All photos thanks to Scotty Bauer http://bauerphoto.com.au/

MIKEY’S TAKE

Intro

The world of free surfing has shown that our secret playgrounds are doorways of knowledge that lead us to becoming greater surfers. Learning and sharing how to get there, where to paddle out, what wave is best, the inches between the right take off and a costly mistake are all parts of surfing and what we want to be aware of. All this knowledge of being a surfer is priceless and can only be gained through time. It is the reason why we look up to those before us who inspire and create perfect lines on waves and they are truly the best surfers in the world; like ANDY.

Being connected to the land and the ocean is sometimes forgotten about as being a big part of the surfer lifestyle but in fact it’s the most unique part of what surfing is all about. Since the days when kings first encountered the ocean’s energy, to today as we search for the perfect wave. Surfing the perfect wave is like a dream and like the spiritual dream world is to the aboriginals- getting barrelled is like to surfing.

The image of perfection has been moulded into our mind’s, which leads us to yearn for it. Those of you who want it bad enough will wonder outside the box, off the beaten track and for us lucky enough, we will find these experiences in moments living as surfers. After all, those lost days travelling for less than average surf are made up for when finally rewarded.

The Trip

Our trip began with myself, Marti Paradisis and Lukas Street driving through the desert hours on hours, filling up tank after tank committed to getting closer to our destination. Marti is ‘KING CHICKEN’ driving the whole way and resisting anything otherwise. Through the night we luckily caught up with Scotty Bauer who we followed along dirt track crossings and treacherous pathways on our way inward. Ahead lay a sunken 4-wheel drive submerged to its windscreen in muddy water with a small tinny attached. The tinny appeared to be afloat as we spun past trying to mimic the exact tire tracks of Scotty. With a crazy evil laugh he punched through puddle after puddle, which somehow we managed to follow.

As the sun gradually arose on our arrival, so did the swell. It still wasn’t yet clear what we were in for over the next few days but regardless it was already feeling special. We were lucky enough to setup camp with local threaders Kerby Brown, Ry, Dino Adrian, Jam’o …. , Nath Brejnack along with Goldy resident Jarrah Tutton and visiting image creators & Mikey. It was the best campsite I had ever seen and located right along a beautiful beach and lagoon. Dino’s grey 70’s style caravan was sprayed with a large black peace symbol that set the scene. With shelter, dining table, bbq and fireplace we felt as though we were living it up old school with a cool hippy vibe. As the evening was upon us the swell looked like it was stacking up to the horizon. Blue arora’s bounced between the lines and into out a space as the night sky came alive. Although there was not much to see in the desert, talk of UFO’s, aliens, and murders kept us on the look out, under the brightest stars everybody told a few yarns before passing out awaiting the next day of waves.

The next day we awoke early to brew the coffee, suit up and make the very solid paddle out. The waves were mean, square and heavy. Breaking in shallow water so making it out the back and avoiding a set was nerve racking. The tight take off positioned everybody close and everyone took turns to dig into the sets and set a line threading down into the inside bowl. Some un-believable barrels were ridden with some really critical take off’s were taken. Ry on his first wave went down on a bomb unfortunately, hurting his knee as it jacked right up. I felt guilty as I called him into it, but Kerby ensured me he was making him go anyway. Those guys are fuckin funny, real cool and surf amazing. The sections of the wave just threw out wide the whole way down the line, with steps coming up the face of the wave. A reminder of the waves consequence was reported after news of a booger being scalped by the sharp reef and having to be rushed to hospital put things into perspective. Everyone shared the swell and picked up some amazing rides to remember and all day the waves were pumping, as it got glassier toward dusk.

