It's been perfect down-winding conditions here in Melbourne and we've been doing them every day for the last few days.. about 5 days in a row I think.

btw.. We have another one on tomorrow.. 20-30 knots n/w.. Perfect..

I took some more pictures today and it started with a nice wave along the freeway right near my home.



We started from Hook pier in Port Melbourne.. another well known gay beach (so I'm told) .. not that there's anything wrong with that..





We're off and heading for some land that's over the horizon. (and directly down wind).



Fireman Dave was on his 11'6" C4.. a great board.



Ronnie joined us for his first down-winder and he used the SHQ demo Naish 11'6".



Here's Ronnie breaking the #1 rule of down-winding.. Don't look back..



I fell while chasing Dave and Jonathan and used the moment to take a pic of them catching runners and running away from me.. So I waited for Ronnie to catch up.



Here he comes.. He's finding out that there's more to this down-winding that meets the eye..



We re-grouped soon after and had a short rest.



Ronnie may have been a little slower than us but the fun factor was just as high.



We let Ronnie take off first.. Check out the swells coming through.



Dave and I got ahead at one stage and we waited for the others to catch up.



Jonathan was the fastest today and he was on his 12'6" Starboard.. It's a very fast board in these conditions.



What a great day.. I can't wait till tomorrow..

DJ

I didn't know that was a gay beach. You and Jono have the life, I'm so glad I managed to get one of them in during this week.

What did you think Ronnie - are you as glassy eyed about the down-winders as the rest of the converted?

Yeah Oliver, it was certainly an eye opener for sure. I was amazed at how mental the down winder game actually is. Sure, you can haul ass when the wind is blowing at your back, but when the boys are catching little runners that move them 20+ metres and your just paddling there is a massive difference in speed. I was just trying to paddle to keep up and was seriously only moving about half as fast as they were at times!

On his 12'6 Starboard, Jonathon was catching everything. At one point he was trying to slow down and hang out with me for a bit (Cheers mate!) and was actually dragging his paddle so as not to catch runners inadvertently. Dave is just a paddling machine and gets plenty of momentum to catch the runners when his dips his paddle! DJ was catching heaps of runners AND capturing the day on his camera. He kept flying past me yelling "woohoo" after he let me go past.

So yes, there is certainly MUCH more skill to this than there initially appears. However, DJ has assured me there is a steep learning curve and that after a few downwinders things start to fall into place. I pretty regularly surf in 20+ kph winds, but the enclosed bay seems to amplify the winds effects and keeps it interesting.

At this point I am nursing a bruised nose from where my board flipped over, hit me on the head/nose, broke my glasses, gave me head/neckache and caused me to see black for a second.

Yeah, I'll give it a go again soon!-Ronnie

Hey Dj and jonathan , does the swell in the bay get a bit too close and does it start to lengthen out after a few days of strong wind. seven days straight you guys are legends!! What about ocean swell , say a big souwester from Lady Julia Percy Island to Cape Bridgewater , you could get Tha dogman to pick you up ,he lives down there dosn't he?