The Daily Good News
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-06/nsw-mv-portland-bay-finally-towed...
thank you crew. It must be almost 10 years since i paddled out at RNP but I spent almost 10 years there surfing there weekly and more. so many dawn trips and lights off down the track to the carpark in the car and from there on foot.. to keep 'em guessing.. ha.
hate to see that place slick with oil. thank you
"Seven eastern quolls have been released in western Victoria, marking a long-awaited return for the species feared lost to extinction in mainland Australia."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-29/eastern-quolls-released-tiverton-...
These little guys are so cool, came across them when working with devils. Reintroducing the devil surely is on the cards - get rid of the fox cubs!
velocityjohnno wrote:"Seven eastern quolls have been released in western Victoria, marking a long-awaited return for the species feared lost to extinction in mainland Australia."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-29/eastern-quolls-released-tiverton-...
These little guys are so cool, came across them when working with devils. Reintroducing the devil surely is on the cards - get rid of the fox cubs!
Nice one. They are ace !
How good are Op Shops. This one isn’t the cheapest but three good and varied reads for $7 aint too bad. Even found a sequel to Hell West and Crooked by Tom Cole, the rogue croc hunter/vagabond/ adventurer from the NT. This book appears to be about his post-war exploits in New Guinea. Signed no less. As you’d expect for the princely sum of $2!
DSDS, as seriously under age teenager I saw Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs play at the Sunbury festivals in front of thousands of delirious fans. So loud so raw so much power-no summer of love there
His book has some real characters in it , easy reading, smash it out in a day or 2 .
I'm sure Nat's chosen ye olde English font for the association with the titular church, yet I see it and my first thought is 'speed dealing biker'.
Yep. Some good titles there. Pretty sure I used to have the Billy Thorpe one but never read it. Apparently it’s one of the all time Aussie rock Autobiographies so I’m looking forward to it. I’m already into the Tom Cole one about New Guinea is a cracker. It’s like a subdued Les Norton cast into one of the most exciting frontier lifestyles of all time. Very colourful and even better cause it’s factual. Crazy the shit that the chances got up to in Papua and New Guinea after the war. Interesting reading some of the history too like when the Queen’s agents turned up one day and announced to the natives that the joint was now a protectorate of Her Majesty who would look after them from now on. The locals indulged that for a couple of years and then ate the Queen’s agents.
Stu….I’ve got a mate who’s got a tramp stamp above his date in that same script. A bloke! So it’s certainly lost a bit of it’s hoped for reverential association in my book. Not a huge Nat Young fan but it was worth two gold coins. That’s about right I reckon. Fits into the surfing canon on the shelves too.
DudeSweetDudeSweet wrote:Yep. Some good titles there. Pretty sure I used to have the Billy Thorpe one but never read it. Apparently it’s one of the all time Aussie rock Autobiographies so I’m looking forward to it. I’m already into the Tom Cole one about New Guinea is a cracker. It’s like a subdued Les Norton cast into one of the most exciting frontier lifestyles of all time. Very colourful and even better cause it’s factual. Crazy the shit that the chances got up to in Papua and New Guinea after the war. Interesting reading some of the history too like when the Queen’s agents turned up one day and announced to the natives that the joint was now a protectorate of Her Majesty who would look after them from now on. The locals indulged that for a couple of years and then ate the Queen’s agents.
Stu….I’ve got a mate who’s got a tramp stamp above his date in that same script. A bloke! So it’s certainly lost a bit of it’s hoped for reverential association in my book. Not a huge Nat Young fan but it was worth two gold coins. That’s about right I reckon. Fits into the surfing canon on the shelves too.
Be interested in a review on Nat's book from you DSD. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that Nat's a fan of Nat (and that's that)- even if you aren't.
I will endeavour to provide an entirely subjective assessment of Church of the Open Sky.
The chapter with Nat attempting to make amends with Midget is worthy. I don't think it's a spoiler to say their fifty-year rift isn't resolved, but it shows the depth of the spite.
Also, it's worth trying to get a hold of his previous book, 'Nat's Nat and That's That'. Sure, the fella's got an ego, by my word he can tell a good story. That book is overflowing with them. The kind of guy you'd like sitting at your table during a wedding reception.
stunet wrote:The chapter with Nat attempting to make amends with Midget is worthy. I don't think it's a spoiler to say their fifty-year rift isn't resolved, but it shows the depth of the spite.