It was like a dream, quick enough to blur but powerful enough to imprint on my brain forever. I started remembering how epic it was to be in a new place and learn everything about it, watch the local’s rule it knowing everything absolutely possible about the joint including where to go for the best Ice cream. We met up with more epic locals like Camel, who told us more funny unrepeatable stories followed by more surf. Just as it became all too evident to me this was what it was all about, meeting the people who inspire and sharing a really strong connection that exists with such a place. Evil, powerful, perfect for sure, but something else about the place, I don’t know if the colours of the red desert and blue water have anything to do with it or the fact that everything was so desolate yet alive. But, the fact was it was good to get a new perspective on life. After reading Flanagan’s book ‘Here on Earth’ and thinking about the world spinning at something like 1000+ kph, to get barrelled moving that fast against what is occurring must mean it is something like a warped vortex which is why I think it must feel so good.

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All photos Andrew Chisholm

Shippies is a pretty consistant wave really. Sometimes when conditions look great it can be a complete hoax and other times it produces the goods when least expected. The 28th and 29th May was one of those days. Yes the swell was predicted to be pretty large, but the winds were looking horrible. My friend “John BONES Dwyer” came down for the swell so it was a pleasant surprise to be greeted with 10-12ft tubs unloading at the base of the big cliff. The usual suspects were amongst the barrell dwellers, James and Ty Hollmer-Cross, Danny Griffiths, Mikey Brennan, Jimi Mckean and Rudi Schwartz.. The “POM” came down to give it another try and actually got some nuggets, well earned considering he had to sit on the rocks and watch on the “day of days” a coupla weeks ago. Storm Surfers were in town doin there thing with there 3d cameras and Ross and Tom in the line up. Everyone got well pitted all day. A few crew hung around down south for the Sunday session which was another amazing day. A little smaller but just as clean and half the crowd. Those are the days that stand out. Just a nice crew with consistant waves and sunny skies. I told Bones he just experienced a rare occasion, most people who have there first sessions out at shippies are lucky to get it on, let alone two days in a row. He was the happiest man alive..
At the end of the day i grabbed my GO PRO out and whipped into a few… Theres also a coupla of clips from a trip i did down deep south with Sandy Ryan and Adam Morris, we scored 6-8ft left hand slabbers and had an amazing session. Check in soon for the shots and the stern Clip….. YEEEEEAAAAAW

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For more shots check out The Collective and theres plenty kicking round on facebook, ASL doing a feature next issue

 

I woke up Monday morning with one thing on my mind, “buoyweather”. Surfers like myself work in perculiar ways. We rely so much on predictions, it takes over our lives and consumes us whole. Surfing isnt like any other sport. Weather is our friend and our enemy. Thats why we feel like we are closer to nature than most people. We are at Mother Earths mercy and she will do as she pleases. There is nothing constant about it. It changes every second. Its not like a skate park, where the skater can mentally visualise each trick and where to hit each rail… In surfing every wave is different and you have to make split second decisions with in a blink of an eye… This happens in a normal surf session, so try to imagine what goes through your head when your faced with the biggest swell to ever it shippies, the most unpredictable wave on earth…

Tuesday May 17th 2011 will go down in history as the biggest surf ever ridden at Shipstern Bluff.. When the swell appeared on the charts i couldnt believe my eyes. 33ft 16secs with light onshore winds becoming more favourable as the evening progresses… It was , to this date, unheard of.  The predicted onshore winds were a slight worry but we were determined to give it a crack anyway..The next few paragraphs is my account of how it went down…

Tuesday morning we woke to howling onshore winds. But this was predicted so the let down was short lived. One thing was for sure though, the swell was huge.. We were getting reports that the Hobart Points were 3 ft, generally on a stern swell there feathering at 1ft. After some quick preparation checking our gear and packing the car, we were on the road by 8am. Id been checking the coastal observations all night and all morning and could see the wind was slowly turning around and becoming lighter, so once we got to the boat ramp i was pretty enthusiastic to get our shit together and get around there as fast as we could. There was lots of things happening in the ocean i hadnt seen before, like 1ft lines coming into the boat ramp and bombies breaking that ive never even seen cap before…

