Saturday, November 27, 2010

Break 5 - Shoreham beach (the pines)

27th November and what a day in Melbourne.  It's raining with flood warnings but oddly it's in the low 20s temperature wise.  The surf forecast for the east coast is a good swell in the afternoon with best spots inside Westernport bay.   I check the triggerbros surfcam at about 2.00 pm and there are plenty out at Pt Leo and so I decide to head for Shoreham, hoping the wind holds and the swell remains. 

Shoreham is about 5 minutes drive on from Point Leo on the Hastings-Flinders rd and is a picturesque little beach surrounded by small hills with pine trees on the ridge and it has a lovely country air about it.  They've improved the beach access road over the last couple of years but it can still have plenty of pot holes in it when it has been really raining.  We arrive at about 3.30 and the car park is pretty full with surfers out at all three breaks on the beach - the left end of the beach known as Honeysuckle and the middle beach and right point breaks (the pines).  All the breaks are over a reef and the surf only works a couple hours either side of high tide.

Sam and I decide to go out in middle break and its about a 50 meter paddle.  You can go out on the left and mostly paddle around the break and then paddle back across and wait in the line up.  The waves today are about 1/2 to 1 meter with the latter pretty rare and only out at the right point break end of the beach.  Shoreham is a longboarders wave and there are probaly all up about 30 odd people out.  Sam absolutely struggles to get out but it is a sign of his paddling improvement that he manages to get out most the way - he gets stuck in between and is clearly frustrated though.  He is caught where the waves are breaking and then when the swell drops just can't paddle hard enough to get through. 

I get out the back and watch for Sam whilst also trying to get a few waves - a good wave at Shoreham takes you right and about 30 meters for a great ride.  I sit out the back and wait and then a small set comes through, I paddle hard, jump up quickly and bang go straight over the front of board - wipeout no. 1.  I look around for any signs of laughter but Sam is still stuck trying to get out.  I go over and help him and give him a break by towing him out as he hangs onto my legrope.  He then sits and finally paddles onto one and gets up and is getting quite a good ride before he decides to somersault off the right of his board.  Not sure about the move but he seems happy about it. 

I head back out and finally I get onto a wave.  I paddle hard, get up, move my backfoot onto my grip and manouvre right and am away - the wave starts to die and I go forward on my board and sink my front foot down to get some momentum and that helps keep me going for bit and then I theatrically dive off and feel pretty good about myself.

I surface and look up to see Sam traipsing up the beach and heading to the right point break.  The right point is under a cliff and the point is very rocky.  Sam is on the rocks trying to get out - I am now on the beach, yelling at him and trying to get him to hear me.  The reason I'm doing this is the best way out at the point is you go round the corner, then enter the surf from the beach and you paddle out on the right of the break and it's pretty much a flat trip around the break. Sam doesn't hear me and jumps in off the rocks - I head out there and watch him struggling again in the "in between" and motion him to go right.  I go round the corner and he soon gets across to join me. 

We are out the back pretty quickly and then within about five minutes we both catch a great 2 footer, it forms beautifully and I take off left, it dumps quickly but then reforms and I am able get back up the wave, turn down and head right - a great little wave.  I look around and Sam has clearly caught it for a while as well.  We paddle around for a fair bit longer and with not much happening for us, although plenty being caught by others we head out. 

We get changed and head to Balnarring for a coffee for me and hot chocolate for Sam - it's about 5.30 now and it's been a pretty good afternoon.  We speak to Sue to let her know we are heading home and she let's us know it's been pouring with rain in Melbourne - we had none down at Shoreham.  Just as a side note the bakery in Balnarring is bloody fantastic and I love their pasties and also the iced doughnuts. 

AnywayI  feel I'm building some momentum now with Break 5 done and dusted and I reckon 10 by Christmas is a real possibility. 

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Cat Bay - break 4

Sunday 21st November and we are going surfing two days in a row.  Today Sue is coming with us again and has vowed she will make no suggestions about lunch and will generally just take photos and adopt the go with the flow philosophy of a surfing trip.  I look up the surf and the best place looks like Cat Bay on Phillip Island.  Cat Bay is good a couple of hours either side of high tide and we head off about 9.30. 