Also, it's worth trying to get a hold of his previous book, 'Nat's Nat and That's That'. Sure, the fella's got an ego, by my word he can tell a good story. That book is overflowing with them. The kind of guy you'd like sitting at your table during a wedding reception.
mmm...maybe for a few stories, but not sure I could last a whole night with him at the table. I sat through his book launch in Aireys Inlet. That was enough.
I haven’t watched any of the Comm games but caught this race by chance last night. What a run in the home straight. Chased down two world champs for the win.
https://youtube.com/shorts/Jor3g2ciflo?feature=share
Went walking down in BD's part of the world with my eldest and upon first stepping on the beach a section of reef only about 30m offshore raised itself out of the water and looked at us. Of course it was the barnacled head of a mother Southern Right Whale and her calf. They slowly meandered along the beach and then we followed them up on the headland - hard to keep up with their languid speed at a fast walk. Got to hear them talking "mmmmmmmurgh, mmmmurgh" too. Pretty epic, never seen one that close from a beach. Protip: the tail flukes at certain angles can look like the biggest pointer dorsal you ever saw!
How fantastic VJ.
velocityjohnno wrote:Went walking down in BD's part of the world with my eldest and upon first stepping on the beach a section of reef only about 30m offshore raised itself out of the water and looked at us. Of course it was the barnacled head of a mother Southern Right Whale and her calf. They slowly meandered along the beach and then we followed them up on the headland - hard to keep up with their languid speed at a fast walk. Got to hear them talking "mmmmmmmurgh, mmmmurgh" too. Pretty epic, never seen one that close from a beach. Protip: the tail flukes at certain angles can look like the biggest pointer dorsal you ever saw!
Sounds unreal VJ. Mind if I ask exactly where it happened?
That's incredible!
Yes, we'd booked accomodation at Middleton (it's got really nice there!) and decided to go for a walk on the beach as soon as we checked in.. Never seen anything like it and been surfing/following the coast since 1990
Loved the whole Great Southern, did the Stirlings/Porongorups/VOG, some lesser walks and the coast road along to Walpole then back to Perth via Manjimup. You still have a place there DSDS? Ocean beach was open to the inlet - very different from when I first saw it in the mid 90s. And longboards seem to have taken off in the corner as well as the surf mum/kids running around scene that we have locally on the SC, it all looked really nice. After enjoying in the 90s I didn't get to buy the mead (or the alpaca jumper I pledged I'd buy) this time either, but will be back!
I noted the understorey at VOG contained stuff that looked very much like the Gondwanic Tassie rainforest understory, and so the 'feel' of the trip was like Tassie in WA. Lots of animals/birds to be seen.
Oh yeah got some great pics etc in the drive over the Nullarbor too, there's one maybe I can send to Craig to post in the pics thread.
Met the most remarkable older fellow at Eucla - he had a chat with me, over 80 I'd say, and his wife and self had just done the Simpson desert in nothing but a Suzuki Jimny, sparsely but competently decked out, and swags. He'd asked me about how to get to the Telegraph stations (I'd encountered them on a survey run of the Roe plain 20 years ago and so had some knowledge of the way). Edit: I absolutely love that part of the world.
Sounds like a ripper of a trip VJ. Thanks for sharing
cheers etarip, we've certainly got some ideas on really off-beat travel we could do with the inspiration above.
Artificial reefs came up in the Northern Beaches Seawall story. We have just heard that a previously un-named fishing / diving reef in the area is to be named after a friend’s son, a keen fisho, who died way too young last year. Tenacious work from another friend got the job done. Stoked.
This was a great moment after the GF
Sammy’s moment 🥹#AFLGF pic.twitter.com/OK4GhdJQHV
— AFL (@AFL) September 24, 2022
He's a good lad that Joel Selwood.
Totally agree but equally Sam Moorfoot is. He is a part of the club as I’ve read and it’s his moment also. Good times all round.
It was good to see him recognised by the players. Good work by J Cameron as well.
Putting this here cause it’s good news. Such a great message for guys and girls. Also surfed with this chick a few times and she’s as pleasant amiable in real life as she comes across in the vid.
