How Wild Is Your Surfing Life?
A quote from Mick Lawrence, the recently departed elder statesman of Tasmanian surfing, struck a deep chord in me, and it's been buzzing around in my head ever since. Referring to surfing in his native state, Mick said:
“The surf culture down here is not asphalt-based, never has been, never will be. Rather, the call of wilderness waves is the core of its being.”
As well as a beautifully poetic description of Tasmanian surfing, Mick's statement seemed to issue a challenge from beyond the grave. A challenge I would, most respectfully, like to respond to.
(Photo Craig Brokensha)
I am an asphalt-based surfer, as I suspect most of my fellow Australian surfers are, and I don't feel like the wildness of my surfing experience is diminished because of that fact. Please allow me to explain.
Even though I might drive to the surf for 99% of my go-outs, every time I leave the shoreline I enter the largest contiguous wilderness area on Earth. It's called the Pacific Ocean. Of course, all our oceans are effectively one single body of water, created 3.8 billion years ago. When I rock-off I am as connected to, say, Nova Scotia, as I am to Tahiti, or Indonesia, the Marianas Trench, Mauritania, or Namibia. The continuous nature of this oceanic domain is seldom acknowledged in surf culture.
Even less so are our biological companions in this domain. This pertains to the core of my argument. If surfers are a tribe, as Nat Young and other have asserted, why are we not more curious about our tribal companions which comprise the majority of the wildness of the surfing experience? We share our experience with them every time we paddle out. This lack of curiosity astounds me.
Our knowledge of the meteorological, oceanographic, and even geologic, is grist for the mill, and rightly so. Yet very little in the way of our biodiversity is mentioned. Read through decades of surf mags and it's as if we had been surfing in sterile surroundings. Our media has been chlorinated, long before wavepools showed up.
Predators get a mention, for obvious reasons; missing limbs tend to focus the mind. Whales and dolphins are somewhere on the edge of the radar, but the rest of our animal compatriots are completely missing.
Surfing's most famous 'wild' encounter: Mick Fanning and friend, Jeffreys Bay, 2015 (Photo WSL)
It's not like we don't have the time to observe. Unlike other gravity sports, surfing is unique in the amount of time where nothing happens. We sit and wait while wildness unfolds around us.
Maybe this is just an artefact of seeing surfing as something uniquely human..? Yet even the most casual observer can see that is not true. We know enough about animal consciousness now to understand our mammalian cousins can communicate and play. Dolphins, almost certainly, enjoy a shred as much as you do. Airs, turns, carves, and tubes are all part of the cetacean repertoire, accomplished somehow without coaching or YouTube tutorials. They scrap for territory and dominance, they seduce and show-off, and surfing is likely part of that, as it is for humans. Mammals certainly surf for fun.
Other organisms ride waves for more utilitarian reasons. White sharks and orcas use swells to launch surprise attacks, for example.
Mullet don't surf, you might think, if you ever gave the humble mullet a moment's thought. But go watch the magical sequences of Baddy Treloar surfing Angourie to Simple Ben in 'Morning Of The Earth'. Schools of sea mullet doing a grand job of cutting the green from A to B, as they do to this day, often hurried along by bull sharks bringing up the rear. They may look a little gormless with their execution, hence the term “stunned mullet”, but they can still jag a set wave from the back button to the shack without a hitch. In a sense, they surf as if their life depended on it.
The list of surfing creatures is long and it highlights a universal wildness amongst our surfable coastlines. We're at the peak of 'travelling' season here on the sub-tropical coast of New South Wales. The Humpback Highway is in full swing. With it, according to the local shark contractor, white sharks are starting to show. Inshore, huge bait balls - Australian Anchovy mostly - are in the surf zone, using waves to escape from attack above and below. At times, I can smell the dispersed oiliness from my house. At others, the water column glistens and glitters with reflected light from the millions of scales discarded in the surf zone from attacked baitfish remnants.
"The Humpback Highway is in full swing" (Photo Craig Brokensha)
A winter's day with a straight easterly groundswell and a late swinging nor-west wind found me and a mate alone off the end of Cape Byron enjoying Indo-style tubes. Alone except for hordes of marauding tailor and long-tail tuna running rampant through schools of sea gar. Cavalcades of garfish would scatter into the air as the meso-predators launched attacks, with the tuna often greyhounding after the garfish. Pity the garfish; nowhere seemed safe for them.