The teams were Rudi Scwartz/James Mckean, James/Ty Hollmer-Cross , the Pom/Danny Griffiths and Sandy Ryan/Myself. Me and Sandy headed off first because we were meeting up with the boat half way round to offload some boards. Once around at shippies we were met with the biggest mutated lumps of water ive ever laid my eyes on, we didnt see one makeable wave. It felt really different to the last time i was there. The danger vibe was predominant and i didnt want the nerves to get the better of me so i decided to give it a crack straight up. Sandy hadn’t towed before so the poor kid was under pressure to try get me in the spot. My first wave i dropped into a bit wide and tried to fade to get in the spot, once at the bottom i lost all my speed and tried to pull through the back. I ended up getting sucked over, first beatdown of the session, on my first wave.

It was extremely hard to work out the conditions this day, it was like the swell was too big for the reef. Each wave you towed into went below sea level and you had no idea where you were on the wave, it was a total mind fuck to surf. Normally you can tell where the take off is and where the step is, this day the whole wave was stepping out the whole way down the line. One set that came through would of had to be pushing 30ft. It doubled up and we all watched it in awe , as it proceeded to mutate and do stuff you would never imagine a wave could do. There was no possible way you could ride it and it was cringing thinking about someone being on it. Honestly no one could of survived that wave. After about 2hrs james and ty rocked up but still no sign of the others. They proceeded to tell us that Danny’s ski broke down and him and Pom were gonna walk in.After another hour Rudi and Mckean finally showed up. It was a bit offputting that neither team wanted to tow straight away, obviously the waves they were seeing didnt look inviting.

Sandy tackled it fearlessly. It was his first consequential surf since fracturing his neck 6 months ago but he gave it a solid crack. We tried to rig up a neck brace but it wouldnt fit under his wetsuit so we just tried to strap his neck up with a bit of tape. He said on his first wipeout he went over the falls trying to brace his head just hoping for the best. It all held together and he ended up getting some mad rides.

Charles Ward is a local bodyboarder whos turning heads in the booger world. He surfs shippies really well and is consistantly out there pushing himself every swell. He paddled out in the late arvo after standing on the rocks for over an hour waiting for a break in the sets to scramble through the pounding 10ft of whitewash rolling down the point. It then took him and hour and half just to get out the back to where the waves were breaking, due to a strong current dragging him into the middle of the bay. After his efforts and commitment i ended up towing him into one of the biggest pits of the day. He was so fucking stoked.

James and ty are really consistant surfers out at stern. We call them the “terrorists” cause they rock up in there hoods and masks, terrorise the session and make there way home, always getting the job done usually with one of them snagging wave of day. Tuesday was Ty’s day, pulling into an oversized pit that was as hollow as was high. It looked big on Tyler and he’s 6’4, so u know it must of been fucking huge..

Mckean and Rudi are the kamikaze patrol. Those two are just ruthless always frothing so hard and always racking up the biggest wave count. Mckean wiped out on a wave that was the ugliest thing ive seen happen out there. If it doesnt win a wipeout award il be very shocked. I was cringing when i watched the footage that night. Right on dusk  after the boat and most people had left, Rudi proceeded to drop into something incredible. As he hit the step i lost sight of him as the wave went below sea level. He didnt quite make it but it was a spectacular finish to an amazing, historical day.

Unfortunately Mikey , Danny and Pom couldnt be there with us but im sure there thirst for it has grown and they will be charging as hard as ever next session. That Tuesday 17th May 2011 is now a safe stored memory in the bank. It wasnt the best we’d surfed it but it was the biggest. To have it that size and offshore will be a dream that hopefully will happen another time. In the meantime we can sit back and be thankful no one got seriously hurt…..

