Total Pageviews

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Tallows has been good to us. We have been surfing the pristine beach on the southside of the Byron Bay headland for the last 2 weeks straight. We surfed the punchy beachbreak everyday except for 2, one in which i took Kristen longboarding at "the pass" and the other where we surfed the Main Beach beachbreak between "the wreck" and "the pass." We have had a healthy run of south swell and northeast windswell combinations. It has been great to be back in the water in such a beautiful place. Water temps remain around 68 degrees with perfect clarity. There is a ton of marine life at Tallows beach, which is in the heart of the Cape Byron Marine Park. We have daily sightings of schools of dolphin and migrating humpback whales from the line up. There are also rumors of a large great white that has been patrolling the headland recently. Tommy talked to a friend of the snorkel tour guide who says they have been seeing "Gary" regularly on the daily tours. Anyways, the whole 2 weeks has been great but the last 4 days have been exceptional, ranging from 2-4 ft clean wedging lefts to 4-6 ft clean a- frame barrels. This last week has been the most consistent run of quality surf we have had on the trip so far. Of course, in true surf trip fashion we have failed to film any of the best waves or the best sessions, only some film from the mediocre days. I wish we had some footage of Kristen's surf at the pass. It was a perfect knee to waist high right point break peelers and she rode 15-20 of the longest rides of her life. The board I rented took on so much water that I could not carry it home. I had to paddle it from the point back to our house at Main Beach, which was around 3/4 of a mile. It is nice to be somewhat in shape as there is always somewhere to surf here. Also, coming from the gold coast, Tallows has been a great place to get our wave count up. The line up is not nearly as aggressive as Duranbah and Tommy and I have had much success out-paddling german beginners, splashing american hippies in the face, and running over japanese surf chicks. Pretty much anything goes so long as you come up with a megaman face and a "no worries!" I have had 2 collisions thus far, one with an american girl and the other with an australian hippie with bangs and a mullet. I have seen Bow get dropped in on by a japanese girl with her eyes closed and then he ran her over, as well as a japanese dude wipeout and bomb-drop on Tommy as he was trying to paddle back out. i think was a kamikaze attack in retaliation for the girl. Byron has been a great place to get comfortable and leaving Tallows is bittersweet. After 2 months in Australia, it is here i have finally been able to let time slow down a little. I think about the rat race back home and how time goes so fast. Lately I have truly been able to appreciate my day's big decision of which beach to surf, whether to walk the nature trails, have a beer at lunch, take Kristen surfing, read a book, chase a brush turkey, etc. Even though the money is going pretty fast and a part time job is not too far off, pretirement is feeling pretty good.


and….we just arrived for our 1 week stay in Lennox Head and spent all day yesterday surfing the perfect right point. It was 3-5 feet and going for 200+ yards. Tommy and I both got some of the best waves of our trip. We have another run of south swell due for the weekend and we will try to film some of the good sessions this time. hope everyone is well and the dudes got some great surf from the hurricane, GO JAGUARS!! oh yeah, our nights are filled with movies and Tommy killing us at cards..




2 comments:

  1. Howdy, folks. Recently read an article on hedonic adaptation and thought of you all having the time of your lives out there. This is rich stuff. Please keep posting for our enjoyment, as well as yours.

    Cheers,
    Mick W

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glad to read about your adventures and fun to watch Sholes surfing!!! Check out the new SCDT website... it should be up and running by next week and there are some pics in the gallery that are from the vault! Safe travels, kiddos! Miss you. Rachael and Family

    ReplyDelete