Posts tagged: Surfing

The past few weeks have been amazing. I am now in L.A after having spent 9 days in the beautiful Fiji islands.

Last week I stayed at Nagigia Island, which is off the south-west tip of Kadavu, 1 hour south of Viti Levu. I didn’t know what to expect when I reached Fiji, maybe similar to Bali I thought, but maybe more remote. I arrived in Fiji on the 8th and then flew to Kadavu in a tiny 9 seater propeller plane and took the 1 hour boat ride to Nagigia Island resort, an exclusive hotel.

I can’t over-emphasize how beautiful and peaceful it was there. You are so removed from the rest of the world, with only New Zealand seperating you from Antarctica. I met some really cool people on the island, the Dominator Crew from the Mornington Peninsular, the Gold Coast boys, Bao (and family) from Brazil, the Canadian crew and the Yankee’s. Everyone was so friendly and we had such a great time, both in and out the the water. The week consisted of surfing, snorkelling, swimming, eating, dancing and generally exchanging stories over a few beers.

The waves were some of the heaviest and biggest I have ever surfed, with one day the faces being 10ft and resembling something like a mini-Teahapoo, really intimidating stuff! There were a few days when we couldn’t actually surf as the white water from the breaks was 20ft thick. If you looked to the horizon you could see what looked like islands floating across the horizon, these were actually offshore bombies, with 30 feet faces, the likes of which would challenge even Laird himself.

We all got down and funky a few nights to some traditional Fijian dancing with a Kava ceremony to get us going! The local people from the village of Nabukelevu-i-ra are so friendly, happy and easy-going, hopefully I will take away some of that chilled vibe back to the UK, god knows they need to smile more down in grey old London.

Snorkelling over the reef was amazing, the water was so warm, clear and once you had ducked your head under the surface you were transported into a beautiful world of coral, fish and amazing underwater landscapes.

I left Fiji on the 18th and had a mamouth journey from Nadi to Auckland and then on to L.A. I was a little aprehensive about coming to the USA as it is so big and L.A is just so huge, but I have had a lovely time here. The surfing was crap this week, with super small waves and cold water, but the weather has been nice and I have met even more lovely people here at the Orbit hostel.

I have been staying up on Melrose avenue in West Hollywood and have cruised down in my hire car to Santa Monica, Venice Beach, Muscle Beach, Malibu and along Sunset strip and generally had a blast. Tomorrow I am off to San Francisco where I will hang out for 3 nights before heading off to Chicago and then over to the east coast.

Hopefully I will get some better waves up in SF, home to the notorious Mavericks down at Half Moon Bay. It is only just over 3 weeks until I will be back in the UK and back to normality and work etc.

This trip has been amazing so far, and I have seen so many beautiful places, met some amazing people, ridden some great waves and most importantly seen a little bit more of what is out there and what can be achieved if you look outside the box and get away from London and the rat race.

I am already thinking about doing a working VISA next year to somewhere like Oz, as I always said to myself that this trip would be the warm up for something more adventurous.

Anyway time to crash, living the dream, loving life and all is cool!

PS: Have uploaded the latest photos from Fiji, got some good ones from LA so far, will update soon!

Love to all the special people I know around the world!

What can be said about Fiji, wow, the most amazing place I have ever visited! The island was amazing, the people so friendly and the surf, well 10ft faces and resembling a mini Teahapoo, crazy shit!

Will do a full update when I get some more time, as I am now in LA and have to go and hit the beach and hopefully get some waves!

Hope everyone back home is having a great time!

Last night I stayed in Paihia, in the world famous Mousetrap hotel. I met 2 Scots guys: Kenny and Steven, we went out for a few quiet beers which quickly escalated into 10 or so. Come 3am we were all pretty worse for wear after dancing the night away at some dodgy haunt!

I am back in Auckland now, gonna head out for my noodle fix and then maybe have a quiet beer at the hostel bar and then get psyched for the big trip to Fiji! Can’t wait, checked the webcam the other day and the waves were 6-8ft on the face, should be pretty challenging and probably the best waves that I will ever ride, here’s hoping!

Today has been a really cool day! I started off by wandering down to Haruru Falls, just north of Paihia, where I met two cool Argentinian folk. Chilled out by the beautiful waterfalls for 30 mins or so, and then I drove 5km down the road to Paihia where I hired out a Kayak for 2 hours.

I paddled over to a few of the islands and then across to Russell, on the other side of the bay. It was my first time in a kayak, and it was all good! I got back to the kayak place about 3pm and then jumped back in the car and headed up to the Kauri forest, just north of Waipapa.