Check these links out below for more media

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2011/05/18/3220659.htm

http://www.surfline.com/surflinetv/primetime/biggest-shipsterns-ever_55884

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2011/05/27/3229437.htm

http://www.surfline.com/surflinetv/primetime/biggest-shipsterns-ever-part-2_56109

http://www.soggybones.com/to-one-of-the-best-weeks-of-my-life-tim-bonython/

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/sport/gallery-e6frg7mf-1226064197062?page=1

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“Ours” is an amazing wave. Everything about the place seems like its been created for our entertainment. Its a slabbing righthand barrel which breaks anywhere from 4ft to 10ft. It breaks about 10-20m infront of a cliff face which you can stand on and watch the action unfold. However, this cliff produces a backwash effect that can turn your perfect barrle ride into a recipe for disaster… For filmers and photogs its heaven, being able to get pretty much any angle they want. Its a fun challenging wave to paddle and when towing the big ones, the amount of water draining off the reef sends adrenalin through your body as you try to keep your nose from sinking underwater…

The atmosphere is exciting and when a set appears on the horizon, everyone starts anticipating the action thats about to unfold… The crowd watching is varied. It contains filmers, photogs, surfers waiting to go out, surfers who will never go out, tourists, amateur photogs hoping to get there gold, workers on there lunch breaks, friends, mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers. All there for the same reason, “entertainment”…

May 1st, 2nd, and 3rd produced some great waves at Cape Solander (OURS) and i was lucky enough to be among the crew hunting the pits. Sunday morning started off slow but just after lunch as the tide pushed, some nice fun barrels were being had.. On one of my waves i locked in on take off and due to the swell direction it pushed hard up against the cliff. I could see the rocks infront of me and all of a sudden the backwash hit. I went over the falls and straight onto a barnacle covered rock tearing up the bottom of my foot. It didnt look too bad so i paddled back out to get a few more. My next wave when i stood up i could feel the skin peel back and fold as i put pressure on my back foot. i called it a day and decided to try track down some booties for the next coupla days and head back to my friend Bones house for a barbie….
Monday was super clean, light offshore winds created glassy barrels and by night there were sets pushing 6ft +… Lots of carnage went down as well as some amazing tube rides.. Tuesday the swell had died off but there were still some waves to be had, so a small crew of us made the most of it……
Thanks to Bones and Spud for looking after me.

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Sandy Ryan is a good friend of mine from Phillip Island in Victoria and while i been living in Vicco i been teaming up with him and hunting down waves together…The fella also charges hard and is a standout anyday at shippies…
Sandy Sessions is going to be an ongoing series on our travels and surfs together…
He’s out of action for the next coupla weeks but, due to a bridge jumping accident… wont be long til he’s back at it… Anyway, we decided to go for a little stroll last week and surf a fun little novelty right hander….. Was such a nice day but and sandy filmed a few waves on my shitty little camera… This is how it went down……

Sandy Sessions part 1 from marti paradisis on Vimeo.

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Floods and Funnels from marti paradisis on Vimeo.

 

When a low pressure system forms out in the Tasman, theres something inside me that awakens and excites my mind in the anticipation of good waves….

You see, when a swell hits the south coast, more often than not, its accompanied by shitty wind. The wave of choice is always shippies, and if the winds aren’t good for that, your generally left withe the only option of wedgey beaches that rarely light up with quality.
But when swells hit our east coast, nearly always at some time during the swell, there will be moments of offshore, or at worst there will be a sheltered section of coast that will offer some goodness. Combine that with many quality set ups ranging from point breaks, to peaky beaches, to slabbing reefs, and you know your in for a good days surfing…

So when this swell popped up on the radar, my mind went into overdrive thinking of all the possible spots that might be firing. I knew which one i wanted to turn on, but the winds were dicey. A mega slab right hander, which breaks onto a shallow granite ledge with dry rock just metres in front of where the peak detonates. It wont start doing its thing till it hits the 6-8ft mark and were yet to see a swell too big for it.

However, in the 5 days leading up to it, the forecast swung back and forth between on and offshore, giving us a glimpse of hope. There was a stage where i thought “buoyweather ” was fucking with me, as the forecast would change from east winds to west winds every 6 hrs on the update. One things for sure though, there was going to be lots of rain and the wind strength was going to be in the 40knots range….

