Mind Surfing Heaven

If You Are Ever Short Of Some Waves To Mind Surf , Or Just Appreciate A Good Surf Photographer Check Out Northern Beach's Photographer and ex riptide mod Steve Wall. He is very switched On, and knows what he is doing and has got the shots to prove it.

We are bound to see more of this bloke in the mag's in the coming years.

Check out his flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevewallimages/

Two Negatives Dont Equal A Positive - South Swell + Sydney And Swallowing Jelly Fish.

So why doesn't Sydney like south swell, oh yea that's right because it doesn't face that way - DOH!

Today there was some fun waves around 3-4foot, nice offshore winds, but a crowd the size of china's population, yes that's right billions of people.
I blame this on a few reason's:

• All the ASP Womens Pro's were out practicing for the Layne Beachly Classic that will be held at dee why tommorow. So this includes the likes of Steph Gilmore etc...
• Everyone has been wave starved lately for various reasons.
• Yesterday was a hoax so everyone thought today was the day.

Also the water was infested with jelly fish of every size and shap, and i mean infested it felt like i was swimming though alphabet soup.

Besides all these reasons i still managed to get a few fun waves, in between all the "surfer crew" being out, the snaking s and dropping in's occurring.

One memorable wave from today was when one of the more capable surfers, to my utter amazement slipped on a sneaky inside grinder leaving the barrel to bowl section to me. Like i had a demon inside me i swung around and launched myself into the wave only to have the inside section go bone dry on me. Deciding it was to late to bail , i took the high line of the wave only to loose all my speed and get destroyed by the shocky. Just as i hit the surface of the water i tried to take a breath, which now as i think about it, was a big mistake as i managed to swallow about half the jelly fish population in one mouth full. As i surfaced i worriedly asked a few people if there was any long term implications to swallowing jelly fish, to which there response was, i dont know. They wernt the stinging type of jelly fish and im still alive now so there musnt be any harm from it.

Was quite an eventful and funny day even if the surf wasnt all time.


Picture From Today - Fun Little Backdoor barrel - Picture Thanks To
"don - realsurf.com"

Why Do We Have Swell Hoax's

So the swell was supposed to rise today to a solid 5-6foot South Swell with westerly offshore winds all day. I decided to get in early before all the crowd's descended on it, so i arrived at point at 10:30 knowing that some swell had hit down south(ulla) and swell had hit the bouy's up north (newy). To my suprise the swell was hardly 3foot. As i had nothing to do today, i decided to sit around and wait for this new swell to arive.

Here is a timeline of how my day eventuated.
10:20 - decided to go for an early before the swell hit.
10:30 - arive at surf to find waves not even pushing 3foot
11:30 - 1st hour in the water and no swell rise. occasional 3foot coming through. swell is super bumpy and not entising like i thought it would be.
12:30 - 2nd hour in the water and like before no giant push in the swell. A 4footer did come through though that i managed to snag and hit the backdoor section with a lofty roll. Getting semi impatient that the swell isnt here.
1:30 - 3rd hour, still no push in swell, becoming increasingly worried that the swell was not actually going to hit sydney.
2:30 - waves consistantly 3-4foot, tide way to full for it to be an eventful surf.
2:45 - Winds turn SE and kills what ever surf prospects anyone had for that arvo.


Over all it was a very boring and time consuming gamble that did not pay off. i guess you win some and you loose some. Today i lost out big time.
Oh well - Note To Self: to be a good bodyboarder its good to train in all conditions.

Hopefully the swell push's through tommorow.

Swell Has Fizzled Out.

Like i said this ultimate swell that was supposed to be coming has dialed down quite a bit, instead of it being 8-10foot flairing kegs and offshore winds , it is probably only going to get to 4-5foot with suss winds. I guess someone pissed off Huey. Oh well . we can live in hope.
It still looks like we could get some fun waves though and im still extremely amped to get some waves and get some pictures!!
The next swell that might hit will be the following weekend/fortnight.

Scoreboard: Dust Storm 0 Miichael +2 Andy +1

Today i awoke to a baby version of the dust storm we had on Wednesday, who would of thought after not having one for a very very long time we have 2 in one week, crazy huh , must be all that crazy global warming stuff....
I checked the swell via the net and there seemed to be a fun 2-3foot SE swell hitting the beach's.
I decided to raise my dust storm wave riding tally to 2 and headed out to Mid Narra to get a few peaky beachies. I also brought my little brother (andy) along for a boog, trying to convert him into a wave warrior likemyself.