The forest was amazing, huge ancient trees about 90 feet tall, surrounded by lush sub-tropical vegetation, simply beautiful, kinda like something out of Jurassic Park.

I then headed back towards Kerikeri and stopped off at Rainbow Falls, another beautiful waterfall spot.

This evening I have been chilling after muching a big tasty pizza and scoffing a few brews. Tomorrow I make my way back down the coast to Auckland, where I will stop off along the way to Waiwera to see the hot springs!

3 days until I hit Fiji and the serious surfing kicks in!

Today was a tripple whammy!

I started off by packing up the car to head off up north to go camping and in search of surf up at 90 Mile Beach. So off I set, iPod charged up, a full car of food and supplies and full of good vibes. I made it up to the beach where the waves were shitty onshore and classic chop! So I decided to head over to the east side of the peninsular to see if it would be offshore and clean. As I did this it started to piss down, nice!

30 minutes later after driving down a gravel dirt track I got to Henderson Bay. On arrival at the beach the water was completely flat, not a sausage, crappolla! I then headed back down the track from which I had driven up previously. On the way back I managed to loose control of the car, swerving it across the road and ending up in a ditch! Nicely done I thought. So now I am in the middle of frigging nowhere, shitty waves, pissing down with rain and the car is stuck in a ditch.

After a few minutes of wheel-spinning and me trying to single-handedly push a saloon car out of a soft verge, I thought, god I am truly fooked! No reception on my phone, and feeling pretty bummed out! I started to dig the crap out of the front wheel arch, finding that I had nicely dented the front wing, also discovering that I had landed on a hornet’s nest, resulting in me getting stung!

5 mintues later, I managed to get the car out of the ditch and decided to call it a day and drive 150km back to the ranch! I stopped in at Taupo bay to see if there were any waves, but no of course not, flat flat flat!

So today has been dry dry dry, a truly arid few days of surf. I guess I should consider myself lucky that I didn’t roll the car and that I didn’t get hurt!

Anyway Fiji in 4 days, surf looking amazing, temperature around 31, can’t complain!

Today the search has taken me along the east coast of Northland. I set off this morning and took the car ferry over to Russel and then scooted down the coast passing numerous bays and towns: Oakura, Helena Bay, Matapouri and Tutukaka. Unfortunately there wasn’t even a hint of surf, flat flat flat!

After driving about 200km I eventually came back to Whangarei, so I decided to pop in and visit the waterfalls there, all good, an amazing view and nice little walk! I took the freeway back to Keri Keri and have ust been to the pub for a few beers and a feed.

Tomorrow I am going to drive up to the tip of the North Island in search of surf, there is a fresh 9ft swell coming in to 90 Mile beach and I have also packed the tent and camping gear and plan to stay up there overnight.

Hopefully tomorrow will prove to me a little more rewarding on the surf!

Today the search has taken The General, The Duke and myself north up the coast to Taupo Bay. We set off about 9.30 this morning and drove up the coast, checking out the amazing scenery on the way! On arrival at Taupo the waves were pretty small, but some peaks were creeping up to the 3ft mark.

I took out the Duke for about 3 hours and got about 25 waves (in the super low-rider stance), nothing particularly to write home about, but it’s all about having fun and getting out there!

Taupo Bay is beautiful, there isn’t that much there, a few houses, a beautiful sandy bay surrounded on both sides by high cliffs. The water was quite warm, I went in with my new shortie wettie on for about an hour, but then got a bit hot, so decided to take it down a level a just surf in board shorts!

In the arvo I headed up to Mangonui for fresh fish and chips overlooking the bay, a nice way to spend an hour or so after a surf. I then drove up a little further to Cooper beach, Cable Bay and finally ending up in Taipo.

Now I am back at the ranch, just polished off a steak sarnie and ready to chill for the night and start a new adventure tomorrow!

New photos are uploaded and ready to check out here!

The past 3 days have been a bit of a whirlwind.

I left Melbourne on the 31st March, after spending an amazing week with my top Aussie girl Cathy. We headed off to the south coast to surf (some albeit small waves) down at Bells beach, Apollo Bay and Torquay, travelling along the Great Ocean Road through South Victoria. We swam in secret waterfalls, visited her dad’s beautiful farm in the outback near Chepstowe and saw some of small-town Oz. Although the waves were lame, the views, experiences and places were so beautiful, and a real treat to have my own personal guide to show me around!

A big thank you to Cathy for putting up with my grumpy moods when the waves were shitty, I’m no sure my patience would have been so good if the shoe had been on the other foot! Anyway, it was crappy having to say good bye at the airport the other day, after having such a nice time together, but I am sure that we will meet up again in the future! So thanks again for being so kind and showing me the best bits of Victoria, gonna miss ya loads!