We make good time down the freeway and we are on Philip Island a bit after 11.00 and Sam and I are in the water at about 11.30.  The car park is full and there is at least 20 people out.  The surf is great - about 1/2 to 1 metre and not much wind due to Cat Bay being so protected.  A local tells us afterwards that it is blownout everywhere else on the Island. 

If you've never surfed Cat Bay it is great left hander that breaks slowly over a reef and is loved by longboarders and grommets.  I don't think I've ever had a bad surf here and I've been here a dozen or more times.  Getting out at Cat Bay is never hugely challenging as you can go out from the middle or far right of the beach and basically paddle around the break - it's one of the reasons it so popular I reckon, along with the wave itself of course.  Sam and I both get out near the back, which just shows how much Sam's paddling is improving, but also confirms that it's not that challenging. 

About the second or third set that come through I start paddling, having seen the better surfers get off on the earlier waves.  I am paddling hard, then I feel the push of the wave and I jump up and down the left of the wave I go and who do see on my left - Sam!  I decide to turn back on the right as the wave breaks and I fall off only to come up and see Sam still going into the beach on the wave.  That's it I know - Sam will now be saying he saw Dad off on the same wave, he outsurfed him.  I paddle in to see Sam and sure enough he says something like "what happened to you, I saw you and then you were off the wave" - he is smiling from ear to ear.  Sue is laughing on the beach and I think this is such a surfing event - a story is born.  I can here Sam in 10 years time - "do you remember the day we were surfing at Cat Bay and ....". 

We surf for about 90 minutes and there are some great waves being caught.  My waves perhaps don't rate as great but I do get onto a good half dozen and two of them I really enoyed - up smoothly, down left, slight turn upwards (because I can only do slight turns upwards) and then back down the wave.   Great fun and also terrific to see Sam able to paddle out the back and generally just manage by himself in the surf.  Sue gets some great photos including plenty of another old bloke out there she thought was me a few times and some strange kid who she also thought was Sam.  It's been a really good surf and just confirms for me how you can't beat Cat Bay on a good day.  We head back to the car and decide on the big decision of the day - where to for lunch?

We go into Cowes to get lunch.  Lunch is not great - typical holiday town cafe of burgers, schnitzels, bacon&eggs etc despite the claim that my Latte is an "Award Winning Layered Latte".  That said Sam claims to have a great Calamari and iced chocolate.  We look at some of Sue's photos over lunch and they look good. Particularly thinking that she really has to guess half the time if it's me or Sam on the wave. 

I think it's been probably the most successful surf to date and hopefully the photos will bear this out.  I'll try and put a few up on this blog at a later date.  We leave the Isalnd about 2.30 and we are home about 4.00pm.  As like yesterday to Leo the drive to Phillip Island is great and it makes the trip easier and seem faster. 

Break 4 down,a great family day out and it's onto next week for break 5. 

Point Leo- Break no. 3

Saturday 21st November and today Sam and I are off to Crunchie Point ("Crunchies") at Point Leo.  The day itself is a great spring day - about 22, sunny and with a light wind.  The outlook for Westernport where Pt Leo is (http://www.swellnet.com.au/reports/home)
sounds good. It's a high tide wave and lucky for us high tide is about 11.00 am and so we can head off about 9.30, which we do.

Point Leo is a great learners break and is always full of old blokes on Mals and kids learning to surf.  As an old bloke with a big board (7'6") and still coming to grips with surfing I love it.  I really like the drive to "Leo" - it's only an hour from our place and you travel nicely from suburbia to the country to the beach without the traffic and sheer boredom of the drive down the west coast through Geelong.  Crunchies is through the park entrance and the first car park on the left.  Sam and I drive up to the top car park with the view and jump out to check out the surf.  It's normal Leo - despite reasonably crap surf there's plenty out including the normal surf school.  The surf is probably 1/2 metre (sounds better than 1-2 foot) with the odd, very odd 1 metre wave. The wind is fickle and all in all I'm not feeling terribly confident about a good surf - then again who cares it's a great day to be the water.

