Gift of the Ether

Out of the Ether they come, Rising from the deep. Carry me to the space where I may glide upon the ocean, to rise and love this moment, this gift so brief, so sweet, this metaphor for life.

Dave and I surfed bells, on a day when all roads led to stay in Melbourne. But sometimes a part of you whispers and you listen. They are times when I am glad I do. In a Decade where we have seen fire rage across the land, rain fall in biblical proportions earthquakes and tsunami's, as our brothers and sisters die in the thousands it is sometimes hard to understand this world yet it is so important to appreciate this blink of life.

The Weekend

well the swell didn't live up to expectaion on Saturday, but it didn't matter the day was so beautiful and we had some fun chest high waves so all was well.

Ro, Benny and I surfed williamsons which is on the way to Wonthaggi, about 20 minutes past Philip Island, as you can see from the pics it was a beautiful day.

Sunday we got some adrenaline pumping after a bit of where do we go? and a phone call from the Island warning of 6ft plus closeouts and a predicted building swell we headed west and surfed some pretty sweet head high sets at Bells Beach. Another beautiful morning, with purple hues at sunrise and beams of light, igniting the fringes of the clouds, God I Love the morning!

There was a big crowd out but pretty friendly.

Monday was the dawn of a new board :-)

Saturday at Maresias

Here is where Brazil becomes a vision of paradise that is epitomised by beautiful beaches and warm ocean, fresh coconut water and tanned bikini clad beauties.

This coupled with 3 feet of perfect swell and indeed it would be heaven but alas it was more like 1 foot. Still it was a beautiful day and as we trundled down the cobbled main street it was easy to see why Maresias was a Soul Surfers destination of the 70's.

Maressias used to be accessible only by a service road for the petroleum pipes that carry crude oil to the refineries. Now it is a beautiful beach community where the mountains finish at the sea and water is a tepid 26C in summer.

After a few knee high short but fun rides on friends, friends longboard, a swim and a siesta we had the most delicious fish meal and a few beers to wash it down.

All in all it was a pretty perfect day and if you ever get a chance please don't miss out :-)

Sao Paulo

Day three in Sao Paulo, what I wouldn't give for a good wave and a strong Latte, :-) The surf is not far away but with the traffic here it can be anywhere up to two hours to the closest surf beach which is Santos, I'm going to try and get there at least once but I have a busy schedule and right now I am feeling pretty jet lagged.

On Sunday I caught up with my friend Pedro, a Designer with GM here in Brazil and met his family it was a pretty awesome day, its really nice to meet and spend time with locals as you get a little insight into a world that you don't get as a tourist.

well since I wrote the above, I found a place near the hotel that makes a great Latte

I think that was the most enjoyable coffee I've had in a while

Diversity is truly amazing.

Friday at Bells beach

Friday after work I headed down to Bells with a couple of friends, Johan and Arnou, and arranged to meet Rohan and Leroy there. we arrived to find Rohan had lost a fin and finished early but headed out to catch a few waves with leroy. The waves were breaking nicely in the bowl at a clean 3-4ft. My first wave was pretty sweet, a wide wave a bit overhead which broke perfectly down the line. I'm really enjoying riding the wooden fish, it is so fast and fun to ride and perfect for Bells at that size. We all had a really good surf and there were plenty of waves, it was my first session at bells where I made every wave all the way down the line so I was pretty stoked.

I think Johan caught the biggest wave, a wide set wave around 4ft+, I was paddling out as he was taking off and I thought that is going to be awesome!!!!!

As we finished our session and walked up the beach lightning started to flicker overhead and by the time we walked up the stairs the rain had become a torrent, quickly followed by hail and gale force winds, we could hear the guy's still in the water cheering!

Love Bells beach :-)

Fish for breakfast

Today, Australia day, was the first opportunity to surf Bells with the wooden fish since its completion two months ago, and even though I had some great waves in New South Wales over Christmas, I wish I had taken more photo's while I was away, some of the coast up there is absolutely breathtaking. It was an exciting prospect to surf the break the board was designed for. So Craig and I headed down in the ambrosial hrs before dawn to find a slightly wobbly but very surfable 2-3ft.

The fish was pretty sweet all round, easy to paddle fast down the line with nice acceleration off the bottom turn. Stoked!!!

So what now? well it seems everywhere the board goes it generates a lot of interest :-) so it would be only right to continue the journey and like all things that have humble origins into the ether with curiosity we go.

Surf, Live, Love.

