Off again soon

 

Haha haven't got much material to post from lately.. but wanted to write something.. so I decided to use this shot from Angourie.. there's fuck all in it really.. no waves, no people.. just me going back out after losing my board cause my leggie snapped. plus the shot is blurry! But who cares.. 

So I'm leaving in 3 weeks to do a very similar trip to what I did last year.. Brazl first then Bali, ditching the Australian winter. The difference is that this time I'm going for a reason.. will be designing the new summer 09 range for Beach Bum! good excuse ay hehe

Will be great to see my mum too, we are in new circumstances now.

Bali, as boring as it sounds, will be hopefully the same as usual! that place is so awesome! except cause I'll try not to go to g-land this year.. i've been there too many times! gotta go check out sumbawa, lombok etc. might take a flight to nias too, but not till later on this year.

Life here has been almost funny of so easy.. working in this surfshop is unbelievably cruisy. It's hard to think we are in the midst of a world crisis when I'm here gettin $20 an hour to chill out. I was lucky enough to find an industry where my natural behaviour pattern originates success. I've been reading about sales n merchandising on the web in my spare time at the shop.. apparently the customers are more prompt to buy if they sense that you're laid back, just cruising around in the shop haha. that kinda goes against the company policy here, but they are happy with the results in terms of figures, so it's ok for me to be me lol

Plus Ive been gettin a fair bit of free gear from a brand called Lizzard, they're awesome! we have an account that fills up as we sell their products, it's all time! it feels like a sponsorship, but instead of gettin results in comps all I gotta do is sell their gear.

The waves have been unreal too, some epic days lately. After that superlong swell it didnt really die off, it was still pumping till 2 days ago.

This Autumn has been specially good, slightly less cold than the past year and with a lot more swell! the banks aren't as good as usual for this time of the year, but the quality of swell and wind directions have been making up for it.

I'm having so much fun that I've been slack towards Beach Bum.. not doin much promo lately or anything. I want the new range to be ready before I do anythng else for it.

The bikinis will be at the shops in Pac Fair, Kingy, Coolangatta and Burleigh while Im gone anyway.. Looks like the long desired residual income has finally been built. 

But I'm saving my best business tricks for when I come back in September.

April 09, best month ever?

Pics: Decent hack captured by Tchelao. In that shot it looks like there's only Tiago and I out there, as he was the only paddler;
Tiago's shot on Coastalwatch! Yeeeeow
Hanging at the tent in Angourie
Jumping off.. view from the tent, from the spot and of the tent from the spot hahahaah gotta luv overcast uncrowded warm righthander days ay!

The Weekend after that one was still going off. After getting a few around the Coolie area on Saturday, we were drinking before going for a lap at the pub. Before we could even get changed, something better came up: let’s go to Angourie! Fuck yeah, good old Tiago was still sober and drove us down. We had 2 tents but decided to spend the night napping in the car cause there was an annoying rain about. To seal the deal, a morning sickness onshore kept us in the car snoozing for another 3 hours before it straightened. Tchelao went for a wave at 6am anyway. That was great, cause he ended up taking some shots of us from 9 to 10. Angourie is a seriously delicious fucken wave. Its bowly shape resembling of sunset invites one to smash it. I was surfing real bad at the start, used to the speedy, ever forward walls of the Superbanks.. it took me about 10 waves to readapt to this unique wave. Its wall is always marching towards you.. Although it’s a right hander, it’s gotta be surfed as if you were going left. At some stage I thought Tchelao was done photographing and paddled to the first section. Got a few for myself there.. usually only bodyboarders go for that section.. but I seem to agree a lot with them lids in taste for waves. I ate shit a thousand times, but nothing is more fun in surfing for me than sucky right handers on a dry reef, even when it works me.
We had the best time hanging in our little tent set on the rocks and surfing those waves 3 hours south from home. One of Tiago’s photos even made Coastalwatch! That was pretty sick. I know that this is the time of the year I’m supposed to be working.. but fuck it’s always fun anyway!
There are plans to bail again.. it’s no secret, everybody knows it already.. Im off to Brazil for business in late May till late July.. then off to Indo for Hols.. not too original I know.. but what else can I do? Those 2 places and Australia are everything to me! hehe

