Rea and I went down to Flinders today to get some waves at Big Left.

Others didn't want to join us because of the dead whale on the beach that's been there for a few months now and a lot of people thought it was shark bait and there'd be sharks everywhere in a feeding frenzy.. They were wrong.

I scraped the ice off the windscreen and hit the road this morning.. After a while the sun came out and in the beautiful sunshine my car temp hit a cozy 3 deg.



Big Left looked great.. Pretty small but still great.. Rea had her 9'5" Mana and I had my 10' Mana.



We stuck our paddles into the sand and decided to walk up the beach and check out the whale.. and to see what's left of it.



It didn't look like much.. In fact you could walk right past it and not even notice it.. But looking close you could see that it is a whale.. I don't know what type.



This is the back vertebrates.



They were huge and you could wobble them about.



No they're not cheese burgers.. They're the pads that sit between the vertebrates.. They also had this wobble stuff between them.



More back bones on the beach nearby.. I was temped to take one home and use it as a door stopper.. But I didn't.. It was time to paddle.



I gave a sigh of relief as we saw out boards and paddles still there.. We'd walked a fair way down the beach and couldn't see them from where the whale was.



Hang on Rea.. Wait for me.. Just one more pic.. Honest.



It's a long paddle out and Rea catches a nice little wave straight away.



The waves were a little bigger than we thought they'd be.. Some well over head high.



We meet up with a couple of other guys out there.. Also on stand up's.



Waiting for a set.. The other guys had a 10'6" Southpoint and a big 11'6" AST Naish.



I missed some great opportunities for pics because with the bigger sets I was too busy getting out of the way.. I still managed to get caught inside a few times.



We had a slight 5-10 knot offshore wind and every now and then the wind dropped to nothing and it went real glassy.. But I didn't get any pics of that.



After a couple of hours we decided to eat so we headed for the local pie shop.



This is driving away for the top of the cliffs looking back down at Big Left.. It never looks very big from up there.



We drove past this cool house with a tree stump out the front that had been carved into a statue of King Neptune looking out over the ocean.









I had just finished telling Rea how good the road from Flinders along to Cape Shank was for motorcycling and when we got to the pie shop there were bikes everywhere.



Time to eat.



I had a homemade steak pie.. and oooh.. I just noticed the outside temp.. That's a bit warmer than earlier this morning.



Cheers... Mmmm.. taste's like whale..

DJ

DavidJohn said...

Rea and I went down to Flinders today to get some waves at Big Left.

Others didn't want to join us because of the dead whale on the beach that's been there for a few months now and a lot of people thought it was shark bait and there'd be sharks everywhere in a feeding frenzy.. They were wrong.

Bunch of wimps.

Nice tale DJ

Looks like boardies over wetsuit is fashionable in SUP circles too.

poor relative said...

Nice tale DJ

Looks like boardies over wetsuit is fashionable in SUP circles too.

Yeah.. It's the way to go.. Unless you've got a body like Rea..

DJ

Great story DJ,

I can't believe how much that whale has disintegrated. You know it's probably against the law to touch them even photograph them - www.theage.com.au/environment/conservation/two-face-charges-over-alleged-removal-of-whale-bones-20100513-uzfz.html

Has the taste of bait in the water gone now? It may be safe for the rest of us wimps to hit that spot again.

Anyway, just cause your new gang has a hot babe as an active member, and you pander to her every whim, doesn't make the rest of us wimps - your head high call is way out of line - looks 1ft to me. I reckon you are the wimps, getting there at 8:20am - try setting your alarms at 4:45am one day and get some real head high waves!

oliver said...

Great story DJ,

I can't believe how much that whale has disintegrated. You know it's probably against the law to touch them even photograph them - www.theage.com.au/environment/conservation/two-face-charges-over-alleged-removal-of-whale-bones-20100513-uzfz.html

Has the taste of bait in the water gone now? It may be safe for the rest of us wimps to hit that spot again.

Anyway, just cause your new gang has a hot babe as an active member, and you pander to her every whim, doesn't make the rest of us wimps - your head high call is way out of line - looks 1ft to me. I reckon you are the wimps, getting there at 8:20am - try setting your alarms at 4:45am one day and get some real head high waves!

Oliver.. Ask Rea if some sets weren't over head high.. She got cleaned up by a couple of big sets that came through.

To be honest only a few big sets came though while we were out there.. and they were way over 1ft high..

Yeah I know.. without pics it's lies.. .. btw.. I chose to only take pics of the little ones..

DJ

OG SUP said...

Hey DJ,

Removed from your post.

Phill

Cool.

DJ

Awesome pics DJ. Nice little story..... picto-story

Wave heights.... 1ft is another persons 3ft. Does not matter. Even at 1ft, once you're at the bottom (trough) of the peak set for the hour, the lip of the wave can quite easily be at "neck / head height".

For everyone, it's just about getting comfortable with waist height waves first, and then some head height waves (even if they are few and far between), then the next time, you feel equipped to that you can handle mostly head height waves.... then you become comfortable with that... etc...