Weather predictions had the swell hitting late wednesday night, but still large thursday morning, so the call was mad. We were gonna take the punt and go hunt the right slab. The aim was to be at our destination by wednesday afternoon, that way we could check the swell size and psych for the next morning, also we thought there might of been a very slight chance the wind could die off just before dark.

My car left home just after 4 am wednesday morning picking up Mikey Brennan on the way. My poor subaru’s arse was dragging inches off the ground, packed to capacity with boards, camera gear and a jet ski. There was hope we were going to snag a few waves on the journey up, but as we headed north the storm started to hit us head on. The clouds turned black and the trees started bending in the wind and when the rain hit, it bucketed down. Within minutes there were rivers forming on the sides of the road and visibility went to about 30 metres. We slowly kept creeping north and the further we drove, the angrier the storm got.

The lads noticed a little left hand rivermouth through the trees bending off down a point. It was quite sheltered in the wind and looked like could be fun for some turns. Mike and i were pretty frothing so out we hoped into the harsh conditions, wettied up and proceeded to trade waves for the next coupla hours by ourselves. If it had of been sunny and boardshorts, you could of claimed it as all time fun, but it wasn’t. it was cold, and windy, and time to get warm.

As we progressed further north , the weather was relentless and when we finally pulled over for a coffee, our worst fears were realised. An old man started telling us that all roads were closed into the town we were heading to and there was no way through. The road had a river flowing across it and the water was moving too quickly to make it to the other side. We had come across this problem in previous years and decided the old man was talking it up. plus we’d come all this way so no way we were turning around without giving it a crack.

Sure enough, half hour later, we found ourselves edging through huge puddles of water covering the road. It was sketchy, but we were moving forward, so was all good. As we rounded the next bend we could see flashing lights in the distance. Never a good sign. Then we noticed about a dozen cars lined up on the side of the road. We pulled over to ask someone what was going on he proceeded to tell us the road was closed and no cars were getting through, guess the old man was spot on. The good thing but, was that the river was subsiding and they predicted in an hour 4wd’s can start going through. Waiting around was fun, checking out the rapids and watching little standing waves forming up all over the place, beats sitiing at a road works stop sign looking at some old fat dude smoking ciggies with his arse crack hanging out.

When we finally got to the coast again, we were met by the wildest conditions vie ever seen. There were reefs breaking id never even seen cap before. and they were flat bottom mutating 20fters. The wind was about 40 knots, straight onshore and the rain was still pissing down. We began talking about what we could be facing the next morning and i could feel the adrenaline starting to pump through my veins. Then we started talking about the fact that this was the place where1 year earlier, Mikey fractured his vertebrae.

Mikeys piece
The last time it broke was a year ago and I spent 8 months in recovery after it with broken vertebre L1 L2 and L5.

I was absolutely freaking out and it was something that I’d had on my mind since August last year. I thought about not even surfing the place again, just shooting the guys and watching. But when my mum said ‘just go back and fucking attack it, take on the mutherfucker, COME ON!!’ in a Lleyton Hewwit style aggression’.
I had no other choice, I just did what most people do when there mums tell them to do something and went for it.
In saying that, I hadn’t felt scared like this before. Me and Marti were driving towards the coast and he had said ‘holey shit dude, tomorrow could be really massive’, I didn’t say much to him but look back out the window towards the flooded fields and think to myself. My feet started clenching like I was gripping to my board or something. My hands were tingling week and my gut started cramping. I felt sick with sacredness. I had never felt it before. Marti soon says ‘man I just had a really really scared feeling’. ‘Farrrrk I said still feeling sick’ and he replied ‘I just had the most intense feeling come over me’ and I reply ‘Your telling me, I’m shitting meself’.

The thought of falling off again on that wave kept playing on my mind all night, I sweat so hard at night and had some intense dreams. The consequence of falling freaked me out so hard that as soon as I woke I just put it all out of my mind and had the job to do. It was something I’d worked on with ‘Nam from ‘Equalize training’ on the Gold Coast to deal with mentally. He had started training me so that I would be ready and recovered when this time would come.

