went out in.
I surfed there 3 times over the week and am already dreaming of next year!
#1
Tombstones. To say we were awed is an understatement. There is just so much going on. Lines of swell peeling along, the bombie off to the right, reef, coral, a cliff to climb down; the whole experience is full on.
We stayed in close and caught some reforms on the wide side. The current was fairly strong which meant paddling the entire time to try and position yourself for a decent wave.
Getting out, the tide was low enough for us to climb up the cliff.
Day 2
Today we paddled out the back with an escort. My dad and uncle showed us the best way to paddle out and where to sit. Managed to get cleaned up by one wave when a set came wide, but otherwise made it out the back fine.
I caught two ~head-high waves, the first I rode straight for some inexplicable reason. This left me with a massive distance to paddle back out. But I wanted to know that I could get out the back again. So I paddled wide like I was told and got there. The second wave I caught was looking really nice, but I needed to be angling more straight away. The wind was making the waves really bumpy and I ended up falling off on the second ride after hitting a speed bump.

Overwhelming experience. Has given me a very different perception of my home breaks.Day 3
After the last session I really wanted to get out there and combine the skills that I have with the confidence to ride the waves we had. The last session I hadn't surfed to my ability but had learnt some important lessons.
Unfortunately the conditions weren't lining up for us and today was bigger than Monday but with less shape. I caught a few waves and fell off them. I caught one in the foam and got angling, but just couldn't quite get around it and onto the face. Went for miles though... then paddled back out. I was chuffed that I was catching the waves, though. Finally I caught a nice one and got angling along the face... right up until it sectioned and I didn't manage to get round it.
This was the last session we got. The other days were either bigger, the wind was screaming onshore or the current was so strong that getting into position would have been next to impossible for me.
I've learnt a lot and can't wait to get out at my home breaks with a different view on what 'big' is. We cut the trip short by a few days as there was no chance of surf with the storms down south. I wasn't ready to come home, but it was the right thing to do.
Hoping for small GLASSY conditions when I head back next year. :) Can't wait to see it at its best in offshore conditions.