J Bay, 2010

July 19th, 2010

Bobby Martinez was a stand out on his back hand dominating his heat and is comfortably through to the third round.

This year’s Billabong Pro J Bay has kicked off with cranking waves dished up on day one of the waiting period.

Cambo narrowly went down to CoolShoe rider Chris Davidson despite executing some trademark power turns and is now preparing for a second round matchup.

Bobby Martinez was a stand out on his back hand dominating his heat and is comfortably through to the third round. Cambo narrowly went down to Chris Davidson despite executing some trademark power turns and is now preparing for a second round matchup.

Owen Wright and Drew Courtney came up against each other in round one with Owen getting the choice waves and advancing to round 3. While Travis logie pumped up to be on home soil takes second and drew 3rd leaving the latter to fight it out in round 2.

All in all a fantastic days surfing at Supertubes.

Photo Credit Roy Harley

YOUTHFUL VISION

July 20th, 2010

The vision of driving up the coast and finding the perfect, uncrowded wave, is the adventure that every surfer lives for. My vision was not different, except for the fact that, I was waiting on three grommets to arrive at my house, who were running four hours late. They had forgotten to put their alarm clocks on, and instead of arriving at my house at seven in the morning, the old commodore wagon with Britney Spears blaring, didn’t touch down till eleven o’clock. I was furious!!!

The plan was to leave at seven in the morning so we could get a surf in late that afternoon. The drive was going to be nine hours, give or take half an hour each way. My friend had rang me, the night before, frothing about this point break, which was barrelling for three hundred metres. All night I had visions of surfing this wave, frothing that after three weeks of no surf, I would be getting barrelled!!!! But no, the grommets blew all of this.

Jumping out of the car was Chaz Raynor, Matty King and video extordanaire Toby Cregan. With a cheeky grin on his face, Kingy asked me if we would get a surf in today. I lost it, and sent them into the backseat of the car in silence. The drive ended up taking eight an a half hours, due to my unrealistic vision of getting a surf in before dark. This didn’t happen either. We arrived at seven thirty that night and the darkness of the night had all but swallowed my vision of getting perfect waves that day. Not to worry there is always tomorrow….

The next day we woke early and headed straight down to Lennox Head, to watch the finals of the Gromfest. The waves were clean and there was a nice four feet plus, east swell hitting the friendly beach break. Wow!!!! The standard of surfing these days at a junior level just blows me away. Eleven-year-old kids are doing air reverses!! I remember when I was growing up, if you could do a cutback or re-entry you were on fire. How things have changed! It’s great to see all the parents really supporting their kids these days and now actually realizing that surfing is a legitimate career path. It was really entertaining to watch these future champs surf all day, and it was equally great to see the Ocean and Earth team do well.

Mikey Wright, who recently joined the surf accessories team, was the highlight, winning the 14 boys, for the second straight year. Young Kalani Ball from Stanwell Park also ripped it apart, coming in fourth. In the 12 years boys, super grom Riley Laing got a fourth, and in the 16 boys Zac Scott pulled out some big moves, only to fall short in the dieing minutes, to claim a hard fought second.

The next morning I woke up, even more psyched to surf. After watching the groms go ballistic all day and enduring another surf less day, it was game on. Waking grommets up early, isn’t an easy thing, but a splash of cold water, always gets them jumping. Mikey Wright messaged me early, and said he had found a fun little beach break. I was hoping to surf the points, but the swell had dropped overnight to around three feet. The wind was offshore, the sun was out and the ocean was clean as could be. The tide would be dropping all day, which Mikey seemed to think would improve the waves. Chaz and Matty were frothing, but I think I was frothing more. I was the first one to hit the water, which was super warm, and the long clean lefts were looking more and more inviting the closer I got to them.