Mike’s auntie owns a holiday house right on the coast 5 mins south of the slab so were lucky enough to be able to stay there when the swells up. A few other lads including DG, Ty, Homer, Chook, chiz, Jimi and Wallbank came up later and were saying how the cops had tried to stop them driving through . that night we all sat around talking stories, listening to the thunder of the wild ocean. Its hard to go to sleep when its that loud as each thunderous slap makes your heart race in anticipation for the morning.

The alarms started going off just after 7am in the morning. I peeked outside the window, it was foggy, drizzling and windy. All we could hope for, was that the wind was offshore. Avocado on toast, coffee and the car packed and we were out of the house by 730. At the lookout to the slab we were met by clean stacked lines and the wave was erupting at the edge of the island, spitting pools of foam into the channel out of 10 ft caves. It was definitely not as big as we had hoped, but there were barrels, so we were excited. Yes the wind was offshore, but my god was it strong. White capping up the face, it was going to be a hairy surf. Within minutes we were in our suits motoring out to the break. It looked super bumpy to get into them, but once it hit the ledge the barrel went smooth.

When i packed i made the mistake of not packing a tow board. I generally would say you would never need one out there, but when its that bumpy, being strapped in is a mighty big comfort. I decided to just go for it anyway and try to nurse it out the back until it hit the ledge. This worked for my first couple of waves until the wind decided to pick up another 15knots. By now it had to of been 35knots up the face. We were towing into them completely blinded and the ski drivers were experiencing the same problems. Not your ideal conditions when faced with a 10ft slab. The lads were charging and there were some very heavy beat downs. Its the type of wave where if you fall on take off it wont wash you on because of the backwash off the island. Instead it will hold you in the impact zone and relentlessly dump huge amounts of water on your head and all this happening in waist deep water. I remember half way into the session looking in and seeing Homer in that zone, just copping wave after wave, with no possible way of getting the ski in there. After about 8 waves he finally ended up in the channel. Everyone ended up getting some caves and by the time we got back to the boat ramp, we were well and truly exhausted.

It was one of the most full on sessions id had, with nature throwing everything at us at full force. Something very serious had the potential to happen and we all felt we had got away with it fairly cleanly. Although it didn’t eventuate to be the historical session it could of been and many people would of deemed the conditions insurfable, we gave it a crack and were rewarded with some memorable barrels and fun times….

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The east coast of Tasmania can be like the rest of tassie, FICKLE. Most surf trips to this beautiful part of the island are spent driving from spot to spot, thinking that the next one will be the best. in the end, you drive all ay and end up at the spot you first check. There is alot of bickering with ya mates on where to surf and where the winds and swell would be best. Its the type of place where it will be blowing NW , then 15km down the coast it will be SE. The lads down home call these trips “up the coast blues”.
Thankfully on our most recent trip up to this torturous coastline , we scored up the coast blues, but the blues were all good. the blues were in the water. every shade of blue you could think of. it was one of the most picturesque surfs ive ever had. Paddling out at our little 5ft slabbing right hander with just a handful of mates at dawn, taking in turns getting spat out of flat bottom barrels, we thought it couldnt get much better. Then probably around 6am, the clouds partered and we surfed the next 3 hours with clear blue skies.
It was one of those special sessions. Sun shining, clean 5ft ground swell, light offshore, perfect slabbing reef, just you and your mates, and a coupla cameras to capture the delights.
Unfortunately i cant put up the best shots yet, but heres a little taste. I will put more up when i can…….
Shots are from Stu Gibson

[caption id="attachment_391" align="alignnone" width="580" caption="the view we had surfing here all morning"][/caption]

