Got the Stoke...

Wow - is it already Feb already?

Been keeping our heads down after the Xmas spend. Jan is always a quiet month in Australia - people take extended breaks, and pressure is off at work. Well, more correctly, you know that there is not much business coming in and there is nothing you can do about it!

Jac is back at work and getting used to life 3 days a week and juggling the part-time baby thing. She is amazing and I don't know how she does it.

Noah is great - nearly walking, more of a stagger, and gibbering/mumbling to himself all day long, pointing at things. We have great gibber conversations between each other - most fun, everyone should try it.

Thought I'd put a few words down about surfing as I really got the 'Stoke' from yesterdays effort. We made our way to 'Long Reef' a Sydney city beach with a great view of a headland, about about 20-30 mins up the coast. I've moved down from my Hawawaii 'Mini-Mal', an 8'2" board (v.v. similar to this 'Bob McTavish' Carver), down to a more short-board pointy style 'Gnesh' 7'2" - still has some thickness in the body (read buoyancy) but much more manuverable. I had been switching between the two, and then really getting into the longer board, but when I moved to the shorter board things would go wrong and I would have a frustrating surf.

So I decided to totally concentrate on the shorter board for at least 3 months. Well the first 6 weeks has been hard - my style, timing and technique when standing up all gone to pot. But yesterday things happened - I landed my biggest drop in on a huge wave (huge read 2.5mtr plus face - note that wave size is not the only thing - you can have a large wide wave that is easy to catch and a small sucky steep drop which is much harder as you have less time to get up. Yesterdays wave were fat, therefore much easier to catch - but the drop was still quite hairy. The ride was not so long, but the manner in which I got up, dropped down the wave and performed a beautiful right bottom turn was just inspiring.

It's just amazing how one small thing can get you all revved up. The enigma that surfing is. It can be so frustrating. If you take it up as a older person, your body (especially a slim not-used-to-swimming engleesh person) is just not used to the paddling, and compared with kids who have grown up on the ultra competative Sydney beaches, you feel like the eternal beginner. There are so many good surfers in Australia, and I realise I'll never be like them (maybe Noah eh?), but if I look back on my own personal improvement, rather than at someone who has been surfing since they were 6, I can really see that I have come on in the past 3 years.

Occasionally (and there is no reason when - except the best tips are don't be tired or hungover) it just comes together. I am crap (really) but totally hooked. I realise that this is a long journey and hope that I can get to a point that I am confident to go to any beach, including non beach breaks (i.e. reef, etc) where you have to have your 'launch' technique nailed. And believe me - every break is different.

Take care out there and remember, it's the sharks home, not ours.