Passengers:
Philip Leadley, Glenn Platt, Eden Scallan, Richard Scott, Luke Wilson, Ian Wallace, Adam Gibson, Simon Gibson, Peter Colquhoun
What the hell!!!! was my response checking the naval website to see what waves we might expect on our charter.
A huge sub 1000 Indian ocean low had lost its bearing and instead of spinning around in June/July was turning purple in mid November as we packed our boards.
1st morning didn't disappoint as we pulled up at double overhead Rifles. Raw ocean swells hitting this reef and standing up several hundreds metres in front. This joint is a cross btw Backdoor and Jeffries!
This was a serious swell and the biggest piece of fibreglass was what you were reaching for. The boyz were all over it....Rick, Bucket, Deadley and The Doctor got the best of it and their experience in these parts showed! A couple of barrels were etched forever in the minds of those who saw them (looking out and in!).
One of Ricks waves in particular was caught on film and shown that nite .....lets just say it hit double figures while he was in the barrel.....the boat erupted! But by some cruel twist of fate the next day while transferring to another camera the wave was wiped! He was gutted!
At the end of the 1st day a couple of boards were gone, some bark was on the reef but the grins in the Lizard lounge where as wide as some of the pits!
Next day it dropped back a little but the waves were still pumping! We surfed a multitude of reefs around the playgrounds area and everyone was reeling!
3-4days into the trip (I think!) we headed off during the night and arrived at Lances left. It was a nice 4 ft with a boatload of Japanese are only company! The Goofies on board came into their own as the swell steadily rose. Wal, Humba and Platty all scoring epic waves as still the swell came up! The natural footers starting dribbling with the thought of what the office might be up to, so we bailed leaving Humba and Wal at the left.
The office was indeed solid but a little confused and after a arvo session of some good waves and some not so good waves the call was Maccas. Next morning I awoke to a 4-5 ft skate park.
The boat emptied pretty quick as everyone tried to outdo each other with pits ,hooks and the odd soul arch!
This charter was on fire!..... in fact the Captain was calling it the best start to a charter ever!
By now we had had 7 days straight of pumping waves! Boards had been broken, knees teaked, shoulders torn, skin lost but still the boyz kept going into battle (some needing a little more prodding than others by this time). Elvis the cook kept us running on a full tank while Selamat, Fury and Yudi laughed at us and with us in what is really a surfers dream holiday!
The second week the swell was up and down and we even managed to discover some new breaks (there still out there!) and claim naming rights! Towards the end of the charter the weather starting to follow the script for November and turned ugly with wind and rain and some of the boys turned a little green. A classic run back into the mainland followed with some below decks ,others above....lets just say the ones that stayed up enjoyed a great exhibition that could not have been foreseen!
To John, Belinda the crew and the latest addition Fynn thanks for an epic trip!
BY DEADLY