Sam and I get down to the beach and then it's over the rocks, dive in and start paddling.  It's about 11.00, when we enter the water.  We start paddling out and I break away a bit from Sam and start heading out the back - we've only been in about five minutes and I turn around to see how Sam is going - only to see him standing up and gunning down a typical crunchies small right hander - he shoots along for about 10 meters and falls off, clearly wrapped with his performance.  He's off to a great start.

For me the next hour in the water is somewhat mixed - I get probably two decent waves, fall off the back or just fail to get onto about five and help Sam out for a fair bit of it.  The latter includes me paddling Sam out, whilst he grabs hold of my legrope - I paddle slowly anyway but we were moving like treacle with him holding on.  We did manage to get out a fair way though and most of the time Sam does paddle himself.  The water is fantastic and I always love how clear and clean it seems at Crunchies.  I think Crunchies is a great beach - its got a great rural feel, big trees around, the cliff face and the boat club mixed with the rocks at lowtide.  You can walk for miles either way, do a rock ramble and collect shells and it's also a real suntrap - if you can't tell I like it. 

Sam and I head out of the water after about and hour and quarter and the by the time we are changed it's about 12.30 and time for lunch and we also need to repair Sam's board - the black cord to his legrope has snapped somehow, just near the end of our session and so we will need to get that fixed.  If you're at Point Leo there's only one place to go after a surf and that's Pittie's, right next to the Trigger bros. shop.  We have brunch at Pitties - Sam has his usual of chips, a potato cake and a hashbrown washed down with a coke and I have a bacon and egg roll with a coffee.  The food is always great here and then we head into Trigger Bros., (http://www.triggerbrothers.com.au/ )
it is just a great Surf shop - I ride a TriggerBros 7'6'' Stubby and they are always really helpful, glad to talk to you and also have great bargains.   We get our black cord for nothing which is great, buy some wax and then head home.  Break no. 3 is down and I feel that I can really build some momentum now before Christmas - should try and get close to 10 before xmas.  

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Break no. 3 (not quite!)

Sunday 13th November and today Sue is coming with Sam and me.  Its an average sort of day about 20 degrees with patches of sun and at this stage a light wind.  We are planning to take a look down the west coast and head to Point Lonsdale via ocean Grove.  We head off at our normal lazy time of about 10.00 am.

We get a good run through and out of Melbourne and down the highway to Geelong and surprisingly the trip through Geelong is also really quick.  We arrive at Ocean Grove about 11.30 and check the waves - pretty ordinary, blown out and about 2 to 3 foot.  We decide to get a coffee at the cafe.  We get a table in the corner and have great views of the beach and discuss the plan - we agree we'll head to Point Lonsdale and if there is no surf we'll have lunch there.  After coffee and a chat it's about 12.00 and we head off.

We get to Point Lonsdale about 12.30 and if the Surf was no good at Ocean Grove it's really bad at Lonsdale.  We are walking back from the beach to the car when Sue suggests we go to a cafe on the water at Barwon Heads which is five minutes on from Ocean Grove.  Sue and I have been there before a few years previous and it was pretty good and so we head there.  In the car Sam and I give Sue a bit of "stick" about having to go to her "special cafe" and that when it's he and I we just go with it and eat wherever.

It's about 1.00 and we are seated in the cafe with our sea views and have been served water and provided with the menus - Sue then says "there's nothing on the menu I like really".  We look at each other and decide well if that's the case let's leave and  we do.  Sam and I try and contain our amusement at this turn of events and then we drive around the corner into Barwon Heads proper to check out the lunch options.  Checking out the lunch options takes about 20-30 minutes and involves walking into or past about 5 or 6 eating options plus a surf shop and a couple of other shops that take Sue's fancy.  At about 1.30 we end up in the first place we looked at and we have a great lunch.  It's the bakery on the left entering Barwon from the Geelong side and the meals, drinks and coffee were all great - Sam decided on breaking up his chip lunch diet and opting for 2 sausage rolls instead and Sue and I both have BLTs.

After lunch it's time for a bit of shopping - Sue heads down to buy a jumper and Sam and I go to the surf shop.  We then proceed to spend about $250 between us - Sue buys her jumper, Sam gets a new wetsuit and a hoodie and it's now about 2.30 and we still have not set foot on the beach.  We decide to head back to Ocean Grove to check things out.