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Its been a pretty interesting year in Tassie. Swells have been consistent and good period, but not any xxl swells like the last few years. But this has given us some of the funnest paddle sessions at stern i’ve been a part of. But after a dormant month or so, another mid sized swell popped up on the charts. Gibbo and myself were frothing for some action and We predicted stern would of been a fun 6-8ft and the winds looked east for a few days, so the call was made to go west instead and do a bit of searching off the beaten track. Our good mate Benny Richo was heading up that way as well and was keen to hook up. He’s an abalone diver and spends a lot of time up that way so Benny was great to have on the trip.
Six and half hours, 2 coffees and 2 vee’s later we arrived at our destination, exhausted but interested on what awaits. Richo wasn’t meeting us till that night, so we decided to start the hunt for waves. Its hit and miss around these parts with most of the time it being a miss. After taking about 5 different 4wd tracks we finally reach the coast and stumble upon some potential. A bombie breaking 1/2 km out to sea would peak up, break , then reform on another ledge. We called it 12ft plus and it looked like the bigger the better. The wind was bending up the coast at this location, making it onshore, but we put it in the books and hopefully be back there soon.
Its a good feeling surfing on the west coast. the air seems so much cleaner. Farming land backs onto the dunes and the car parks are on the waters edge. Falling asleep listening to the waves break and insects chirping is a meditating experience.
We wake the next morning to clear blue skies and a clean offshore. The swell had dropped slightly but was still 8ft on exposed locations. Most of the coastline on the west is only accessible by water, so we launched the skies and headed north. We came across more than a dozen reef’s but unfortunately only one worthy of jumping off the ski. It was a messed up little slab around 6ft breaking into 1 ft of water. Due to vert cliffs being 50 m away, it was affected by backwash and side wash and we couldn’t imagine this wave ever breaking clean. Coupla waves later and a snapped board, we decided to head back to camp before the wind picked up. The afternoon was spent surfing a fun 5ft bowly right-hander and finished the day with some cold Cascade Draught and barbie with the local lads.
Our last day the winds were meant to be howling offshore and raining and swell dropping a bit so we didn’t rush things in the morning. Coffee and national pie for brekky and made our way down to the local beach. Our jaws dropped when we were pleasantly surprised by 5-6ft right handers reeling down an outer bank. Once we paddled out the clouds parted slightly and Richo and myself traded pits for the next 3 hrs. I came unstuck on my last wave and burst my ear drum, but id had enough waves to be content so shit happens. The local groms were stoked to surf with some other crew and the old boys jaws went into overtime as they reeled out story after story. It was an awesome day the topped off a really fun trip. We didn’t find any shipstern but sometimes its more about the mission. You gotta keep searching but, cause u never know whats behind the next corner……. Currently nursing a swollen ear and looking at 2 weeks minimum out of the water with some permanent damage . Gonna be filming the lads while im out so il put up some edits in the next week….

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Well I had it all planned out. Fly into Hobart, land 10 am, get picked up, drive 2 hrs, walk 1 hr, paddle 10-15ft  down the line right handers all afternoon. Fuck you 60 knot winds. At 9 50am things were still on schedule, the plane was lining up with the runway, the points had lines coming down them, landing gear out and the turbulence was fierce. 100m from touchdown, massive turbulence sends the plane off coarse and the pilot floors it back up into the sky. After a minute they announce that the weathers too crazy so we were heading back to melbourne. I was so fucking furious i was losing my shit, i couldnt believe this was happening. We had pretty much landed and now we were heading back to Victoria WTF…. 2 1/2 hrs later i finally landed in Hobart with my old man picking me up, frothing for a mission. Now i didnt have enough time to head to my designated surf spot, so the local points had to do. Surfed all afternoon lining up head high funnels and on dark it turned on, with non stop sand dredges shared with half dozen close mates. On Friday i was glad to hear down south didnt get as big as expected and i ended up being in the water for 7 hrs, surfing 3 different right hand point breaks…Cant complain, didnt get the big juice but in the end scored sick fun waves with my mates….. That same swell hit various spots up the east coast of Oz producing some amazing surf, im heading up tomoz to get leftovers, road trip killin time yew

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Last Wednesday was pretty unforgettable, in more ways than one. Chiza, Gibbo , me and Brenno made our way up the coast about lunch time with no real excitement, as the winds were predicted to be onshore, with a chance it would go offshore just before dark. Also it was absolutely pissing down with rain. Middle of winter, onshore and rain………… Not ideal enticing conditions in Tasmania.