The waves were super fun a frames and i managed to score a peak all to myself with my little brother, this is a rarity i guess because of all the weekend warriors that come out. I knew that it was going to get crowded very soon so me and my brother caught some fun waves for around 30minutes before calling it quits before the crowds got to big. (been getting lots of crowd less waves the last few days and didnt want to jinx it.)

I managed to get a few running waves that allowed some tight carves in the pocket, throwing buckets of spray, nothing more fun!!! There was also a few closing out walls that allowed some rolls and a very spastic invert where i nearly went head first into the bank hahaha.

My brother being only 11 is not as technically sound as alot of older boogers, but he only weighs about 30kg meaning he can do about 50000000billion spins on a wave without effort which is pretty funny. he got one wave that ran for about 40meters and he did so many spins for a joke he felt dizzy and had to go in. This was quite a highlight hahaha..

Peaky A Frame's To Get Me In The Mood For Tafe

So i started tafe at 9:30am and wasn't going to finish till 4:30pm. This is a long day for me... hahaha
So i decided to go for a quick surf before tafe to get me in the mood to sit there and listen all day.

I got down to the beach and was greeted with 2-3foot kegging of its nut, a frame beachies it was also offshore which was helping them open up more!. Like a posesed man i paddled out to get a few, there was a few surfers out but i could tell they were mega frustrated as they were super sucky and only about 2/10 waves were makeable on a booger let alone a surfboard. The booger is ultimate for these conditions with most waves going like this - paddel hard, scoop or drop into a drain pipe and hold your line into the barrel untill the shocky gets you, it closes out or you make it out. I Spent the next hour and a half just pulling into these open drain pipes, i got my fair share of floggings but thats what being a booger is all about making the most of the conditions, and the conditions were good! Overall it was a fun surf of pulling into closeout barrels with the occasional makeable one, was a good mood setter for the day of tafe that i had ahead of me.

There is always Room For One More

www.riptidemag.com.au/forum

This is the web address for the riptide magazines internet forum. Its a place for boogers like you and me to come and talk about bodyboarding, learn about bodyboarding, imagine bodyboarding, did i mention talk about bodyboarding, post and video's of bodyboarding, and enter bodyboarding competitions. This is a community for anyone in the world.

Its a super fun community filled with great and knowledgeable bodyboarders, photographers, exbodyboarders, pro bodyboarders. its a great place and we would love you to join the community.
"There is always room for one more!"


www.riptidemag.com.au/forum

The Early.

The Night Before

• 4foot s swell
  
• low tide at 5:30 making the tide window open till about 9:30
• light westerly winds.
• All seems to be in place for some really decent waves.

I Got My Board, Wetty And Towel and left it by the front door the before so i am able to make a quick escape early morning to get some waves.

The Day

I woke up at 5:15am and made my way down to the a reef that i like to surf. To my utter disappointment the swell obviously hasn't arrived yet as i can see people driving away from the car park and not to it. still i am up this early i might just try my luck, there is a local SUP rider out and i decided he isnt going to snag many waves at the tide so i suite up and rock off.

To my suprise as i rock off a decent 3footer come's through and the sup rider calls me into it. i managed to power paddel out and to turn around and launch myself into this super fun backdoor barrel, i didnt make it and got pinched on the end section of the barrel, but got a fun porthole view with green and tourqoise coloured wave all around me.
This seems to be the start of the pulse and there is no one out! Yippie Kai Kay Mother Fucker!!!!
i spend the next hour just getting pit after pit with no one out, until finaly another person comes out, it was a booger mate of mine. So then me and him spent another hour pulling into backdoor pit's and having some fun dry reverse bowl's thrown at us just to keep us on our toes.
One particular wave that's in my memory was a reverse bowl that was really wide and sucked dry, i managed to hit the section a pull a massive air foward only to have the next section barrel and engulf me. I surfaced to have a grin the size of the joker's on my face. Good Times.
Over the next 3 hours the tide and crowd gradualy rose until it was time to call it quit's. By then i had got some extremly fun waves that alot of people would kill for so my stoke level's were running high and i was confident that it would stay like that untill my next surf. And the surf didnt even get to 4foot imagine if it did! Mind you ill sacrifice a foot of swell any day for less crowds.


A Picture from today of me about to launch out of an enticing ramp.
Picture By "Don - Realsurf.com"

Bigest Dust Storm In 40 Year's To Hit Sydney.