Minutes later I pulled into one of those crystalline cylinders which live long in the memory. The golden, low-slung sun was guiding my exit out of the hole when an extraordinary event occurred. Like a pane of shattered glass, hundreds of garfish suddenly exploded through the wall of the tube in front of me, lit up like mirrors by the sun, as they escaped predation. The tube reconfigured as a safe space for those low on the food chain.
Who enjoyed the tube-ride more? Me with my pleasure-seeking, or the garfish from their Darwinian perspective of survival of the fittest?
Oblivious to this existential drama, less than five minutes away were beautiful people enjoying $20 smoothies. Does their proximity make my experience less wild?
"Like a pane of shattered glass, hundreds of garfish suddenly exploded through the wall of the tube" (Photo Craig Brokensha)
Although I drive to it, I spend the majority of my free-time, both surfing and fishing, rock-hopping across the basalt headlands formed by the lava flows of the ancient shield volcano, known now as it was to the Bundjalung people, as Wollumbin. It's prime habitat, shared by many plants and animals. The headlands, once cleared for cattle grazing, have been reforested and returned to littoral rainforest. A small swamp in an indentation at the base of the point, is filled with Eastern froglets and Striped marsh frogs. Sunning themselves on the track in the winter sunshine, a pair of Red-bellied black snakes who feast on the frogs are chill if you walk slowly. In spring and summer, the Eastern browns that come out can move with more urgency - it pays to look down on the way to the rock-off.
The boulders, mostly chunks of basalt fallen from the hexagonal columns in the front of the headland, are the source of much misfortune for surfers, and equal parts mirth for onlookers. They are by turns slippery and sharp as algae slicks and goose barnacles share the same space. The barnacle is not a shellfish, but a crustacean, like a crayfish or a prawn. The trick is to step to the barnacles for the grip and accept the cuts as the lesser of two evils, compared to the slip, slide, and loss of momentum with injurious results. On a lazy winter's low tide session, the pied oystercatchers will be on the boulders, heard more often than seen, chasing crabs and cunjevoi.
Everyone has their superstitions. Mine is seeing oystercatchers on the wing as I rock-off. I convince myself it's a sign of a good session. No doubt I quickly forget the times a shocker ensues and the superstition remains intact.
"The boulders are the source of much misfortune for surfers, and equal parts mirth for onlookers" (Photo Andrew Shield)
The sandbank past the shack has been all-time, tempting the surfer into ever more hollow sections. Memorable rides start from the back button and end up down there. At their conclusion, the rider ends up in a rock garden with a ferocious appetite for fins. I take the conservative route due to the low tide sessions I prefer and walk carefully through the rock garden, which circumscribes the inter-tidal lagoon and ancient fish trap. Not carefully enough. The rock garden is also favoured by the forty or so species of sea urchin that inhabit the area. I get a foot-full of spines, this time from the delightfully named, Lamington sea urchin. It's a boom and bust species that appears to be in full boom mode. Nice to eat apparently - delicious umami. In amongst them, I can see the Long-spined urchin with its sharp black spines waving delicately in the current.
A common denominator, if unwelcome, between myself and Mick Lawrence's wilderness experience. A stronger East Australian Current sweeps the bilaterally symmetrical larvae of the urchin down to Tasmania, where the five-axis symmetrical adults have damaged kelp forests and created urchin barrens.
I stumble over a rock and disturb a gloomy octopus. He shoots across the rockpool, changing colours three or four times in the process. The intelligent octopus lives for less than a year, the 'dumb' urchin for fifty or more. Why would nature pack all that intelligence into something that is so short-lived, while keeping something so simple alive for that long?
Much to ponder about our wild pastime, but for now, the urchin spines in my foot and the insane set wave I just rode will assert mental priority. The rest can wait for a slow stroll on a low tide afternoon, watching urchin spines slowly wave whilst looking for lost fins.
// STEVE SHEARER
Comments
Great read mate... now you have me really thinking about the octopus and it's short life!
Jeez that was a great read. I love that you have such a deep connection to the ocean and the shore. I think Dave Parmenter said it and I'll paraphrase but as surfers we're defined not by the lands that divide us but by the oceans that connect us. I love that line.
