Where did you surf today?

mick66 wrote:

AlfredWallace wrote:

mick66 wrote:

Ran the dog on the beach at sunrise, and there was more of a wave than expected. Back to the house to roust our middle daughter up with a coffee and out the door. Water and air both close to 80 degrees, and straight offshore at 10-15. Mostly around stomach/chest, with an occassional plus set. Back lit, aquarium clear and lots of sealife moving, including big rays passing under us now and then. Surfed for 2 hours with no one out.
Pretty nice way to start the day.

Mick66. Hi pal.
You paint a great happy picture, especially with temps around the 27c (80f) mark both in and out of the water. Sounds like life’s running in the right direction. Good stuff. AW

It sure was, AW. Just a great morning all-around.. You've got to appreciate the good times when they come, right? (And to be clear, our life certainly isn't some never-ending collage of IG influencer picture perfect moments. I hate that fakeness. )
btw, one more story, and I'll stop rambling on. About 10 days ago, it was similar conditions at the same spot, but dead glass and maybe just a little bigger. As we came in from an extended lunchtime surf, a tourist on the beach stopped me to say she'd enjoyed watching us surf, and then to ask if it would seem creepy to say she'd taken some video of us. I laughed and said of course it wasn't, at which point she offered to send a video. Anyway, when I got it later that day it was a video of my daughter dropping in and cruising on a perfect chest high right. What stood out though was the background commentary of the woman and her friend, asking each other if they could imagine being able to do what my daughter was doing.
I've replayed it numerous times, just to remind myself that as surfers we're pretty lucky to do what we do.

Mick66. Hi mate.

So true. We sure are, we sure are lucky.
Interestingly, over my lifetime, I’ve met a couple of guys who said something strange to me.
They said, I use to surf. I say what, what do you mean you use to surf, once a surfer always a surfer, I simply don’t understand how you can give up being a surfer.

Each to their own I suppose. AW

Surfs up & on the rise next few days , an underground legend is in town and I’m hoping he gets a shot at muntigs, it will be spectacular to watch considering he’s riding a 5’9 .

Finishing up at the beach here in Portugal today after 2 1/2 weeks. Waves have been surprisingly fun - mostly stomach to shoulder high but the last few days have been solid punchy overhead. Not very crowded but the locals that are here are pretty intense in the water, lotta back paddling and the odd drop in. I usually don’t mind as a visiting surfer at good waves but it feels ridiculous at average beachies.

If you had a fish or twinny you could have lots of fun.

Classic crap-shoot euro beachies:

This left off the break wall was fun on lower tide:

Water was warm enough in the hot sun, 19 or so. 2mm long arm was fine but definitely not surfing in boardies with much comfort.

OS, just read back catching up on your trip.

Really interesting to read about a path less traveled. Thanks for sharing.

zenagain wrote:

OS, just read back catching up on your trip.

Really interesting to read about a path less traveled. Thanks for sharing.

100% agree, good work mate.

Re Mick 66 post above - Said to my son a few years back after a session we both enjoyed. " All the money in the world cant buy what we just experienced " Its simply beyond the reach of those who cant do it.

AlfredWallace wrote:

mick66 wrote:

AlfredWallace wrote:

mick66 wrote:

Ran the dog on the beach at sunrise, and there was more of a wave than expected. Back to the house to roust our middle daughter up with a coffee and out the door. Water and air both close to 80 degrees, and straight offshore at 10-15. Mostly around stomach/chest, with an occassional plus set. Back lit, aquarium clear and lots of sealife moving, including big rays passing under us now and then. Surfed for 2 hours with no one out.
Pretty nice way to start the day.

Mick66. Hi pal.
You paint a great happy picture, especially with temps around the 27c (80f) mark both in and out of the water. Sounds like life’s running in the right direction. Good stuff. AW

It sure was, AW. Just a great morning all-around.. You've got to appreciate the good times when they come, right? (And to be clear, our life certainly isn't some never-ending collage of IG influencer picture perfect moments. I hate that fakeness. )
btw, one more story, and I'll stop rambling on. About 10 days ago, it was similar conditions at the same spot, but dead glass and maybe just a little bigger. As we came in from an extended lunchtime surf, a tourist on the beach stopped me to say she'd enjoyed watching us surf, and then to ask if it would seem creepy to say she'd taken some video of us. I laughed and said of course it wasn't, at which point she offered to send a video. Anyway, when I got it later that day it was a video of my daughter dropping in and cruising on a perfect chest high right. What stood out though was the background commentary of the woman and her friend, asking each other if they could imagine being able to do what my daughter was doing.
I've replayed it numerous times, just to remind myself that as surfers we're pretty lucky to do what we do.