So i awoke to blood red sky's and a layer of brown dirt on everything. Flicked on the new's to see what this "event" was - A Dust Storm - The Biggest Sydney has had in over 40years.
Of Course health officials recommended no one to do any physical exercise outdoors till it had cleared. i took this recommendation into consideration and decided to go for a novelty boog in the dust storm.
To my surprise the wind's were offshore and there was around 1-2foot of peaky swell i managed to get some fun novelty waves to say i had boogered during it. But there were numerous problems that were effecting the way i could boog:

• Firstly visibility was about -100000/10 - so it was extremely hard to see the waves coming. At one point when i was paddling back out, without realizing i paddled over the peak and about 80meter's out at see, the only reason i was able to stop is because i was near the point and was able to see the rock's.
• Secondly i was still trying to figure out which was harder, trying to breath under water or trying to breath in the dust storm. was quite a difficult situation because, i used to be an asthmatic and i am also allergic to dust. quite a combination to be surfing in a dust storm.

All in All it was a fun surf and i was very orange by the end of it, funny how dust and water can stick to your wetty even while surfing.

Here is a picture i took from the car park to show the visibility and freaky Colours.

View From DeeWhy Car Park:

Fitness Surf

Lately Ive been super keen to go for a boog, no matter what the conditions are like or swell size under the belief that to become a better booger you have to learn to ride under any conditions.

Today was no different, I rolled out of bed knowing there would be a tiny to flat wave, but any wave is ripable.
I got down to curly to be greated with a small but relatively clean wave, managed to find myself on my own, it was hardly awe inspiring , but i had fun in what i was presented with - Small Runners that were carvable and able to throw off a few foward and rev spins here and there.

It was nothing worth missing tafe over so i got some waves and then headed off to my extremly early 8am tuesday start.

Pre Trip Ritual

As This Forecast is looking more and more like its going to stick and eventuate into something good i have decided a road trip is only appropriate.

So I Got Thinking

Does: Droping Everything your doing how ever important it may be, Geting The Car Ready, Organizing Food, Coughing Up Cash For Petrol, Trying To Find Place's To Sleep, Thinking Of Spots That May Be On, Getting Boards, Camera Gear And People To Come Along On A This Trip all together and ready in a short amount of time for the chance (which may not even eventaute and be a hoax - with wind changes and tide fluctuations) to ride a lump of moving liquid in the water, be inside the wave or soar to new heights from the lip even seem worth it at all.

"Noo Not Really....Meh"




WHO am i kiding of course its freaking worth it, its our life, we are boogers, its what we do, what we are programed to do, and what we will continue to do no matter what anyone else tell's us.

I Feel A Storm Brewing!

I Sit Here After Reading The Forecast For The Next 10day's And I must say, things are looking up! Even though there has been no decent wave and wind combo's of late , i can feel the booger inside of me trying to get out.
Thursday Looks To Be A Brief Southerly/SouthWesterly Pulse of Around 3-4foot. This however is the warm up for the potential waves that follow, in the new week, a solid pulse of South/South East Swell, just the way my favourite spot likes it.
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The Potential Forecast (Click To Open)

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But Knowing Our Luck the forecast will change about 50billion times between now and then and will probably fizzle out to a 1foot westerly swell with 200km p/hour easterly winds.

We Can Live In Hope - Come On Huey Give Us Some Loving.

Goose POV - All Credit To goose for these video's:

These video's made by NZ's Goose are by far the best POV video's available anywhere. They are so consistent and great to watch, i cant say how much stoke i get from watching these video's.

It gives a real sense to why we bodyboard and hunt down barrel's. Who wouldn't want to get a view like goose has given us.

Keep up the awesome work.

Here are some of his video samples:

Reef from goosesPOV on Vimeo.

Leash-cam from goosesPOV on Vimeo.

Recent helmet camera footage from goosesPOV on Vimeo.

A fun session from goosesPOV on Vimeo.

Not Many Wave's To Shoot Latley - So Happy Mind Wave Riding

"There Hasnt Been Many Wave's To Shoot Latley So I Thought I Post This One Up To Keep The Booger Cravings Running High." Shot By Me

- What section would you hit, would you go left or right? Could You Make The Barrel?-

©A Glorious Box Beach Wedge©

"©All Rights Reserved - Mike Foord Photography"

So It Begin's

The Blogging Festivities Begin - Follow This For My Surfing Write Up's, Shenanigans And Surf Storys From The East Coast Of Australia!