If I was charged $20 for a smoothie, I'd be pretty wild too.
But the $20 connect you with Mother Earth :
Ha, ha the blow ins at Byron are really off the charts with bullshit.
The octopus and the urchin celebrate a world of wildness and a diversity of ocean ecosystems. Thank you for your inspiring acknowledgment of a life well lived by Mick Lawrence.
Thanks for the nicely penned reminder Steve as to the added bonuses of how and why we enjoy passing time as such, and more. Long may it be.
Unreal read FR. Right to the heart of it.
I concur, and raise that Sooty oystercatchers are the best birds in the world.
Crazy whale migratory action down here at moment. Amazing seeing a subsection of an entire species mobilised together and on the charge along the coast.
Wild down here. Everythings wild. Every surf is wild. Alot of walking.
Land of the giants. Everything makes you feel small.
Feels like everything wants to kill you.
Wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
Good swell & winds today SR, find anything? Almost perfect for one of those wild surfs in your neck of the woods sand co-operating.
Urgh its doing my head in Soggy. I had a few hours up my sleeve before work, drove around to some potentials but not quite doing it. Some places well E of here would probably have been all time today. Haven't seen that swell/period/direction/wind combo in a long time! There was a tonne of energy in the water. Hope you've been getting a few yourself.
Very good read, Steve.
Two ‘wild’ sides to my surfing experience. In NZ we often walk/boat/4WD/MTB to get to the goods, as many surf spots are way off the beaten track. A proper outing to a remote wave with a few mates or just yourself makes for a fine day.
And then there’s the wildlife. Gannets gliding on the wave face or divebombing, shags fishing, orca doing their best submarine impressions , sharks scaring the life out of you.
It’s not a bad life, and certainly not domesticated and tamed.
Gravel roads, hiking thru sheep paddocks, sea lions on the beach... and the sound of exostosis slowly growing in your ears.
"Sorry, whaaat?"
Yep, 1mm opening both ears.
Just had my second ear done, last month in Melbourne... nice to get it over with. Back in the water this weekend hopefully (surf coast permitting).
1mm jealous, if I try really hard can just force the right ear open :-)
I forgot about sitting 1.5k out to see alone with your thoughts and your lineup markers…
When you're sitting that far out to sea it certainly gives you the opportunity to ruminate on the various creatures we share the ocean with. I've made my peace with it.
Freeride76.
Good one mate.
No lack of curiosity in this bag of cells, I’ve always been interested in aquatic and terrestrial biological life.
Don’t we all want to know our origins ? AW
If you surf, you are a very lucky individual indeed ...
Blessed
Great writing, thanks.
I haven’t seen an albatross cruising in on a Westerly for a while ,and then surfing the updraft along the wave.
You had a feeling the albatrosses weren’t locals,and you didn’t want to get In their way kook
Another thought on the amazing Albatross, with it’s up to 10 foot wingspan ,is the perfect design for riding the moving updrafts created by offshore winds and breaking waves, I wonder how far out of their way ,these birds went, when they seemingly came in from the open ocean, to ride these perfect waves.And was it just for fun, or to get a ‘free ride ‘ up or down the coast , or both.
The Australasian Gannet is equally adept at riding the micro-updrafts created by breaking waves.
Definitely functional as far as minimising energy expenditure goes.
Do they enjoy it? There's probably just enough evidence for bird consciousness to suggest it "feels like" something to that bird to ride that wave. IE, it has some sort of experience and not just a blind instinctual response.
Took some footage of some albatross a few days ago of a remote headland. Zoomed right in on one. Was hard to keep it in focus but kept it in frame. Watching it back its like watching a fighter jet in motion. Pure speed and precision. You can really get a sense of the speed with the camera zoomed right in on it. Pretty rare to see albatross down here. Lots of gannets but wow, those albatross' wing span is massive!
From memory the albatrosses I surfed with back in the day seemed to only be around on a reasonable westerly ,could be wrong, but it seemed like they flew into the wind until they reached the coast, then started riding the waves.They weren’t riding micro updrafts ,but more of a wind gust pushing them along the wave, and would definitely buzz you if you got in their way paddling out. And they must have known this lift was available, because I don’t remember them at other times !
There was a Giant Petrel in the water here yesterday- fcuking huge big bird (about the size of a turkey but more solidly built) with a massive beak and extremely obnoxious and aggressive.