Some harsh calls Oliver !! Everyone is just looking for a little fun !! Wave height does not matter. One person will be so so (that's a double SO) pleased with their efforts on a head high wave, while another person will feel they have impressed themselves with triple overhead waves.... It's about impressing yourself / improving yourself, probably more than impressing others.

Thanks for posting DavidJohn,

Why is it that all over this site, in all forums, there are haters?

'Greenroom', whats your problem?

So what if I kite as well? Do you have a problem with that?

Andobear said...

Thanks for posting DavidJohn,

Why is it that all over this site, in all forums, there are haters?

'Greenroom', whats your problem?

So what if I kite as well? Do you have a problem with that?

Probably more like what is your problem??

Greenroom was obviously taking the piss as he loves all us kiters(sorry crap sentence)

You are out of line and your quick bite says a lot about your state of mind as a kiter.

hilly said...

Andobear said...

Thanks for posting DavidJohn,

Why is it that all over this site, in all forums, there are haters?

'Greenroom', whats your problem?

So what if I kite as well? Do you have a problem with that?

Probably more like what is your problem??

Greenroom was obviously taking the piss as he loves all us kiters(sorry crap sentence)

You are out of line and your quick bite says a lot about your state of mind as a kiter.

Hey cheers Hilly for sticking up for me. You didnt have to. I was actually just going to ignore him as he probably doesnt know me that well.
Just to confirm what Hilly has said I was taking the piss.
I have many mates including Hilly who I windsurf/kitesurf with. I just cant believe that they are bringing this rediculous fashion into SUPing.
I reckon its the surfers and wakeboarders who come into kiting are the ones that give themselves a bad name.
Loosen up and enjoy the sport even though wearing your boardies over your wetsuit makes you look gay

Nice Pie, Love the wood carving unreal, waves look good, cool a blue sky day, fantastic fuel economy. What a day, I would have loved it DJ.

Nice shots and story DJ, I might be getting a bit soft but getting up to go surfing when it 3 degrees brrrrrrrrrrrr.. good effort. Love the whale bone shots.

Maybe I need a tea spoon of cement sprinkled on my next meat pie to harden the F**k up... ..but if we got down to 3 degrees on the Gold Coast they would declare a state emergency
.

Rob

I wear a Radiator 3/2 sealed seam steamer. It's quite light and flexible. It has a shiny smooth skin inside that can be dried with a chamois in an emergency. Even in winter it dries overnight hanging in the garage. They're pretty cheap to buy direct from the web site radiator.net/

The smooth skin is a little cold against the skin at first but it warms up imediately.

On Saturday morning it was like being in a warm bath. So nice and warm. Falling in the water was refreshing because it was so clean and comfortable. Even hold downs were not particularly unpleasant.

The Radiator is adequate for Melbourne winter. Once it gets really cold I switch to a Rip Curl Fireskin 4/3 with a hood. That's seriously warm and ideal for those cold, windy, sleeting kind of days.

Gorgo said...

I wear a Radiator 3/2 sealed seam steamer. It's quite light and flexible. It has a shiny smooth skin inside that can be dried with a chamois in an emergency. Even in winter it dries overnight hanging in the garage. They're pretty cheap to buy direct from the web site radiator.net/

The smooth skin is a little cold against the skin at first but it warms up imediately.

On Saturday morning it was like being in a warm bath. So nice and warm. Falling in the water was refreshing because it was so clean and comfortable. Even hold downs were not particularly unpleasant.

The Radiator is adequate for Melbourne winter. Once it gets really cold I switch to a Rip Curl Fireskin 4/3 with a hood. That's seriously warm and ideal for those cold, windy, sleeting kind of days.

A freaking 3/2...your killing me bro....I'm in my 4/3 from late feb to november usually...I go the hood and boots for winter and have been knwo to rip out the gloves on the really cold days!!

Wilco said...

Nice shots and story David John, was cool meeting you and Rea at Big Left on Sunday. Cracking waves & no sharks so cant complain.

I'm new to sea Breeze but what's the go with the forum...

Crew getting all upset over a wave being called 1ft or 3ft, people getting called gay (like there's something wrong with that?) and others worrying about what shorts or wetsuits people are wearing...

Doesn't seem like the best way to help grow a great sport??

Welcome aboard Wilco.. Don't worry about all the negative stuff because words typed on these forums don't show the smiles of peoples faces as they make stirring comments that are mostly meant in fun even though just reading words don't show that.

It was great to meet you guys on the w/e and hope we catch up again for some fun waves.. You were probably wondering why Rea and I were laughing so much out there.. She got cleaned up and lost her paddle.. It got washed a fair way in and I paddled in to get it for her.. When picking it up I fell back on my board.. Legs in the air.. a paddle in each hand and my board doing a wheelie.. and I was stuck in that position for ages.. It was pretty funny and we kept bursting out laughing about it.

Don't worry about the boardies over wettie stuff.. Just do what you want.. I do.. If others don't like it they don't have to do it and no ones telling they that they should.

DJ