Biff's Makeover

Today I participated in a bus shelter painting workshop I organised as part of work. We didn't have many participants for this one so I thought I'd come along to help out. It was fun. We worked with aerosols to paint the shelter with a design that the participants partly came up with with the help of the artist. It's looking great. Gave me lots of ideas for painting Biff. I'm thinking now that I might be able to spray him entirely from a can and can be a bit more adventurous than I thought. Will have to try some of the things we did in the workshop and see if I can come up with a bold design.This was my first attempt with aerosols. Apparently the cheap ones are really runny and they don't have directional nozzles. I used lots of stencils I'd cut. Pretty happy with it. Excited about getting some finer nozzles for next time, so I can do some drawing.

The possibilities....

Fond Farewell

Looks like the banks down at Sandtracks are gone for the year. Maybe we didn't have a great season this year, but it seemed like the were only a handful of times when things were working right there. Maybe James and I need to quit our jobs so that we can surf when the time is right, rather than when we are not at work. :P Sandtracks today was a small, chunky, steep mush. Amazed that there were waves at all - but not really rideable. I was fooled from the carpark as I put my wetsuit on in the rain and trundled down to the point. The bottom has flattened out leaving metres and metres of kneehigh water for the waves to form and break in.When I arrived it looked like this.

Then like this when I was leaving Last weekend I headed down to Scarborough on Sunday to see if I could score a tiny wave like I saw the day before. No such luck. It was tiny! 0.4m off Rottnest. But the water was a fabulous turquoise and I got to watch the surf school. Ahhh the memories. It was so much fun. Got chatting to a guy who was teaching his teenage boys to surf. They used to have a beach house near Avalon when he was a kid. It's changed a lot since then, apparently. We had the water to ourselves when the lesson finished. The blue glow Biff in his element Yesterday was quite a good session at Scarborough. It didn't stay good, but James and I both got a couple of nice rides. It was really hard to read the waves - everything just looked like lumps, but a bit of faith had you on a wave with some shape. Good to be in the water. :)

Low

(Cottesloe reef - normally this is all underwater.)

Went to Scarborough this morning. Was hoping on a surf but when we got up the wind was howling at 8am. Super low tide, swell about 0.6m at Rottnest. Small, small day. BUT the surf schools were out and it was fabulous to watch. So much so that I tried to hire a big foamie to play on as we didn't bring our boards. Gonna head up tomorrow, hoping the conditions will be like today, but less windy with more swell...so. different. PS: The water isn't warm yet.

Taking the camera out for a spin/swim

Hit the beach this arvo. Didn't take the board as I didn't have the van. Was blowing a gale anyway and about 0.6m off Rottnest. These are some of the pics I've ended up with. All set on medium size. No zooming. You do need fingers of steel sometimes to press the button...This guy was catching the tiny tiny waves. Made me wish I'd brought a board. :) These were taken trying to body surf and get a shot 'in the wave'. Wasn't really possible as the waves were so small. Love the smiley horizon... Icons. Not much to be had. Spy photography, undercover. After a hard day working for Her Majesty's Secret Service, I emerge from the briny blue in an homage to 007 - The Spy Who Loved Me. All in all, not a bad little camera. The quality isn't great, but the shutter speed seems fine and the focal range works for me.

Waiting...

The weather has been a bit average the last week or two...Really windy, no swell AND not all the sunny or warm either. now I can understand beautiful weather and no swell, but I'm going stir crazy... Hanging to get out there. Hoping to surf Saturday morning, but it will be small and low tide. *fingers crossed* that it isn't too dumpy. Got my new waterproof digital camera. Felt like forever waiting for it to arrive. The housing is great. The camera has a LCD screen but on the down side it is really about 3mp not the 6mp that it advertised. 'Interpolated'... apparently means that the camera 'fills in the gaps' to make up the extra mp. But I can't wait to give it a crack. Will be heaps easier than trying to guess what you are shooting with film and then waiting ages to see if any of the pics worked out. Plus I can waste as many shots as I like because I don't have to worry about getting to the end of the roll of film. The size of the images will need to be quite small in order to retain quality and I can forget about zooming in. Just ruins the quality. Will post some pics after the next surf. Here are some testers from the garden. *****BIFF UPDATE****** Biff is getting his Air con looked at on Friday. Hopefully not too expensive to repair - whatever the problem may be. We slept in the van down at the Bridgetown Blues Festival. It was fabulous in the back with proper mattresses. Luxury!!! I plan to paint him over Christmas. Currently compiling ideas for colours and stencils. Have found an auto paint place to visit on South Street.

Derrs

Yesterday was an epic day. We went up to Derrs, near Two Rocks in Dad's 4WD. We surfed for about 2 and a half hours. James and I both caught about 2 waves. It was really good all the same. They are probably the biggest waves I've ever ridden! Plus I paddled onto them myself and rode them all the way along, steering around sections and trimming! Very very rewarding. Catching the waves was a big challenge. Because they are bigger, they look different when they are going to be rideable. They form and break differently. It took a little while to figure out which ones were going to be worth paddling for. Still haven't fully got it. Also after a year of surfing, I'm still not quite strong enough to catch everything I paddle for. Dad pointed out that we do keep getting stronger, but we are also stepping up in quality of wave that we are going for - so it requires more from us. So something to keep working on. I also realised, I think, why sometimes the wave feels very easy and your just cruise down the face, and other times it feels like you're staring down a precipice. The second sensation comes from catching the wave but really late. You haven't been moving fast enough to be in the right position so the wave has jacked up before you were properly riding it. Therefore it becomes steep and treacherous on a long board. Hopefully with increased paddle strength, this won't happen as much. I found out about Eskimo rolls today too. I knew what you did from above the water, but no one had really explained what you do under the water. I thought you were meant to stay horizontal, next to your board, but dad was saying that you hold on really tight, but actually hang down below your board. Makes sense. Worked once. Not so well the next time. Will need to work on this seeing as duck diving the 7'6" isn't likely to happen... I also saw dad doing this thing where he'd paddle into position, stop, then launch onto the wave. Given that James and I have to paddle for ages before the wave even gets to us, this didn't make sense. But he explained that, provided you are in the right spot, and know where that is, you can get the momentum by sinking your board, then just at the right moment letting it shoot up, frog kick and add in a few last minute paddles and your away!! Something he will teach us next time. Amazing that I have never heard of or noticed this technique until yesterday. :) The break is a reef break, but really nice! Not all covered in god knows what. Very flat rock with some weed and a fair bit of sand. Much nicer than Avalon or Cottesloe. After a while we were less freaked about skewering ourselves on it, which helped. Next time I'm out at Sandtracks, provided there's something breaking out the back, that's where I need to be. James said I should remember what I was catching yesterday to keep it in perspective. Apparently I paddled onto some big ones yesterday (for me) but just didn't quite catch them. C'mon paddle strength!!!