It attacked my mates board and started biting his tail pad.
They seem to be an occasional visitor here from the Southern Ocean- and everytime I see one in the water (every few years) it's the same behaviour.
Aggro.
" They are extremely aggressive and will kill other seabirds (usually penguin chicks, sick or injured adult penguins and the chicks of other seabirds), even those as large as an albatross, which they kill either by battering them to death or drowning".
Stone cold killers.
Just goes to show, not every aggro participant in the line-up is a local.
Maybe it was hungry .and thought the board looked like a big white tuna or something?
Totally. What is wrong with those things?
I've had the odd one follow the boat around all day at work looking for a handout (bait scraps).
Jeebus, they are a torment. Loud, aggro bully birds that seem to hate everyone and everything around them. Mutton birds and gulls were very wary of them and were often assualted.
Hand feeding one a pilchard was not the smartest thing I've ever done. Zero etiquette.
Quite often out at Frigates. Had one lead me out of a barrel once was amazing.
I’ve lived in a lot of other places since then , so I could be wrong, but I haven’t seen one for a while in SE Qld
Nice read and a nice reminder to smell the roses is what I got from that Steve. Thankyou
Funny how an article like this reminds you of how easy it is to forget how unbelievably lucky we are with the activity we have chosen to enjoy our free time. Great article.
$20 for a smoothie? I reckon that's pretty wild.
And don't start me on farkin sea urchins....
Great piece though.
An observant eye and a curious mind are indeed great assets, as is just being able to live in the moment.
Awesome.
I suppose the "wild" is a matter of subjectivity.
For example, I was a little transfixed with the final moments of Tomayo today and how he may have handled himself in the final moments. Purely primal and utterly tragic, yet in a strange way, beautiful and somewhat symbolic of the lengths we go to fulfil our desires (though I wish he encountered a sea urchin instead).
I appreciate and agree with your sentiments FR, It is a wild world and it makes all the difference for me, making surfing an experience rather than a pastime or simple sporting activity, the wildness, dangers, and challenges, extend and enhance the moment relatively.
I try to engage with the dolphins, whales, sea eagles, penguins and even bloody seagulls, trying to feel part of the mix rather than a visitor. Though it isn't lost on me, I am the one covered in artificial warmth and synthetic equipment, probably appearing to be quite ridiculous to the wildlife around me.
I have a funny video from the South Coast of Dad telling son to be wary of the occy, keeping the hands and fingers away from the beak. Look at the colours, see how he blends with his surroundings, what an amazing anima.....SCREAMING CHILD......hmmmmm what a sharp beak he has :-)
Thought-provoking piece
Cheers FR
Love your zen ocean story; so often desired & often overlooked in this current human race for..... xxx ooo ...$$$ ....???
Being within nature is a connection to the greater world we once all communed; in the fables, the garden of Eden was a paradise lost or .....just forgotten .....?
P.S. vinegar dissolves calcium
or continue experiments with chemicals .....that were a " a clever idea" in the 70's like PCB's, uranium, plutonium, ....etc
support a race to oblivion?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium
"The longest-lived are plutonium-244, with a half-life of 80.8 million years, plutonium-242, with a half-life of 373,300 years, and plutonium-239, with a half-life of 24,110 years. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives that are less than 7,000 years. £
Such a beautiful article. I love the Nova Scotia and co reference. That is why localism is such a weird concept.
To be a local, where does it start and where does it end, both in time and space?
"Locals" should always feel blessed rather than entitled. Their lives often depend on the work of many non-locals around the world who aren't equally lucky to live near the ocean (farmers, miners, doctors, scientists, nurses, factory workers, and hundreds of other professions). I have long ago moved away from my "local" beach, but from a very young age I found it sad how many of my friends, the 'locals' , thought they had more right over the surf than visiting surfers. For absolutely no earned reason whatsoever. Had they been stoked to see the "visitors" also enjoying the surf, their hearts would have been lighter. The locals' grand prize IS living near the ocean, not some divine right over waves that were formed in a storm thousands of kilometers away.