Good link Blowin. Nice vid.
I haven’t been in the water much of late. Combination of hectic work, a lot of travel, got sick, got a minor rib injury snowboarding that made it too painful to surf, and then been busy with house renos. Or, when I’ve had time to surf I’ve been skunked.
Finally got back in the water on the weekend, but my biggest buzz was pushing my 7yo and his mate onto wave after wave and watching them gain confidence on their soft tops and surf to the point of shivering exhaustion.
"Elon Musk completes takeover of Twitter, CEO and CFO reportedly fired and escorted from building"
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-28/elon-musk-completes-takeover-of-t...
Seems the deal has been completed terrible $ investment for Elon but great news for free speech, still dont think i will do Twitter though just seems too political and toxic, facebook is bad enough.
indo-dreaming wrote:still dont think i will do Twitter though just seems too political and toxic, facebook is bad enough.
I agree with you on this indo, we'll see what happens to the rest. You should give Reddit a go though, it's good fun with great customisation capabilities.
In all honestly I'm trying to cut down on social media and online use, although i did start up a personal instagram account the other week but i find that's more of a positive space as I'm not interested in following anything remotely political on there.
elon musk... bit of a wanker extraordinaire...
will probably turn a loss
but Im sure he doesn't care, this could possibly be the most important thing he ever does, much bigger than his shooting shit towards the stars and lecy cars to save the world...
you just gotta look at the crew wigging out at his takeover to know that this is a significantly significant developement
Will trump get his account back?
burleigh wrote:Will trump get his account back?
Im pretty Elon said he could have it back but I believe Trump said he wasn't interested i think Trump has his own crappy social media now "truth social" or something, im betting Elon would like him to have him back though, he pulls a crowd.
sypkan wrote:elon musk... bit of a wanker extraordinaire...
will probably turn a loss
but Im sure he doesn't care, this could possibly be the most important thing he ever does, much bigger than his shooting shit towards the stars and lecy cars to save the world...
you just gotta look at the crew wigging out at his takeover to know that this is a significantly significant developement
I was never into him, but he has grown on me.
I just like how he seems to enjoy giving things a shake up and dancing to the beat of his own drum, kinda dorky, but somehow kinda cool and I like how he is hard to pigeonhole, he hates wokeness and is pro free speech, but is also not really a conservative, i mean he is leading the revolution in EV's.
But on the flipside there is aspects of him that scare me, that whole blending of artificial intelligence with the human brain thing is down right scary.
How good is this surfing life? Was laid up with a tummy bug most of yesterday and today, but paddled out this arvo and got some long fast waves.
Drinks with Ms IB now, and all is well.
Good to see the Diamonds score another win . They have had a great week all round. https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2022/10/31/netball-sponsorship-...
Found a 2ft beachy yesterday on the weekend and got a surf in with my now-busy-in-the-week son. We umm'd and ahh'd at the small right/left but at least it was hollow, and went out because of a board: one of MC's 'edge' boards that I'd bought new in 2002, that had died in battle in 2006 being snapped at Supertubes (2 in half an hour...) Resurrected like a ghola in Frank Herbert's "Dune" series, it had it's nose reattached and had been kept at Mum's in WA since... He'd wanted a go, so I brought it back with me, and we took a trip back to the early 2000's with a little more volume than the decade prior, big single concaves, and edges all the way along the rails.
I watched him have a crack. First couple of waves, nothing special, then he got a late small drop and it just cranked off a heavy back foot bottom turn, then he came back out smiling, "Yeah, I think there's something in this."
The next few waves he got into it a bit more, and from behind the wave face I could see real jets of speed ("Treat it a bit more like a skateboard in the small stuff, the edges go rail-to-rail really quickly") and some great little waves made. The board's body going out through the back of the wave, then down in the re-entry. The odd floater. Taking off and grabbing the rail under a little lip. Upsides: the instant speed, particularly on plastic fins! (It has a unique fin system, too) Any downsides? Pushed water on the fatter faces a little with low volume rockered needle nose, made him a bit 'flickier' - but no biggie.
So the old dog still has got it, 20 years later. Glad I kept the board, and I'm really grateful to get to share it.
Board through the back of the wave is a metric for good surfing.