After a busy weekend ODing on surfing, the bomb was upon us. Monday was by far the best day I’ve ever seen in Kirra. 8 feet glassy and barreling off its tits. Most people being towed… the best of the local crew were there charging it.. I was stuck at fucken work.. knowing how good it was.. They now gave me the keys to the shop.. Twice a week I go there on my own, open it, do a 9 to 5ver, count the money and go home.. that means I can’t surf in these 2 days.. oh well.. The next day was still epic, the wind shifted to straight offshore and the beaches were bullshit. I’ve never thought I would see Surfers Paradise copping 8 footers that clean. There was nothing out of place, massive kegs were on offer, but the paddle out was pretty crazy. It looked a lot like Puerto Escondido, in Mexico. If there was any day I would point out as the most impressive and best looking this would probably be it, spewing I didn’t have my camera. I got my mate’s 7’1 and went outta front of my old place in Surfers. That was the biggest surf in a few years for me.. but nothing too exciting to say about it really. I was stoked for catching a few but nothing really outstanding happened.
Wednesday was probably my best performance.. Went out in Greenmount with Ross and ended up in Kirra in no time.. Got one special keg that was worth the whole swell to me.. the one I was waiting for. I was heaps stoked, it made me fantasize what Kirra woulda been like back in the day.
Pics: not very inviting low tide Kirra on one of the 12 straight days of big swell;
In the same day, bloke showing how it’s done in between sets;
Goofy footer in immaculate position down the line in Kirra;
Coolie Hotel.. After the Ct I spent a whole month away from it. The waves were way too good to be with a hangover lol

I don’t remember exactly when it started.. but from sometime early in April it started pumping and never stopped! This was probably the best year on the goldie I’ve ever witnessed. There was this session in Burleigh on Friday morning.. fuck that was all time! I went out through tally around 8am and caught this sick wave from way before the crowds all the way down the line.. Quite sizey too, there wasn’t a lot I would change about that day. Coastalwatch named it Fantasy Friday! They went ballistic with the number of epic days we had in Southeast QLD and northern NSW in April. And so did I! it’s like having 6 xmas and 12 nye in 3 weeks! You kinda don’t expect it, it gets hard to deal with it cause it’s so good you just have to make the most of it even if it’ll kill ya!
Allegedly there was a cyclone somewhere combined with a low or something. I don’t know, but that was as good as it gets for our pointbreaks.
Pics: Fantasy Friday in Burleigh

Pic: If you’ve been here this is pretty self explanatory.. a sequence of random photos taken between a surf in Greenmount and a walk home all the way into the shower! Why? Dunno.. I musta been bored lol

Pics: One of the million Barbecues at ours;
Tiago, all time bloke..;
Greenmount pos-CT;
Misty’s Globe van, sick!

Behind the scenes of the CT there was a hellavalot of fun. Coolie hotel was firing every night with this many people in town. The sales went really well too, I even put a stand outta front of mine to sell a few extra bikinis while everyone was here! The pro show was pretty sick, except cause there were that many fights.. mostly between kids though. The funnest part was prob the attempt of jumping the fence haha
We were drinking every day for 2 weeks.. barbecues every second day.. not that much working.. fuck that was cruisy, although I was psyched about using the opportunity for Beach Bum. Stickers were everywhere, people seem to dig them. The trend is still going.. from bartender’s bums (thanx Cara!) to poles, to cars, it’s just spreading heaps! Cards were given to heaps of chicks too. Everyone has to know about the firm lol
Pics: A card in it’s final destination: some girl’s purse, if it had a face it would be smiling in triumph lol;
Negao and I being city cunts with the bikini stand outta front hehe guess u gotta do what u gotta do, don’t really care if it looks weird hehe; Deadly encounter at Coolie hotel! Batman and the Joker hahaha check out his t-shirt;
Off my face at the Sands!

Overall the Comp was all time. Using up from the first to the last possible day and in a number of conditions, it put every surfer to test.
From round three it was obvious that whoever made it in the semi finals between Parko and Mick would take the event. They both were in a whole different level to everyone else at their home spot.
It turned out that it picked up and got stormy so the arena was taken to none less than Kirra for the last day!
In 6 to 8 feet grinders they had the best heat I've ever witnessed. Spewing it was raining bucked and I couldn't take any photos. But there was specialized media for that anyway, It's worth checking out the latest Tracks issue to see Parko's insane kegs.
After exchanging massive scores Joel claimed it with a nearly perfect 19.93.
Making Brazil look great, Adriano made his first final ever, he was on fire all through it and beat heaps of rippers, only being stopped in the final by Joel Parkinson. It takes local knowledge to negotiate those stormy conditions.
That was the best Quicky pro ever, hands down.
Pics: Sand being pumped just off frogs;
Joel in Round 3;
Mick in Round 3;
Adriano about to go out in Kirra for his semi against Taj