This article makes us think on how temporary and tiny is our role in the grand picture. Great read! Overall, it made me happier. Thanks
Surfed at the sleepy fishing village of dreamy Lennox Hd pt..... then new estates of concrete & brick boxes carved up the curved cattle dotted green landscapes, heavy rains brought surreptitious sewerage, BS court cases crushed community dissent & crowds of boof head, drop in, near beginner f'wits moved in onto printine waves and/or drove on mass highways from the GC... we moved on....to better vibes, waves & clearer waters....' blessed ' elsewhere.
Life is too short. The first cut is the deepest....
PS. Brown snakes probably means the place has rats and the human rubbish they feed on....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_brown_snake
bbbird. Hi mate.
That’s a broad spatial anthropomorphic generalisation about Eastern Brown snakes. Not necessarily so.
I’m pretty sure the prevalence of Eastern Browns in the area mentioned are eating many other prey in a coastal context besides rats.
The EB have been on earth for around 50 million years.
They are simply opportunistic, rats or no rats.
Edit . Black Rat (Rattus rattus) and Norwegian Rat (Rattus norvegicus) were accidentally introduced into Oz, AW
There are native rodents here they also eat.
Never forget a surf check here in La Niña with long grass.
Right atop the headland, saw a nice big Eastern brown, very much in active hunting mode.
Saw him disappear down a hole, about 10 m away a small rodent came scurrying out into the open out of another hole, closely followed by said brown snake in hot pursuit.
Fr76. Good stuff, we all loved that write up, I know I felt a real ‘sense of place’.
Well, late Summer here, I unfortunately stood on and in the coils of one, it took one snap and missed, I walked on with my dog, stopped and reflected on what just happened.
Strangely I wasn’t too perturbed, late Summer very low scale toxicity to its venom. All the best. AW
When I surfed the North West the odd run in with a sea snake always removed any romantic notion of wildness due to the high pitched screaming.
Really enjoyed the read FR, thanks.
Ocean swimming- do it . You are no longer above the water but a part of it - like body surfing.
I’m freeballing under my wetty every day of the week, pretty f#*king wild hey!
Hahaha
Seriously though, this is why I surf. I don’t care about mc-twists and mc-claims, possibly because I can’t do them and definitely because I’m not interested in them. I’ve always been a national park surfer who only cares about what the wave can do to me, not what I can do to it. Give me a throaty barrel from behind the peak, a speed wall high line or even a finger caress of glassy 1ft rooftop tube as I trim over the gin clear bank any day of the week, over tricks.
Thanks FR, it strikes to the heart, I’ve also only thought surfing was just something to do, while I immersed myself in nature. All on the day I exchanged on a property in a particularly wave rich zone on the south coast. A new life coming for me and my wife, and from here it’s looking pretty wild
Nice one, sd
Good read. I am one with nature and the 7 urchin spines in my heal at the moments hahaha
A great quote from Mick and also very evocative writing Steve. Love it.
What's that other saying, it's not about the destination but the journey..
Growing up as an Adelaide surfer, the journey has been baked into my surfing experienced from the get go.
This has had a big part to play in my piqued interest in walking the extra mile, checking the next headland, soaking in all that nature has to offer along the way. Be it the flora, fauna or the unique coastal landscape.
I'd say the surfing experience growing up right on the beach in California would be in stark contrast to what we have here in Australia and I'm ever so grateful for it.
Never stop exploring and embracing the beauty of the world around us, even in the more populated areas.
Trip to A on Monday.
40 plus around mid morning.
Some locals blowing up as they paddled back out after getting a good one lol ;)
Not much of a journey these days, more interesting drive than going south though.
Get to see some sugar cane.
taking your 2wd shitb.x down a track marked 4wd only, half cut, with no Plan B
that first fin that pierces the water, when you are sitting alone, before dawn, in a secluded spot, and the moment you take to identify what it is.
walking around a taxi rank in Marokko, wearing a back pack, proclaiming 'Allahu Akbar!' (instead of Lalla Fatna)
Paddling out at 6ft Lalla Fatna for the first time, with the only other living thing in sight being a stray dog.
paddling out into morning seamist at the keyhole, when you can hear, but cannot see the waves, before dawn at a certain javanese reef break
And the ultimate...rolling the dice by selecting your surf craft before you've checked the surf
Vince Neil. So good mate , felt like I was with ya.
Last Winter down here on the SC. Me and a mate, first in the carpark, half an hour before anyone else, suited up, cold and dark, brutal walk down the gravel track to a well known spot, we both said sounds like 3-4ft, started paddling out, within a minute I was paddling vertically up a wave face so much bigger, surprised both of us.