That's a great story VJ!
"John Gorman is probably the most famous Australian you’ve never heard of.
His groundbreaking medical research to treat a blood disease has since saved millions of babies’ lives around the world."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-02/john-gorman-rh-disease-treatment-...
Thank you so much for that san Guine. Gorman is a legend. I reckon he helped me get here, then. Mum lost a child before me to this.
Some very promising results from this psilocybin clinical trial https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/nov/02/magic-mushrooms-psilocyb...
We've just improved on our single largest System 002 catch record. On October 24, we extracted 10,755 kg of plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch after less than five days. pic.twitter.com/klrmi7jDSW
— The Ocean Cleanup (@TheOceanCleanup) November 3, 2022
A wreck yesterday and could barely move or breathe. Fine today and chilling with a coffee and a kretek after a brilliant surf.
velocityjohnno wrote:Yes, we'd booked accomodation at Middleton (it's got really nice there!) and decided to go for a walk on the beach as soon as we checked in.. Never seen anything like it and been surfing/following the coast since 1990
Velocityjohnno. How are you ? Some nice writing from your good self over the last few days, you are nearing the summit of my AFL/NRL type ladder of contributors to Swellnet forums, by years end id be saying you’d be playing in the Grand Final.
You commented on the Valley of The Giants, my ears pricked up. What vegetation did you see and what about it that made you think of Tassie, you know Ive got a curious mind, id be pleased to hear more. AWLoved the whole Great Southern, did the Stirlings/Porongorups/VOG, some lesser walks and the coast road along to Walpole then back to Perth via Manjimup. You still have a place there DSDS? Ocean beach was open to the inlet - very different from when I first saw it in the mid 90s. And longboards seem to have taken off in the corner as well as the surf mum/kids running around scene that we have locally on the SC, it all looked really nice. After enjoying in the 90s I didn't get to buy the mead (or the alpaca jumper I pledged I'd buy) this time either, but will be back!
I noted the understorey at VOG contained stuff that looked very much like the Gondwanic Tassie rainforest understory, and so the 'feel' of the trip was like Tassie in WA. Lots of animals/birds to be seen.
Oh yeah got some great pics etc in the drive over the Nullarbor too, there's one maybe I can send to Craig to post in the pics thread.
Met the most remarkable older fellow at Eucla - he had a chat with me, over 80 I'd say, and his wife and self had just done the Simpson desert in nothing but a Suzuki Jimny, sparsely but competently decked out, and swags. He'd asked me about how to get to the Telegraph stations (I'd encountered them on a survey run of the Roe plain 20 years ago and so had some knowledge of the way). Edit: I absolutely love that part of the world.
Hey Alfred,
(Cats fan: much trauma over the years in grand finals, absolved when they blew the lid off it in 2007!)
OK understorey in Valley of Giants: we know that the wetter areas of Australia have kept gondwanic understorey vegetation, I immediately think of things like Sassafras and the native Pepper in Tassie. After a while you get to know them by looking... So I noticed plants under the Tingles that appeared similar in leaf, flower, and how some did a sprawling messy branching everywhere. The amazing Tingle trees are Eucalypts however, so it's a hybrid setup...
Got a couple of iconic pics of them but too addled to post them up here.
velocityjohnno wrote:Hey Alfred,
(Cats fan: much trauma over the years in grand finals, absolved when they blew the lid off it in 2007!)
OK understorey in Valley of Giants: we know that the wetter areas of Australia have kept gondwanic understorey vegetation, I immediately think of things like Sassafras and the native Pepper in Tassie. After a while you get to know them by looking... So I noticed plants under the Tingles that appeared similar in leaf, flower, and how some did a sprawling messy branching everywhere. The amazing Tingle trees are Eucalypts however, so it's a hybrid setup...
Got a couple of iconic pics of them but too addled to post them up here.
VJ. I’m on your coast but a Pies fan. I can only dream of what if, had we got there, way better performance that those ugly ducklings.
How good are the giant Red Tingles (Eucalyptus jacksonii ). When walking through that area, that whole feeling of giant tree trunks with massive girth, felt like all the tree trunks were the legs of past giants, totally awe inspiring place. Lived in Albany almost 40 years ago and ventured to all of those aforementioned places. Hopefully the whole area will remain that way for years to come. Already a big fuck up with that by-pass road south of Perth chewing partially into the Bibbulmun Track. Once its gone, its gone. AW.
