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Ok so the swell could have been better, the winds were cros
shore and there were bluebottles in the arvo, a few barrels
were had and it was sunny, so there are no real complaints
considering the events at Warriewood. There was nothing on
the news about it but someone, a female by the look of it
took a huge beating and not from the waves either.

I
was at Warriewood for the arvo session and Stupid Rookie w
as in the dunny putting his wetty on while i waited by the
car, i thought i heard someone scream for help but didnt be
lieve myself until i spotted a guy sprinting from the point
back across the beach toward the lifeguards, i still didnt
think much of it until the two parties met and both starte
d hammering toward the lifeguard shed, they disappeared int
o the shed, only to emerge a couple of seconds later with a
n entourage of senior medics and the rubber ducky.
Down
the beach the went, all of them, absolutely flying with thi
s rubber boat behind them and then, while the seniors waite
d on the beach, the ducky smashed through the whitewater an
d out to the point, by this stage i had realised that someo
ne had fallen from the cliff and if youve ever been to Warr
iewood, you would know that the cliff there is a fair drop
- straight onto the rocks below. Not long after this, Stupi
d Rookie came out of the dunny wondering what was going on,
as i told him of the proceedings, the friken Wespac Rescue
Chopper came screaming around the clifftop barely missing
the thing itself and 4 Ambos turned up to join the party as
well. From here on in, we had the camera trained on the ac
tion as 2 more Medics were winched down from the chopper on
to the sand, this is when the rubber ducky hammered back to
the beach to deliver one casualty, im not sure how many fe
ll from the clifftop but the chick they pulled from the wat
er was definitley not concious, whether she survived or not
is a mystery also. The whole drama lasted about ten minute
s, from the first scream to the casualty being placed into
the Ambo and being rushed off to hospital, with that d
one, we resumed our search for waves and found bluebotle fr
ee barrels at Bilgola.... if you think youve had a bad day,
just remember there is always someone whos doing it toughe
r than you.

Im sitting here at work (C7 concierge desk overlooking S
ydney Harbour) Ive checked coastalwatch and God bless it, i
ts telling me theres gonna be a 3 odd foot swell tomorrow.
Now people, i know you have all had this feeling, you haven
t surfed for a week, youve got the weekend off and you star
t to get amped. As dangerous as this is, it canna be helped
, Im surfing tomorrow, theres a 3 foot swell and offshore w
inds. I say this anticipation is dangerous because i dont t
hink there is anything worse than waking on the day of your
surf expecting sunny conditions, only to open the curtain
and be greeted by a shitarse grey cloud cover and some rain
.... now thats not so bad, youre gonna get wet anyway. The
worst is when you get to your fave break and 
;peer over the dunes to see a flat ocean, onshore winds and
bluebottles, its seriously heartbreaking. At the moment, i
m buzzing with this anticipation, its 10am, and today is su
nny as a motherfucker, well kinda, so, will my anticipation
turn to joy or devastation tomorrow?? We'll see, this
is just one of the minor reasons im seriously addicted to
bodyboarding. The best part is sharing this joy o
r devastation with a mate, tomorrow, itll be shared with&nb
sp;Stoopid Rookie, anyone who wants to come with is more th
an welcome to meet us at the break, in the water @ 0730 sha
rp, eithger Avalon, Bilgola or Warriewood, carn people, get
there.......  

"Paddling out when it's packed..... packed and you can't
move... and theres unreal waves and you paddle out, you ge
t the wave of the day, and you flick off, and you know... y
oure the man... for that moment....  Thats what gets m
e stoked" - Macca, Psychotic.

Yesterday was very int
eresting, leaving home around 730 in the morning and arrivi
ng at Avalon to be greeted by a 1.5 to 2 foot sweel with a
crowd to rival pipeline... not very inviting, so we (S
tupid Rookie and I)  checked Bilgola, Whale and P
alm... onshore slop... now with a rapidly deteriorating moo
d,  we took a final stab at Mona Vale. Anticipation tu
rned to joy as i watched a random boooger drop into a 
solid 4 ft pit and exit cleanly with the spit... Game
On.

After a relatively easy paddle out, and setting
up in the line up, i watched and waited for the sets, it ca
me through and after a bit of hustle, i claimed one of the
best pits ive ever been in.... aft er that it was pretty mu
ch a crwod battle foe scrap waves with the occasional pearl
er. The stupid rookie learned a little more about the peril
s of surfing amongst the pack berfore letting the rip have
its way with him and pushing him further down the beach (i
later discovered he had perfect, uncrowded waves to himself
down there, telling me he has learned and important secret
of surfing - If you find yourself an uncrowded wave... kee
p your mouth shut.. Well in) and so after a nice 5 hour ses
sion, a big sleep and a train trip later, i find myself sit
ting at the C7 Corporate office, typing from the concierge
desk and thinking about the near perfect waves that were sc
ored yesterday, and knowing full well why i surf.. it keeps
me sane. Cheers people....