We’d simply paddled out in a rare lull. It was 6ft on the sets. AW
Lately, the sea urchins at the point have been fighting a battle against the slugs - sand slugs that is.
There's a large field of urchins midway down the point, starting about 20-30m off the rocks extending to just below the tide line. Last August, the day after the first big swell in months, hundreds of urchins washed up onto the rock platform.
I called the DPI hotline, got no response, but later deduced the urchins had lost their bolt holes when the sand that built up through last winter smothered the inside of the point, and the swell simply washed the free-floating critters up to dry rock.
The sand has since been moved with recent swell and the urchins are again spreading across the exposed pock-marked rock faces. Feet up when coming in that way.
I'd be happy to see the things harvested for Japanese export.
I'm surprised somebody doesn't.
A friend of my brother has an agreement with some land owners and sets traps in farm dams etc and harvests eel for live export direct to Japan. I'm not sue about now but up until covid he was making a killing. Can't see why, if handled the right way, Uni (sea urchin) could be any different.
Apparently it's not easy to prepare and transport because the flesh is so tender, however the actual harvesting, even in wild settings, couldn't be easier. Thick-soled booties and a good pair of gloves and you're off.
At times, they can be so thick on the ground that one dive underwater puts hundreds of them within reach.
Edit: This fella is harvesting them on the NSW South Coast working between Ulladulla and Mallacoota. Processing plant is in Tomakin.
https://seaurchinharvest.com.au/pages/about-sea-urchin-harvest
I think the trick is harvesting when roe are at maximum size- that might take some expertise.
Perfect conditions for it this week.
Urchin gonads for entree.
The kids'll be thrilled.
tumblr image size
I love Uni, if you get it right It's an amazing delicacy. Hard to describe- A little like salty custard, butter, you can taste the ocean but not in a bad way. Has to be super fresh though as it gets older a strong iodine taste creeps in. But, grab a few pieces, wrap in nori and a drop of light soy sauce and that's about as pure as the Japanese do it. Some like it as a donburi (bowl of rice topped with Uni) but too much of a good thing for me.
Ps- I found a typo in the website.
https://www.tasmaniaseaurchin.com.au/
Is anyone here a marine biologist?
Why..?
It's a Seinfeld reference. Only Gen Xers would get it.
Ha ha ha...
Bachelor of Science from QLD Uni majoring in Marine Biology.
Lifelong interest as an amateur/citizen scientist.
Thought you must have had a science background.
A Queenslander with a degree... no one's gonna believe that : )
Ha!
I’m not, I was the one hitting golf balls out to sea
I think I still have those barnacle scares on the top of my foot from a scrape at Lenny the Ox.
I got rolled along the point there when I was a grom.
For a while I was nicknamed "The Mecurochrome Kid".
Those barnacles are no joke - mate of mine did his toes right down to the bone on them.
o yes last day of the winter season and yes find them barnacles and you loose all the skin top of foot but just in time for summer season to get back on it.,
Intertidal zones are my temple
in the late 80's backpacked around solomon islands looking for waves with a mate and our girlfriends that was pretty wild
Yeah, as mentioned by a few people, the gannets are one of my favorite birds skimming along the swell. Also love the "peep peep" of oystercatchers. Strong NW winds bring the albatrosses closer to the coast along the Surf Coast too. As surfers the call of the wild beckons us in many ways. Birds are among my favorite things.
Was surfing the righthander at Lakey Peak early 90’s. The swell size and direction was perfect, conditions were glassy and waves were super hollow. The pack hunting down the lefts off the peak started to notice and crowded the right. I thought fuck this, might go and check the pipe as it looks to be empty. As I got into the paddle I watched a set, from my ocean perspective behind, as it unloaded on the reef and realised that there was someone surfing the heavy little lefts because I caught glimpses of a brightly coloured rash vest through the back of the wave.
The dude was just cruising doing roller coasters out in front of the curl.
It’s’ a long paddle from the peak to the pipe, so I watched a couple more sets roll through as I got closer. Each time the surfer picked a wave up at the peak and surfed it with the same style.
When I arrived at the take off spot there was no one there. I was looking around scratching my head, feeling perplexed.