Ocean Grove is pretty windswept - strong onshore wind blowing waves out but there are quite a few people out.  I opt to help Sam with his surfing and chuck on my wetsuit.  Sam has a pretty good session, catching a couple of good waves and it's really nice in the water.  I do a bit of body surfing in between providing tips and the odd push to Sam and regret I didn't bring my Board in as well, as there's the odd catchable wave.  Not too worry I tell myself there's always next week.

We head out of the water about 3.30 pm and get changed - Sue gets some coffees and a hot chocolate for Sam and its about 3.50 before we head home.   Its been a productive shopping day, a fun family outing but there was no surfing for me.  We head home and get back about 5.30 pm. I contemplate a weekend gone and no beach added to the break count - I need to get motoring.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Break no. 2

If I said I was off to a slow start on my quest that would be an understatement and at this stage things are looking a little shaky - 1 break in just under 3 months and 49 to go in 9 months. Hey, I love leaving things to the last minute.

It's the 6th November - lovely, sunny day, about 23 Celcius and a light wind.  Sam and I get off to a slow Saturday and by the time we get ready to head off it's about 10.15 am and we decide we are off to Ocean Grove, about 20 mins from Geelong and all up about 90 minutes from our place.


After a pretty good trip down the highway and through Geelong we get to Ocean Grove and decide the swell at about 2ft is fine and we will get straight into it.  It takes Sam about 15 minutes to actually get into his wet suit and then when we finally enter the water he says the water is too cold and he wants to get the booties out of the car - I tell him to get the keys and go head but I'm heading out. 

There is a good crowd in the water and Ocean Grove is a typical beach break but with 2ft surf it's not a hard slog to get out the back pretty quickly.  The wind is on shore and it makes for some frustration with waves just dying away but I surf for about an hour and get three or four ok waves - nothing to write home about but enough to get me coming back.  


During my surf I check in with Sam in the whitewater and he catches quite a few waves and is paddling around with his feet now warm.   He's not interested in me helping him out too much and that's ok by me as I can go out the back and just look for him in between waves.


As we head out of the water we decide we'll get some lunch at the cafe - which is right at the top of the beach with great views of the beach.  The cafe is a great set up, only let down by the line up for service option.  That said we have a good lunch, great coffee and a good chat - Sam has his usual serve of the largest plate of chips you can get.  


After lunch it's off to Torquay to check out the surf (lousy) and the shops - a good 60 mins of walking and browsing.  By the time we get home it's about 5.00 pm and that's break 2 down.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

The quest

On August 9th 2010 I turned 49 and entered my 50th year on earth. To celebrate or perhaps try to deaden the impact of this momentous event I decided to set myself a challenge - to surf 50 beaches in my fiftieth year. In my 49th year I had also set myself a challenge - to get fitter and to run the city to surf. On the 8th of August - the last day of my 49th year I achieved that.

There is a famous Chines quote that sits behind the motivation of my quest -"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" Lao Tzu, The Way of Lao-tzu Chinese philosopher (604 BC - 531 BC).

My journey begins with a single break - Smiths Beach on Phillip Island in the State of Victoria, Australia on October 3rd 2010. The day is a classic Spring day - about 22 Celsius, blue sky and a very light wind. The car park is full and the surf is small (about 2ft) but clean. I commence my quest with my 12 year old son, Sam who is starting out on his own surfing journey. We both catch a couple of waves - he in the whitewater and me out the back. I have a couple of classic wipeouts - yes, even in a 2 foot swell and this perhaps lets you know the level of my surfing skill. I do however get one great ride - down the face, gliding up and left and then shooting off the wave. For me, it's that one ride every time I surf that gets me back to surfing - it's such a great feeling. I also love just sitting out the back on my board and just sitting!!

At this point I have to add that surfing with Sam means going out to get something to eat. After our Surf we go to the cafe/fish&chip shop at Smiths and I have the best salad wrap I reckon I have ever have - it's a knockout. Sam has chips, a couple of calamari rings and potato cakes and he rates them about 8 out 10. All in all a good start to the quest.