Tuesday 31/01/06 dawned with a surprise 4 ft swell that
noone really saw coming and for once i was on the ball, i g
ot up early, checked coastal watch and was stoked to see wa
ll after wall peeling along the Northern Beaches, so, of co
urse i threw everything in the car, dragged my brother out
of bed, (if you ever need to wake someone in a hurry, get o
ne of those select a spray bottles, fill it with water and
go to work, trust me, theyll be out of bed in no time) and
hit the road. Pulling into the Avalon carpark we were over
the moon to see the winds were still calm if not slightly o
ffshore and the lineups still pretty much empty. As we clim
bed down the cliff to paddle out to Little Av, we got anoth
er surprise, there were tripods and cameras set up everywhe
re and we looked at each other thinking W.T.F.? Upon reachi
ng the rocky point in front of Little Av, we were greeted b
y 2 chicks with stand up boards under their arms and a guy
who was pushing 60 who proceeded to tell us they were not f
ilming bodyboarders but were filming a new tv show called B
luewater High...  "great" i thought, "and?".... i thou
ght he was going to ask us to surf somewhere else for a mom
ent and was getting ready to tell him where to go when he s
imply and kindly asked us to let the girls get at least som
e of the waves on offer.... "Fair enough" i said to him, i
also asked if the chicks knew how shallow this place gets..
.. apparently they knew though i think they were full of sh
it seeing as they looked really nervous at the prospect of
paddling out into it, so, doing the kind thing, my brother
(Andrew) and i offered to paddle out with them if they were
ready to go now... with grattitude, they accepted. So Andr
ew and i walked over to the edge of the rocky point and sur
veyed the sets as we waited for the chicks to catch up, mor
e sets passed and still no chicks.... after waiting a good
ten minutes, we both said "fuck this", walked over to the p
oint, jumped in and started paddling, hoping not to get cau
ght inside, we didnt..... A half hour and some nice pits la
ter, i noticed the chicks entering the lineup. Andrew had g
one back to get them but they had already started paddling
in from the beach... a friken long paddle....  Apparen
tly they had hesitated after seeing Andrew and i do our sui
cide leaps off the rocks and that had made them nervous, so
meone else onshore had convinced them to try it on anyway a
nd thats when they got absolutley smashed.... or so i was t
old by their producer when i reached dry land again.... The
y got a couple of nice ones though they were taking off on
the shoulder.. There arent many pics of the day here becaus
e the wave quality started to diminish rapidly after we lef
t the water and were back up at the car where i had the cam
era... the chicks were nice enuff to pose for a shot too...
. though you have to ak yourself, if they were nervous padd
ling out in those conditions, why did the producer have the
m paddle out at all??? Dollars, cents and ratings id say...
.  never mind the girls safety....  I'll write ag
ain next decentish surf..... byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

So i got the apologetic phone call at around 1:30 this a
rvo.... naturally i gave the arvo session a shot... was gre
eted from the clifftops at Avalon by 1 - 3 foot onshore slo
p, as i figured i would be, but i went for a paddle an
yway, jumped in off the rocks, hit the lineup with dry hair
, caught a smallish one to start things off, spun into the
channel and got yet another surprise in the channel..... fu
cking bluebottles, hundreds of the little bastards... not g
ood if youve got the springy on, so i paddled in and headed
to Whaley, more bluebottles, hit Palmy... onshore but no b
luebottles, caught 3 waves (if you can call them that) and
lost light... caught one wave after dark.. then decided to
remove myself from the dinner menu. Bad luck Jaws you mothe
rfucker.... and better luck next time... truly skunked.

I dont think there are many feeling worse than when you
organise a session, get to bed early and buzzing with antic
ipation, waking and checking the surf to find smallish but
fun waves, then spending the morning waiting for your ride
to collect you.... then realising with horror that theyre s
till asleep, so you call them, no answer, call again, no an
swer..... then you stop calling cuz you know that by the ti
me you get there, its gonna be onshore and shit....i dont t
hink im surfing today... ... fuck.  son of a motherles
s goat, its enough to make you wanna cry.... almost, if the
durf was pumping then yes, definitely..... its still fucke
d though...  

i passed 100 views on my profile today... Happy Days...

So Bilgola yesterday arvo was pretty goo
d hey, it wasnt so big, but the waves were fun 3 - 4ft make
able slabs, got there @ maybe 330ish and paddled back in af
ter dark, wouldnt mind hitting it again today but, as it ha
ppens, im doing a 12 hour fucking dayshift... its all
bullshit, but yeah, the important thing is, i got shacked y
esterday.... fucking mad.....
Ill write again next surf
...