Absent Mind present Heart

I've been absent for a while, mostly for good reasons, holidaying in Nelson bay which was amazing, building a new board and of course surfing. Still it looks like summer is here judging by the the number of people in the water, but the warmth is certainly appreciated and my first surf without booties was lots of fun at bells with a 2ft swell on low tide, :-)

So now all I have to do is finish the 7'2" quad fish in time for the Christmass visit to see the kids in Noosa and hopefully have a bit of a surf along the way.

Surfing Bells, Finless

Well, today was a mixed day great and a bit embarrasing! Rohan and I had an RDO and went down to surf Bells beach. By the time we arrived at about 8am the swell had built to around 3ft. Whilst we sat there we were joined by one of the pioneers of finless surfing Derek Hynd, have a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3du0vEJM5yY . So after a really nice midsize wave I got my first set wave that I rode top to bottom all the way through, Stoked, only to be paddling back and see Derek Hynd spinning effortlessly double stoked. OK so now I could have walked out at that point and it would have been enough.

But!!!!!

I discovered that the Kook in me is still there and even though I go out of my way to be well mannered and follow the rules I still make mistakes. Unlike old friends you can't just drop in and say hi to the guy on the inside particularly those of a cranky disposition, not that you would know until you test it! Even when they are way down the line and you think that they won't possibly make it through that section, think again because you never know who that guy is!!!!

What did I learn from this lesson well a few things but most importantly that it is so important to look and look again. Its not good practice to upset people with poor etiquette, not that my faux pas was deliberate and that on a wave that is a decent size the thought of a 65-100kg surfer+ surfboard that is moving at 30 kmh on an impact trajectory with you is not something you particularly want.

Surf, Love, Dance, Sing, Smile :-)

The weekend

The weekend was magic! Saturday Tom, Rohan, Leroy and I headed down to bells and for me it was, thanks partly to Rohan a great Surf, I was struggling a bit to get on a wave mostly due to the swell around the 4ft mark quite fast but testy with an incoming tide, you really had to be in the perfect spot to take off and my 6'8" was just not getting there for me so Ro and I swapped boards, he has a 6'10" Mccoy and voila!

I got a wave. then another but as I took the bottom turn and started to trim I could see the lip curling over about a 2ft above my head, all I could think was how cool it looked as it was curling over, so I pulled in and tried to make it as far down the line as I could before the lip engulfed me. I didn't get far but IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!

My surfing life now has a new goal. I want to get completely barrelled at least!.........

Sunday, What an a amazing morning, after checking the report for a 3-5ft swell Sam and I headed down to Urquharts Bluff, shoulder high on the sets and a perfect day. I now have the worst case of wetsuit tan and my shoulders are currently in a state of rebellion but I feel amazing as I have had had some great rides on my 9'3" Noserider

I can't believe I will head down tomorrow!......

Wednesday Meditaion

I have heard so many surfers relate the ecstasy of a perfect ride to Nirvana and that being in the Ocean always feels like a purification of the mind body and soul. Being a meditator, designer and surfer and generally dreamy sort of individual these things are close to my heart and I always see the boundries blur as one feeds the other.

Recently on aBlog I have really enjoyed reading http://surfingnorthdevon.blogspot.com/ there was a post that considered The golden Mean, also known as the Divine proportion, a ratio derived from a certain mathematical principal. left me to consider that there are only a few patterns that define the whole of the Universe and that we live in a space where Microcosm = Macrocosm and that all of these Geometries can be described by formulae. It is also interesting that the profile of a wave as energy is released through motion, reflects the Fibonacci spiral. It would seem that we have a Single creative force at work within the Universe

From the Tao,

Like water penetrating rock the Tao seeps in, Therefore the wise act by doing nothing.

From the Dhamapada

The path of the Bhudda is the the path of enlightenment, this is through the study of self, to study the self is to forget oneself and to forget ones self is to surrender ones body mind and spirit to the omnipresent superconscious reality that pervades the entire creation.

It is truly a beutiful thing to be at one with a wave. First there is anticipation, timing, positioning and the belief, "I will catch this wave!" and then after taking off our effort recoils and a relationship is born a short but beautiful journey, a oneness, a Nirvana.

And ;-)

It is a wonderful experience to see your children laugh, hear their voices and to watch them create, dance and just be!

In the Absence of surf or more specifically north wind since there has been plenty of swell, its time to face oneself and all the things that have been ignored like the lawns, and if the home is a metaphor for the self then a haircut would also be a good idea, along with purging the mind of a few cobwebs.

So that was yesterday and after taking care of some of the things that needed doing I caught up with my Surf buddy Pete. After variety of Tapas accompanied by a very Chocolatey Scotch Ale, from the Red Hill Brewery on the Mornington Peninsula. we sat and watched Zathura and I wondered what it would be like if you were actually playing a game and all of a sudden your lounge was bombarded by meteors! It certainly would not be boring. Which brings me back to now.