Mick66. Hi mate.

So true. We sure are, we sure are lucky.
Interestingly, over my lifetime, I’ve met a couple of guys who said something strange to me.
They said, I use to surf. I say what, what do you mean you use to surf, once a surfer always a surfer, I simply don’t understand how you can give up being a surfer.

Each to their own I suppose. AW

OK, to pick up on the theme of how lucky we can be...so we haven't had much surf since this exchange. I think at least 3 weeks of almost total flatness,
This past Friday a.m. I go for the usual early a.m. beach run with my dog, and there's actually a wave showing at the same spot mentiond before, right near the house. Nothing epic, but quick check of the buoy data shows about 2' at 17 seconds. It's almost dead low tide, now or never, so again it's waking up my daughter with a cup of coffee, and right to the beach. As always, she's out first, and as I paddle out and up to her, I point to a really good sized bottlenose dolphin heading our way who was arching his back and throwing a wake. He's soon joined by another and they cruise just outside of us, only about 10' away, right as my daughter spins and goes on the first wave of the day, a clean right. At which point the dolphins both turn shoreward, accelerate, and slot into the same wave. It's my daughter and one dolphin taking the high line just in front of her, with the other in the lead and slotted a bit lower. Just one of those sights you won't ever forget. As the wave winds down and my daughter kicks out, the dolphins spy the next wave, only 20 yards or so yards down, hit the afterburners and instead of just cruising as on the previous wave, they completely go off, taking turns launching out of the water.

mick66 wrote:

AlfredWallace wrote:

mick66 wrote:

AlfredWallace wrote:

mick66 wrote:

Ran the dog on the beach at sunrise, and there was more of a wave than expected. Back to the house to roust our middle daughter up with a coffee and out the door. Water and air both close to 80 degrees, and straight offshore at 10-15. Mostly around stomach/chest, with an occassional plus set. Back lit, aquarium clear and lots of sealife moving, including big rays passing under us now and then. Surfed for 2 hours with no one out.
Pretty nice way to start the day.

Mick66. Hi pal.
You paint a great happy picture, especially with temps around the 27c (80f) mark both in and out of the water. Sounds like life’s running in the right direction. Good stuff. AW

It sure was, AW. Just a great morning all-around.. You've got to appreciate the good times when they come, right? (And to be clear, our life certainly isn't some never-ending collage of IG influencer picture perfect moments. I hate that fakeness. )
btw, one more story, and I'll stop rambling on. About 10 days ago, it was similar conditions at the same spot, but dead glass and maybe just a little bigger. As we came in from an extended lunchtime surf, a tourist on the beach stopped me to say she'd enjoyed watching us surf, and then to ask if it would seem creepy to say she'd taken some video of us. I laughed and said of course it wasn't, at which point she offered to send a video. Anyway, when I got it later that day it was a video of my daughter dropping in and cruising on a perfect chest high right. What stood out though was the background commentary of the woman and her friend, asking each other if they could imagine being able to do what my daughter was doing.
I've replayed it numerous times, just to remind myself that as surfers we're pretty lucky to do what we do.

Mick66. Hi mate.

So true. We sure are, we sure are lucky.
Interestingly, over my lifetime, I’ve met a couple of guys who said something strange to me.
They said, I use to surf. I say what, what do you mean you use to surf, once a surfer always a surfer, I simply don’t understand how you can give up being a surfer.