Half hour into our 2 hr drive i received a phone call from a friend saying most of the roads are closed due to flooding. I phoned the local cops who confirmed the grim news, saying that we could only get through if we had a 4wd. So we were now at  a crossroad, try our luck and take on the flooded roads, or head south and hope we can still find waves. A quick group decision was made and we continued our journey to the mythical right hander… Although the roads and countryside was flooded, it wasnt half as bad as we were expecting and before we knew it we were at our destination, staring into goopy ten foot death pits. We sat and watched it for an hour or so, with very few, if not any,makeable ones. The sun started to show glimpses, so we decided to go give it a crack, if we didnt make any, we were bound to get some good shots and get the adrenaline pumping.

Its a funny wave the old “Govs”. A mental right hander that breaks off the tip of an island, the swells come out of deep water and unload onto a slab of granite. The take off is pretty much dry and it has two flaring flat bottom sections. Most waves pinch on the end, leaving you know exit, but when they stay open, u get spat into the channel with more force than ive ever experienced. Probably the heavieast wave ive ever surfed, although not as ugly as shipstern, the force seems much greater.

We all suited up and made our way out of the harbour out to the break. Jimmy Lockhart was kind enough to take Chiz out in his tinny to shoot off, while Gibbo shot from the water. By the time Mike and myself had got out the back the wind had swung offshore and the sun was beaming. We couldnt believe our luck.  But because the swell period was so short, it was extremely hard to pick the good ones. Many waves we were going for seemed like the biggest ones out of the set, only to look out the back and find the next wave even bigger. The swell was also super wobbly and peaky so finding the ones that would hit the sweet part of the reef was also tricky.

Coupla hours into the session we’d both had some good ones, but there were still many sneaking past unridden. When you pull into the pit at Govs, the pressure inside the thing is so immense it feels like your going to self combust, its like its trying not to let you out, and when it breathes in, the force on your face is like sticking your head out of a car window at 200 clicks. As the swell is generally so close together, two wave hold downs arent rare, and because the reef drops off into deep water before it hits the island, it seems to hold you in a zone where you cant escape and have to deal with the rest of the set square on your head.

At about 4pm i was sitting on the ski out the back scanning the horizon when i seen the set we’d been waiting for. It took about 3 minutes for it to arrive and when it did, i looked at Brenno with a big smile on my face and said “this is it brother, this is gonna be a fucking bomb”. Everything went to plan, got him in the spot and he let go of the rope, i watched the reef drain off and then he went out of site. As the wave spat, i expected him to come shooting out into the channel, but instead, everyone started whistling to me and pointing into the impact zone. I raced around, looking for him or his board, then the next wave unloaded on the reef (as big , if not bigger), right on top of his tombstoning board. He finally popped up a few seconds later, looking rattled and not moving a hell of a lot. I pulled the ski up next to him and helped him on. “I think i broke me back”, was the only words the poor kid could muster. I took him back over to the boat, where he made himself comfortable. He knew this day was special and didnt want to miss any of the action. Luckily Benny Richo had swam out, so i whipped him into a few more as the sun was setting, before we all called it a day and made our way back to shore.

The next day Mikey went in for scans at the hospital. Fractured L1 vertabrae and a bulged disc, up to ten weeks out of the water. The price ya pay for mental pits. Mike hasnt had too much luck with injuries the last few years, but everytime he’s back he goes as hard as anyone. Fucking love ya work bro, get well soon…..

Restricted at the moment from putting up the goods…. So keep a lookout in upcoming magazines for more shots from this day.

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