So on to NZ!

To sum up my first night in New Zealand, all I can say is pile of shit! Not beacause NZ is shite, but because I managed to leave one of my bags on the airbus on the way to the hostel. Might have been something to do with me being forgetful, but also maybe the 3 bottles of red I had on the plane. I arrived to my room to find myself one bag short! What made it worse was my bag had all the video footage of all the places I have been to so far, all my electronic cables for cameras, laptop etc, cd’s and some nice sarongs from Bali.

I had a really shitty night’s sleep and kept myself up all night worrying about whether someone would be honest enough to hand it in to the police. I had probably my first “oh fuck this I want to be home, or at least have someone to comfort me”, rather than alone in my hostel room feeling down and out! But I guess that was one of those testing moments that life throws at you, or something!

As it turned out I awoke the next day to a sunny Auckland cityscape and to the fact that my bag had been handed in! Feeling refeshed and relieved, I headed back to the airport to pick it up as well as my hire car! I then made the 250+ km journey up to the Northland to Keri Keri, in the Bay of Islands. The landscape is so diverse here, one minute you are driving through farmland, the next pine forest, the next it is all sub-tropical and funky shit! What a cool drive in my Daewoo 1.6L surf mobile, tunes pumping, chocolate milked to the eyeballs, all good!

Today I headed out with Nigel for a mini tour of the local area, stopping back off home for some lunch! This arvo I headed back to Matauri Bay for a late arvo surf! The conditions had the potential to be great, a strong offshore wind, clean waves, although the swell just wasn’t there, maybe 2 ft at the most!

So in the morning I am heading a little further up north to Taupo Bay, where the increased exposure should hopefully kick up some bigger waves!

Now that I am back to spending most days on my own, surfing and passing through new landscape, it gives you time to reflect on the people you have met, the things you have seen, what you are doing now, what comes next etc. I am thinking about maybe doing a working visa next year, maybe OZ or NZ, anything to escape the monotony of London life!

Anyway time to hit the hay, early start tomorrow, more pictures to be taken, more video to shoot, and more waves to search for and ride!

To all the special people in my life, I love you all!

I left the warmth of the Sunshine Coast last Friday in Exchange for a bit of Melbourne action.

It was great to catch up with the Sunny crew, had search a blast and managed to get some nice waves over at Noosa, 11ft swell last week, offshore, and all good!

I had to exchnage “The Duke” for a new board, as the glass on the rails started to crumble away. So good old Peter Cochran let me choose a board of my choice (a 6’4″ swallow-tail short board) from the shop and did me a great deal on a new leg rope, deck grip and board sock! All good!

The past few days I have been crusing along the Great Ocean Road in search of some quality surf and a little sun. It is a little cooler in the water down here, about 19 degrees, and I managed to leave my wet suit back in Melbourne. All good though, as I managed to pick up a nice Ri[p Curl Classic shortie.

The waves have been pretty crappy over the past fwe days, all onshore and classic chop, couple with rain showers and high winds, it has been a bit of a downer. Today I surfed at the legendary Bells Beach, and also Torquay (just up the coast).

So I think we might stay around for an extra day, as it looks like tomorrow might be the go down at Torquay, if the wind turns around and the weather gets a bit better.

Have reached the halfway point of my trip so far, and like every one said, I didn’t come away for long enough. So I guess all I need to do now, is plan the World Surf Tour MK II.

Anyway chow’s up so gotta shoot!

Been a bit slack on the old weblog update for the past week, the reason: too much surfing and having too much fun!

Am now hanging out with my good mate from Bali, Mikey. We have travelled down the Sunshine Coast from Buderim to the Gold Coast, and have checked out some of the surf spots down here: Burleigh Heads, Kirra, Rainbow Bay, Snapper etc. Will probably head back up to the Sunny tomorrow arvo and hook up with the Wayno for some more party antics!

Been for a quality bush walk this morning and maybe gonna head down to Byron Bay this arvo to check it out down there.

Weather has been pretty great for the past week, but I think cyclone Larry has been pushing down a little more in the way of cloud and wind the past few days!

I managed to get another board from Peter Cochran (of Coololah Surfboards). It is a 6’2″, swallow tail, short board, and yes it goes like shit off a shovel! Turns super sharp, and I am weaving the little devil along the wave like no one’s business! So that makes the family now 3: The Mitch, The General and now The Duke!

So anyway time to head off on another adventure, lets hope the swell picks up a little from the help of those cyclones up north!