The kids were ripping. Chaz and Matty were belting the lefts, while Mikey was boosting on the rights. We were joined by more grommets, which included Sean Mawson, Kalani Ball, Mark Williams and Josh Szele. Things really intensified, with the groms scratching around, all over the line up, taking off on any wave and belt any section. As the tide dropped, the left started draining. It was a little small for my big rig to fit inside the little green cabins, but some of the groms were nearly standing in them. After four hours of surfing, we had to re fuel, so the call was to get to the nearest bakery, then come straight back out.

With bellies full of pies, we ventured back to the left bank, which had been such a great host to us all morning. Unfortunately the wind had come up strongly from the northeast, which was quite unusual for this time of the year. We headed to the northern protected corners, but found no banks, so we pulled the pin for the day, hoping that the predicted east swell would hit over night.

The next morning we gain woke bright and early. This time the groms were already up, and packed in the car. Finally they were starting to learn!! The groms were really focused on surfing a right-hander, but the swell hadn’t lived up to expectations, so again we headed back to Mikey’s bank.

Shane Wehner was with us this time. I grew up with Shane on the South Coast of N.S.W, and it’s always great to surf with him. Shane was on the WCT for a few years and also got runner-up at pipe one year, and has been living in Byron for the past ten years.

We pulled up in front of the break to a pleasant surprise, four feet barrelling lefts. Word must of got out the day before about the bank, so the crowd had defiantly increased, but still there were plenty of waves for everyone. The kids were first out this time, and now it was like double over-head for them. The swell had come up a foot or so over night from the east, the wind was offshore and the sun was shining. I had a bit of a shocker this session, sitting too far up the point, but Shane and the groms were on to it, grabbing the inside drainers. Shane was on fire, he was getting barrelled every wave, sometimes twice. He has always been one of the better tube riders I have seen, and even still to day, in his old age, he still has it.

The waves pumped for four hours, until the wind and tide ruined the one hundred metre rides. The grommets had been pestering me to take them out a right point break, so as the northeast wind grew stronger, I decided to shut them up. The point break was four feet now, the tide looked right, but the wind was howling onshore. The groms didn’t mind, they paddled straight out, without looking. After watching the groms rip apart the long onshore waves, I decided to join them. To my surprise it was really fun and I got some of the longest rides I have had for over a year. The best things that on shore winds bring, are no crowds.

The next morning was going to pump. I had a taste of the potential the right hand point had to offer, and with the swell increasing, I new everything was falling into place. The plan was to get barrelled all morning, then hit the highway for home. Driving down the hill onto the ocean I become a little disturbed! Are they white caps I am seeing? Nooooooo!! The northeast wind was still up, and it was howling…my visions of perfect waves disappeared and my thoughts of nine hours driving with grommets took over.

The nine-hour drive home took a little longer then expected due to a little surprise. On the way home we were still frothing for some kind of surf, so we decided to start checking a few spots. Everywhere was pretty ordinary, but as we got within four hours of home, the wind decided to be our friend. The wind swung westerly. With the swell around five feet out of the north, and the wind dead offshore, I started frothing again. The groms by this staged wanted to keep driving home, but my visions of surfing the perfect wave come flooding back.

We found an empty beach break, with reeling four to five feet barrels. Finally this is it!!!! First wave Matty pulled into a screamer, just to be shut down at the end. The very next wave Chaz pulled in deep, but got knocked off by the foam ball. I decided to wait for a bomb. The tide was dropping, and as it did the sets began to closeout more and more. I waited for half an hour for my first wave, got a nice barrel, but then went straight into a closeout. Things didn’t get any better. By the time I paddled in an hour later, the waves were all but a closing out, and I had only taken off on two waves. The groms were laughing at me now, and telling me we should have driven straight home instead.

Four hours later and after listening to groms talk about all their devious adventures; I was in the safety of my own home. The trip was only four days long all together, but I had a really good time. The groms were off to school next week and me back to work. I never really got to surf the perfect wave I had visions about. Maybe I would have, if the grommets weren’t so late…. But just to get in your car and drive up the coast for a few days of surfing is good enough anyway, even if you don’t get to surf the perfect wave….

-Phil MacDonald