Still on a high from Friday's scenes and riding.
Last week's cold outbreak brought 40cm+ to the NSW Main Range and one last crack at some quality skiing on the classic spring lines.
Steve Wall, Big Tyson, myself and another mate arrived in the Charlotte Pass turning circle late on Thursday evening and decided to hike out in the beautiful moonlight. Froth was high and seeing that you could ski from the top down to the crossing was incredible especially being the start of November.
The skin up from the crossing was all snow, easy as and stunning in the moonlight with no head-torches needed. We arrived at camp around 2am and were in bed by 2:30am. Here are the scenes just before hitting the hay.
On waking up Friday morning, I could not believe what lay out before us. Almost full coverage, much like a good low tide winter, with all runs a goer. North face Carruthers was even loaded, and with one look at that, being able to ski it in early November, we headed straight up.
We dropped it probably half an hour too early, with the north-east (skiers left side) being nice and creamy but the centre through right side still iced up and hard. Still it was fun though the exit torturous. Steve (skiing below) got straight out with ski cramps but the rest of us couldn't skin up the steeps and boot packing saw us post holing through the fresh cover, down to the underlying bush. Very exhausting in the baking sun.
After a short recovery we headed off to TWK and dropped down to the west, it was 10/10 fast, creamy corn, 300m+ of vert and incredible spring skiing. We climbed back up and did it again but the snow had gone heavy and saturated, making it a fun, but slower second descent.
Big T laying down..
The weather came in later evening as we retreated back to base camp. Low cloud bubbling away to the west and storm towers firing up to the north-east.
We woke to complete white-out conditions, perfect for a lie in and then retreat back to Jindy for a big breaky/lunch and coffee. A trip for the ages!
These little trips are a very special part of Swellnet Craig, don't stop them!
Craig wrote:Still on a high from Friday's scenes and riding.
Last week's cold outbreak brought 40cm+ to the NSW Main Range and one last crack at some quality skiing on the classic spring lines.
Steve Wall, Big Tyson, myself and another mate arrived in the Charlotte Pass turning circle late on Thursday evening and decided to hike out in the beautiful moonlight. Froth was high and seeing that you could ski from the top down to the crossing was incredible especially being the start of November.
The skin up from the crossing was all snow, easy as and stunning in the moonlight with no head-torches needed. We arrived at camp around 2am and were in bed by 2:30am. Here are the scenes just before hitting the hay.
On waking up Friday morning, I could not believe what lay out before us. Almost full coverage, much like a good low tide winter, with all runs a goer. North face Carruthers was even loaded, and with one look at that, being able to ski it in early November, we headed straight up.
We dropped it probably half an hour too early, with the north-east (skiers left side) being nice and creamy but the centre through right side still iced up and hard. Still it was fun though the exit torturous. Steve (skiing below) got straight out with ski cramps but the rest of us couldn't skin up the steeps and boot packing saw us post holing through the fresh cover, down to the underlying bush. Very exhausting in the baking sun.
After a short recovery we headed off to TWK and dropped down to the west, it was 10/10 fast, creamy corn, 300m+ of vert and incredible spring skiing. We climbed back up and did it again but the snow had gone heavy and saturated, making it a fun, but slower second descent.
Big T laying down..
The weather came in later evening as we retreated back to base camp. Low cloud bubbling away to the west and storm towers firing up to the north-east.
We woke to complete white-out conditions, perfect for a lie in and then retreat back to Jindy for a big breaky/lunch and coffee. A trip for the ages!
Craig. Awe inspiring shots and photography, really enjoy your perspective on life, get out there amongst it, remember you are a long time underground.
Me and two mates of 45 years just spent the most amazing 10 nights at Lances Right on Sipora. Suffice to say, the Swellnet forecast came to TOTAL fruition. It never got below 4ft and it pumped every day culminating in last weekends 6-7ft over the Friday, Saturday and Sunday, still pumping 4ft when we left. All hail the Shoulder Season we say, going back for a month same time next year, all aboard anyone !!!!!
Dedicated to good news ....