Anyone up for a surfari?

(Johan) Tomorrow there´s a chance there might be some swell coming our way. It´s far from a sure shot, but I´m getting really itchy to go now.

So gang, shall we check it out tomorrow arvo?

The knee actually feels a little better

(Johan) With any luck, it won´t be too bad when I go for my 2nd xray next week... Luckily it´s been blowing westerly winds ever since january...

The Legend in Thailand

The winter may be cold in Sweden but in Thailand the summer is hot. Grant and his family went on vacation to Thailand and are still there. Now and then, we'll receive a text message (SMS) from him sarcastically complaining that its hot or that the water is too warm. Today I received this photo of his son, Sam, and him.

They had also gone body boarding on some mooshy waves. It was a great experience for Sam. To quote the Legend himself:

"We're raging mate! Got an 'onshore' surf in today in 28 deg waves. Crap surf but warm!"...."Sam and I rode heaps of chuncky ones together on the boogie board all the way from out the back! He hooted all the way in every time!"

Sounds as though all is well. The rest of us who are enduring the cold are a bit envious. -Jay

FINALLY!

(Johan) I finally quit my job, after a long period of contemplation. Why quit a job that is well paid? Why quit a job that allows you to go surfing now and then? Why quit a job that you like, but don´t love?

Because.... If you´re gonna work and support your family, you´ve got to "LOVE what you do, and DO what you love!" If not, then you´ll just become something you´re not. And that sucks. Believe me, I know...

Finders, Keepers and Gilligan's Island

As promised, here are some of the pics of the latest discovered SECRET spots.

The Legend Unsatisfied

We decided this weekend in early January that we’d take the chance of freezing on order to catch some waves. The prognosis showed that there was a big swell heading in our direction and with it, a small snowstorm. We decided to take our chances and get there early to avoid having to deal with the traffic that occurs when it snows.

We arrived at the break around 9 am. It was really scattered and blown out. Grant wasn’t satisfied and knew it would build throughout the day. He suggested we check out some other spots that we thought might have great possibilities given a big enough swell. So we head out to explore.

We drove quite a long way. On the way we encountered some really icy roads. At one time, Grant said calmly, “Oh no boys, we’re gonna crash.” I thought he was joking until I looked up and saw he had the steering wheel turned but the car continued straight. Luckily there was a very small patch of asphalt and the tires got some grip and the car turned just in time. As we neared the breaks in question, we looked down a small, protected bay and saw white water. I snapped a couple of shots with my camera and we continued on.

Gilligan's Island

We arrived at a good spot to park the car, got out and began to walk to the spots. We walked for about a mile and a half and reached the first break. It wasn’t breaking the way we had hoped but we noticed that the island adjacent to the break had some waves. I said, “We should call that place Gilligan’s Island!” (It was mostly because growing up I watched this T.V. series and I loved it. It was the whole feeling of isolation that made me feel this place should get this name). The guys agreed that the name would do for now. The series of pictures is the wave coming in on the point of the island.

Finders

We also noticed that the spot we thought might be breaking wasn't but there was a break just around the corner from it. This spot wasn’t breaking that great but it was surf-able. Johan suggested we check out the inside of the bay where we saw the whitewash on the way there, so we walked to check it out.
















KEEPERS

There was a bit of “boonie crashing” since there were no roads, nor trails leading us there. We came over a big rock and the vista we saw made us drool. We hurried down closer to the water and watched in utter silence and amazement. Here was a break that was officially going off! The waves were enormous and powerful. I set up my camera and took a few hundred pictures hoping they would show the size and shape. Grant almost was willing to put on his wetsuit and hop in but I reminded him that maybe we should wait and check the bottom out this summer. The reason for my concern was that these waves were nothing to play around with being at least 6-8 foot (US/AU wave height measurements) or 4-6 meters (Swedish).

You could see in some spots the boils left by underlying boulders, which to me raises an eyebrow.

Do you see the face in this wave?

The snow began to blow in horizontally and sharp as glass, so we packed up and headed back to the car. Grant said, “I think we should call that place Keepers and the other spot Finders.” Both Johan and I agreed that would do for now. Any time we give names to breaks, we usually just come up with something to differentiate that break from the others. It’s not until we surf these spots that we know if the name best fits it. (Kind of like getting a new dog you give it a name by its character or personality.) We got back to the car and thought about what we just saw as we headed back to the break we are familiar with. -Jay

This is the link to the surf session:
http://200kmfromtheocean.blogspot.com/2008/01/last-surf-of-season.html