Then a large flash of colour darted underneath my board and I realised that it was a massive parrot fish and I had crashed its solo surfing party!
Great story Sammo. Have done that paddle a number of times but never seen anything like that!
Thanks Bnkref.
Prior to that happening I was under the impression that all fish were fairly dumb. This one certainly wasn’t…. More like a genius!
Yeah, incredible!
FR are the urchins you talk about an indigenous species? I know on the Baja peninsula in Mexico they are really thick on the waters edge whereas here (Victoria) they are well hidden. Also the anchovies are they related to the ones off the coast is WA that were fished out years ago marketed as Auschovies?
Yeah, all indigenous species the urchins. Lots of diversity in urchin species here- perfect habitat for them.
Re : Aus anchovies.
Not sure, the species is found right around the southern half of Aus, so could well be.
Only used as a bait species here- but I bet would be delicious as any other anchovy.
FR are the urchins in your neck of the woods worse than g-land (as in harder to avoid)?
Sometimes a lot worse. Depends on the sand flow through their rocky habitat.
Sounds like a nightmare. Not used to them down here in Vic.
Thanks for that thought provoking piece Steve. Like most others I’m an asphalt-based surfer but from the very start of my surfing I came to appreciate the therapeutic value of being in the ocean. Sitting and waiting is a large part of the therapy as it provides the opportunity to appreciate what nature has provided. Living in suburban Melbourne meant driving some distance for a wave, and at most of those places there were few visible signs of civilization. You are in another world. And that probably explains why surfing somewhere like Coolangatta seems so strange to me: a shoreline dotted with high rise buildings and a steady stream of traffic at odds with what I have had for over 50 years. Not to mention the RAAF flypasts at about 500ks scaring the shit out of me. But the warm and crystal-clear water are welcome relief.
I’m not alone in having interactions with marine life: I once shared waves with a dolphin and her calf for over an hour before they departed. I can only assume they enjoyed it as much as I did. There have been seals, penguins, turtles and some rather large fish looking for a feed. Even some whales came close by for a look in South Australia: that does make you feel somewhat insignificant! People pay good money for that sort of thing, but we get it for free. The ocean has been a source of untold enjoyment and it has also terrified me, but regardless I keep going back.
At seventy years young, the body doesn’t bend as well as it used to and the water here seems a little colder than last year but the attraction is still as strong as it ever was.
I’m well aware the end of my time surfing is drawing closer, but unlike Mick Lawrence I cannot just walk away: it will take a life changing event to force me to stop.
Good read FR.
The act of riding a wave really is only a small part of surfing!
I'll never forget interactions with turtles and (on one very special occasion) a monk seal on the north shore.
And no matter how common, being surrounded by a pod of dolphins never gets old.
And how about those iridescent blue sea dragons...
And the Leopard Seals!
Great read, it makes me want to drive down on a good swell and join the pecking order at the point after many years missing it living further north..imagine how much foot sashimi t
those barnacles at the point feed on when the swells up..last time i surfed it a body boarded got rolled on the rocks further up the point and i was laughing hard until he got ragdolled at speed with the whitewater down the point and eventually took my legs out near the jump rock dinging my board and feeding the barnacles
Agree , I lived there for a while and used to commute to the Goldy for part time work, and so many times,the point there was head high plus and Currumbin would be waist high.
I've lived walking distance to consistent surf vs where I live now in NSW where you can surf pretty much every day but it involves driving a lot of the time and without a doubt the former is my preference. I feel like a dickhead burning time and fuel just to go surf but you gotta do it. I'm also not the type to check different spots, which I've noticed puts me in a minority. I'll just go and surf if I've driven, even if it's shitty. If there's a big S swell, I'll go and surf my local that I can walk to if it's working as opposed to driving to the local point 25 minutes away.
Also from travelling oz, at first I loved the wild surf of VIC, SA and WA with their protected coastlines and wild surf but soon came to miss NSW/QLD with their sealed carparks, playgrounds, coffee and other things for the family whilst I went surfing!
The wildlife aspect is good/bad. I'm off ocean swimming because when I did it I became aware of everything under the water, it was terrifying. I prefer to be ignorant for the most part. Surfing with seals and dolphins is cool though. Surfing with the mullet in a known sharky area less so.