Each to their own I suppose. AW

OK, to pick up on the theme of how lucky we can be...so we haven't had much surf since this exchange. I think at least 3 weeks of almost total flatness,
This past Friday a.m. I go for the usual early a.m. beach run with my dog, and there's actually a wave showing at the same spot mentiond before, right near the house. Nothing epic, but quick check of the buoy data shows about 2' at 17 seconds. It's almost dead low tide, now or never, so again it's waking up my daughter with a cup of coffee, and right to the beach. As always, she's out first, and as I paddle out and up to her, I point to a really good sized bottlenose dolphin heading our way who was arching his back and throwing a wake. He's soon joined by another and they cruise just outside of us, only about 10' away, right as my daughter spins and goes on the first wave of the day, a clean right. At which point the dolphins both turn shoreward, accelerate, and slot into the same wave. It's my daughter and one dolphin taking the high line just in front of her, with the other in the lead and slotted a bit lower. Just one of those sights you won't ever forget. As the wave winds down and my daughter kicks out, the dolphins spy the next wave, only 20 yards or so yards down, hit the afterburners and instead of just cruising as on the previous wave, they completely go off, taking turns launching out of the water.

Mick66. Hi mate. Hope you and yours are well.

I love your positive attitude, no matter how big or small the waves are, a surf is a surf, in your case , with bonuses, pod of dolphins. You and your daughter appear to have a great relationship, so good to hear these days.Dolphins are just behind the pecking order with chimpanzees when it comes to intelligence and social connection and affection.
In a day, they compartmentalise it into play/social behaviour, feeding and hunting.
The ability for them to truly recognise us as being almost one of theirs is clearly displayed when they share or ride waves with us. We are the lucky ones that’s for sure.
I’m sure, post surf, you and your daughter have a great chat over another coffee as to how good that session was, with or without waves. Good stuff. AW

“I really don't know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it's because in addition to the fact that the sea changes, and the light changes, and ships change, it's because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea - whether it is to sail or to watch it - we are going back from whence we came."

[Remarks at the Dinner for the America's Cup Crews, September 14 1962]
― John F. Kennedy

"And I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joy
Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be
Borne like thy bubbles, onward: from a boy
I wantoned with thy breakers—they to me
Were a delight; and if the freshening sea
Made them a terror—’twas a pleasing fear,
For I was as it were a child of thee,
And trusted to thy billows far and near,
And laid my hand upon thy mane—as I do here."

George Gordon Byron (Lord Byron)
Grandson of Vice Admiral John "Foul Weather Jack" Byron, circumnavigator, and the man Cook named Byron Bay after.

The sea is a challenge @adam12, you have to give into it to be at one with it, hey? It is why my mum doesn't understand people who want a sea view.. she says: 'the sea makes too much of itself.. forces you to contemplate its mood, rather than your own'. Once you aren't part of the sea, you just aren't part of it. Never give that game away. The sea is awesome. And life's a long trick, make the most of all of it. (the phrase 'the flung spray and the blown spume' pops into my head hundreds of times a year).

John Masefield. 'Sea-Fever':

"I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over."

adam12 wrote:

“I really don't know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it's because in addition to the fact that the sea changes, and the light changes, and ships change, it's because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea - whether it is to sail or to watch it - we are going back from whence we came."

[Remarks at the Dinner for the America's Cup Crews, September 14 1962]
― John F. Kennedy

"And I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joy
Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be
Borne like thy bubbles, onward: from a boy
I wantoned with thy breakers—they to me
Were a delight; and if the freshening sea
Made them a terror—’twas a pleasing fear,
For I was as it were a child of thee,
And trusted to thy billows far and near,
And laid my hand upon thy mane—as I do here."

George Gordon Byron (Lord Byron)
Grandson of Vice Admiral John "Foul Weather Jack" Byron, circumnavigator, and the man Cook named Byron Bay after.

Adam12. Hi mate. Great you’ve made an appearance on a worthy subject.

How are you brother?

You’ve nailed it, I’ve mentioned previously. We are borne of the sea.

Cellular life evolved in the oceans, so that means all of us, plants, animals and all biota.
Its very start was bacteria, bacteria that had evolved the ability to photosynthesise .
This came after a previously existing (reducing) atmosphere that contained no oxygen at all, just methane , ammonia , carbon dioxide, hydrogen and hydrogen sulfide and a small amount of water vapour.

It’s Cyanobacteria that gave us life, the ability to photosynthesise and liberate two atoms of oxygen.
The stromatolites of NW West.Australia, Port Lincoln and a few other places on earth still exist today, bubbling away providing us with oxygen.
Thrombolites also liberate oxygen atoms via a Cyanobacteria pathway.

