Watercolours

I start a 6 week watercolour course tomorrow night. Hopefully learn some basics. Should be good, never done any painting tuition before.
These are some little ones I've done recently based on photos. Looking forward to posting some more as I progress.

Dunsborough and Windmills

Spent a long weekend down in Dunsborough for a friend's 30th recently. I didn't think that Yallingup Bay ever got flat, but on the last day there, it was.

Got two surfs in amongst all the eating and ping pong.
A shortish session out at a tiny Yallingup mainbreak. Pretty terrible conditions. Super strong easterlies and hardly any swell, so you had to wait on the shelf of reef (that I could touch whilst sitting on my board...) to get enough steepness to catch the fat wave. Then a few random set waves would come and break so. far. out.

Got out to Windmills too. Finally found the place. Thought it was a 4WD track, then, now that we have a 4WD, found out that it's fine for all cars... So anyway the swell was super small, but there was still plenty of size coming through here.  Great fun and just so beautiful! Can't wait to check out some more spots off the beaten track from here.

Second board makeover

At work on an old kneeboard

I finally plucked up the courage to attack one of my own boards with Posca paint pens. The first board was an old one of my dad's that he doesn't surf anymore, so if it turned into a disaster, it didn't matter.
I wanted my 6'8 to work out. Plus my husband surfs it as well, so couldn't have anything too girly on it. A challenge. Having said that, he did used to surf a pink foamie in Summer a fair bit - he doesn't really care what his boards look like.

Originally I'd planned to work on the deck, but the original spray was just too busy to add to.
So I drafted up a design for the underside of the nose hoping that, one day, that bit will be out of the water a lot and shown off while I'm busting reos etc :P.

I found it quite a challenge to work in such a narrow triangle, so I solved this by drawing the waves on an angle, effectively giving me more width to work in. I added the stars to echo the pattern on the deck. I used a more limited colour palette to minimise the girliness by avoiding the rainbow effect of the board above and stuck to simpler lines.

completed 6'8

Girls Gone Wild ~ Lancelin 2011

The trip this January was the best yet. Conditions a week out were generally looking pretty good and we were all excited. Then Tropical Cyclone Bodhi... (forgotten it's name already) reared its ugly head and it was looking like we'd be stuck inside waiting out the storm. It hit Friday night, waking up the light sleepers with lightning outside the window and heavy rain.

But the next morning dawned; sunny, hot and a little windy. We checked the back beach which looked uninspiring. It was decided, with much bravado about knowing the way, that we'd head up to Wedge.  At the very least we had 2 4WDs for security, if very little know-how. We got there relatively easily and ended up parking behind the dune. There were plenty of waves to be had just over the hill and there wasn't any beach to drive on anyway - the high tide from the cyclone.

What we found...

Paradise

The waves were a little fat this first day, but still super fun and we basically had the place to ourselves.

There was just enough time to get back to our rental and cook up a bbq storm before the real storm rolled in and the power went out. Wind, rain, lightning, plus thunder this time. A much needed trip to the bottle-o, via the beach to check the carnage. Onshore mess. By the time we got back home, the wind was conspicuous in its absence. A perhaps unwise decision to indulge in champagne slushies before two of us raced back down to the back beach for an arvo session.
No wind.
The empty car park quickly filled as we slip-slop-slapped, as though surfers everywhere had received the 'all-clear' signal.
We found a peak to ourselves and passed a happy hour surfing glassy waves under a glassy sky.

 

The power eventually came back on around 9pm. All the pubs were closed and nothing was open for dinner. Instead doughnuts and CCs were on the menu.

Sunday was windy. Kinda NW, which isn't good. We felt that we'd make a go of it anyway and head straight back to Wedge. Protected by a northern groyne it was super fun and less fat than the day before. Helped along by the fact that I'd taken out my 6'8 the day before, surfing my 7'6 this day was so much fun. Best surf I've had since Gnaraloo. Things were really clicking and I was getting some great turns and carving happening.

We're all chomping at the bit to get back up there. But do we wait for another cyclone?

Happy Merge-Day!

 

I have merged my art and surf blogs into one big pile of goodness! 

And about time too.

Welcome. I've just boiled the kettle...