Going to need to sit down and read this properly but rest assured, almost every Tasmanian surfer who has surfed off the island has absolutely marvelled at the joy of not having to walk for 45 minutes, paddle a kilometre, or rug up like you’re going to the snow just to get a wave. It’s special in its own way, but I suspect most of us would prefer to be able to step out the car in a pair of boardies and jump straight in the sea, and sit on a nearby grassy knoll watching the waves and whales with a banana smoothie afterwards. I refer to it as “holiday surfing” and can’t quite believe it’s a normal surfing life for most Australians.
It’s an exponential relationship - the warmer the water, the easier the access and the more instagrammable then the larger and more fucked the crowds are.
We need a mathematician to solve the problem - somewhere along the coast there is optimal balance of ease of access and crowds…..
The mathematicians have already moved there, on the quiet...
Great stuff FR. I'm at that age where just paddling around feeling and appreciating nature is almost as good as riding the wave itself. Still love the road trip.
I remember when, as Nat said, surfers were a tribe, when you saw another car with boards you waved and gave the thumbs up or down and hooted and smiled.
The general public saw surfies as stoned losers, wasting their lives surfing. No one's dad or mum surfed, it was a rebellious youth thing. We were special.
Now everyone surfs, surfers ARE the general public, and when another mob rolls up at what used to be your special little quiet place you think, oh shit, not another bunch of wankers.
The wildest thing some of todays "surfers" do would be park in a disabled spot.
So true! Always remember the thumbs up ( or down) when passing the next shift on their way to the waves. But over the years noticed growing aggression in the lineup and very little communication... guess it's a sign the tribe's getting too big and stressed out.
I thought of this article today after seeing some walkers on a scenic coastal track.
Earphones in, and just looking down at where they are stepping, checking heart rate, steps on the wristwatch etc
Barely looking up, or around. Talking loudly while on handsfree.
Strange creatures.
Beautiful work Steve. Twas pretty wild one winter's day in the Southern Ocean when a scarred and old looking and big, and I mean big, dolphin decided to keep me company. Only problem was the ol' bastard wouldn't let me take off... everytime I paddled in there it was right in front of me... hung around for about half hour. Weirdest wild encounter I've had in 40+ years. Guess everyone's got a dolphin story...
Love watching the Australasian Gannets circle then go fishing. Always consider them a good luck omen.
Things were probably more wild growing up in WA than now in Vic, but maybe that's aging and family needs. The 4wd track in 2wd with no plan B, yep.
Got surrounded by a bait ball once and it literally started raining gannets.
I wasn't feeling overly lucky at that point given how close they were going to hitting me, and also thinking about what may have been following the bait.
The speed at which they hit the water is amazing to witness close up.
Been underwater diving when Gannets and cormorants have swum down past me looking for food.....now that's something to behold and they can go down 20 feet or so........
Yep they are amazing.
Been out alone on the WA south coast and had a school of salmon line me up, stuck my head underwater to look at them and they swam by with mouths open looking a bit like stunned mullets. Far out it makes you feel alone when the school passes and you wonder what is behind it.
As an aside, has anyone seen the movie/documentary 'My Octopus Teacher'?
If you haven't, do yourself a favour it's wonderful.
I did Zen.
Right in the middle of Covid lockdowns.
It was very moving. In fact, I cried like a baby through most of it!
…. I was desperately missing the ocean
Me too Sammo just quietly.
Should have called it 'My Octopus Lover', gets pretty awkward.
Ha.
LMFAO
The last taboo.
There's plenty of taboo's out there VJ still.
Tell me about it.
(I try to keep posts here above board, this one is weird beyond wtf)
Jeebus VJ
Changed my game a bit- I spent much more time snorkelling in the inter-tidal lagoon here, where octopus are common, after watching it.
Found it was quite easy to "befriend" the curious octopii who live there.
I did cheat a little and take some crushed up crab in with me, which they love to eat.
Moray eels are also very curious and eager to engage.
My sister did a dive course and spent a week recording a grid of the sea life under the Elliston jetty. It was like a desert, apart from one curious cuttlefish and her baby which she saw each day and quickly became acquainted with. On her last day as she was watching her special new friend a squid jag appeared and mummy cuttlefish was whisked up and away. Later that day she walked out and there it was, minus a few tentacles, lying dried up and dead on the jetty.
That's kinda sad old-dog.
And metaphorical.