From these early forms of life algae developed, thus increasing rates of photosynthesis and the ability to make food for themselves as well as liberating oxygen during the day.
Plant and animal life evolved in the oceans with plants becoming high and dry in pre ice age times, thus many evolved into terrestrial plants.
Many animals left the oceans and evolved on land just like plants. Many of these animals also went back into the ocean as well.

We are forever connected to the ocean. AW

it's fun though, isn't it @AW, that people give that kinda kudos and connection (much deserved, and tattoo worthy, I'm sure) to whales, that are basically cool-arse proto-pigs that staggered back into the ocean..

So stoked you're killing it with @Supa.. lap it up mate!

basesix wrote:

it's fun though, isn't it @AW, that people give that kinda kudos and connection (much deserved, and tattoo worthy, I'm sure) to whales, that are basically cool-arse proto-pigs that staggered back into the ocean..

So stoked you're killing it with @Supa.. lap it up mate!

Basesix. Hi pal. Hope you are well mate.

Supafreak is happier, my nocturnal gaseous departures have ceased with our room now a very pleasant surf wax smell, Sticky Johnson to be precise, it’s not what you’re thinking either!!!

The connection is often forgotten by most of society I’d imagine, too obsessed with one self and that dastardly little device we carry that’s eroding our intelligence.

It’s wonderful imagining all the times animals have left the ocean only to return, in many instances evolved again.

It’s lunch at the surf at present, play will resume in a couple of hours for our third session.
Always good for a chat and a chew. AW

How’s this little charger , be interesting to compare her heats to Toledo’s .

Supafreak wrote:

How’s this little charger , be interesting to compare her heats to Toledo’s .

Yep she is nuts hey
12 years old.... geez.

@AW,
going a bit shit ATM tbh, but thanks for asking.
Pinged a shoulder a week or so ago duckdiving a two foot wave FFS, so I'm on the old codger bench, again, and had to sit out our recent good run here, last Friday was an A plus day, Sunday was a good one too, July's been cold but pretty good back here, I've got car issues and a legal issue to deal with as well, in Court tomorrow, so no fun and no sun here like you boys are gorging on up there at Lances, and gotta say wish I was there not here, even if you are a midnight rambler according to @Supa, from all the spicy Indo food.

Watched my first game of AFL for the year on Sunday, Pies v Dockers, been TV free this year ( the old one blew up) but just got one, only to watch the footy really, and sniffed a bit of, dare I say it, wobble in the Pies last quarter which as a Tiger, did lift the spirits a bit, but I still believe they will probably take the flag this year, been the best side. The young Tigers had a win on the weekend, against the wooden spooners but I'll take that, two in a row and we have another Rioli, Maurice Jnr., who looks to have the magic in spades, and some other young guns coming on well so predict they will be back next year, maybe ? We play the Pies this weekend so will be thinking of you as we go down by 100 points.

Now something else I wanted to ask you, being a bird guy, and I'll preface it by saying I know you aren't supposed to feed wild birds because of predatory behavior etc, but I have a wild bird pet, a beautiful little female Butcherbird, who usually daily shows up on my front verandah and sings for me and yes I've been giving her little mince "worm" feeds going on six or seven years now. She is totally unafraid of me, will climb on my hand sometimes, will come when I whistle for her and since my cat and dog died is kind of my only pet. When I come back from being away I get a genuine vibe that she has missed me, or she's a bit pissed off with me that I wasn't around. In mating season, like now, she brings her male mate and I throw a bit of mince up in the air for him to catch too and when she has her young she brings them around too. I know, I know, you aren't supposed to do it but I can't resist, she is so gorgeous and tame, sometimes she will have a little feed and just sit in the tree next to me while I have my morning coffee on my verandah and just sing for me, it's a great way to start the day sometimes.
What I wanted to ask you is what is the life expectancy of a Butcherbird? This one has been coming around six or more years now and I'm hoping she stays a few more. She looks really healthy, how long will she live for?

Anyway, I know you and @Supa are having a ball and scoring big, and was watching a video of Lances today (below) with a goofy drawing some beautiful lines into barrels and thought of you, and @Supa, through jealous eyes.
Wish I was there, (although I probably would have face planted the reef or something first session and been medivac'd out by now).
Take care and go big mate and say g'day to @Supa for me. Next year I'm there, hell or high water,( I hope.)That wave is just so perfect, dangerous for old boys like me that don't move as quick anymore, but just such a beautiful piece of reef and location.