If you Happen to live in Melbourne and are wondering what to do when the wind blows south and you still feel you need a surf fix, then I would highly recomend going to Rhomus Surf at 85 Brunswick st, Fitzroy.

http://rhombussurfshop.com.au/pages/

Cathedral Rock

It was a stunning morning at Cathedral Rock, Nr Lorne, Vic today, with super clean waves and clear blue skies.

The swell was around 4-6ft, it packed quite a punch and I managed to end up on the rocks a couple of times fortunately without injury, its interesting to experience how much more power is in a 3ft wave versus 4ft and then again from 4ft to 6ft , on the way back we had a discussion about how much this factor increases since it is definitely not linear!

So after some research and some basic assumptions, it goes something like this:

Today at 4-6 ft which peak to trough is around 2-4 metres

significant period 15 sec

Assuming an average depth of 3 metres and an efficiency of 40%

we get a wave that is moving at around 5.4 m/s (20 km/h)

If these factors remain constant then this gives a net power of

2.7 KW or 2700 N/m/s at 1 metre

10.8 KW or 10800 N/m/s at 2 metres

43.4 KW or 43400 N/m/s at 4 metres

In reality we would also get depth variation with wave size and therefore an increase in velocity as the wave increases in size.

But in everyday terms this is a compressive force of approximately 4.5 tonnes at 4 metres which is pretty incredible but what is more incredible is that the force increase is so rapid, more than 4 times the power of a wave at 2 metres and 16 times more powerful than a wave at 1 metre.

The fields were beautiful :-).

Kilcunda

A Grey Morning with the possibility of high winds and heavy rain, turned out to be a great surf at Kilcunda, a small town 10 minutes south of Philip Island.

Tom, Roh and I had a 3-4ft right hand bank to ourselves for most of our session with light rain and an offshore wind, we were pretty stoked.

Magic!

Saturday At Cathederal Rock

Roh, Tom and myself arrived at Bells Saturday Morning to see a solid 6ft set roll in, with no one at Centre side we decided that it would be worth the trip to Cathederal Rock. When we arrived there, it was about 4ft with some good waves peeling wide and no-one taking them, as most were sitting inside and further out. So out we went my Surf was some what interesting with a few bungled take offs that once again brought me down to earth, but I did manage a few metres at speed, which left me only wanting more!

Pic-Rohan taking it easy.

Tuesday at Point Impossible

Yesterday I looked at the surf forecast for today and thought if I start work at 5.45am I can leave at 2.15pm and be in Torquay by 4pm which would give me about 2hrs of surfing and I would be back in Melbourne between 8 and 10pm depending on whether or not I ate there.

So after making the decision and setting my alarm, I got to bed early. I was still undecided as to where to surf this morning since today was a beautiful winters day with 4ft+ and offshore wind all day and with high tide around 4.30 reducing the choices of breaks that were working well, I was certain that it would be busy.

When a friend suggested Point Impossible, a reef that I haven't surfed for about 8 months I was not sure I wanted to go there since I had always struggled to get waves on my old mini-mal but I decided to try again since I have improved a bit since then, not to mention it is an amazing place being a marine wildlife reserve.

As I paddled out the sky was dancing with the ocean in a way that turned one to the other and back again, a kind of metamorphosis that only happens in certain light and times of day. A dance that was interrupted only by the breaking of waves, rising monolithic walls, translucent in the evening sunlight. I was so glad I made the trip.

Still smiling :-)

Woolamai

I just got back from Woolamai, Philip Island. Today was cold, the water a chilly 11.5C and a strong offshore wind.

Yet we managed to have a lot of fun on the Bank Roh and I surfed, 2-3ft sets coming through with the odd one or two peeling nicely into the beach.

The Weekend

It was a Beautiful weekend with sunshine and offshore winds. Saturday Rohan and I surfed at Guvo's Near Angelsea and then on Sunday Rohan, Tom, Leroy and I Surfed Bells, it was about 3ft and slightly cross shore but we got some great waves.

Ford Design Art Show

Yesterday Ford Design Australia kicked off its annual Junior Diabetes Research Foundation Fund raising Art Auction.

The Exhibition featured an interesting variety of media including 3D collages, Framed Origame, Original photo's, Pottery, Digital Art, Textile Design, prints on Canvas and Original were just some of the pieces for sale.

This event offers the Designers a great opporunity to express their talents and skills outside of the studio environment and provides a forum for creativity that otherwise would not exsist.

Enjoy

Dave