Quick stop before leaving town...

Its a small world when you stop in a little juice bar in Coolie, and you have Occy in front of you, and Ace walks in five minutes after that.

Looking forward to seeing Ace climb up the ranks!  We will always be fans of Ace since he is an unreal surfer, couldn't be a nicer guy, and a bit partial because he rode Nirvana Boards when he won the grom world title...

One more time at Greenmount

It was our last day up in the Gold Coast, and we decided to go back to Greenmount.  Its hard to beat the conditions we had ( It was small, but it was small everywhere), dolphins swimming 10 feet in front of you, rays jumping out of the water and circling you 4 or 5 times while you sit on your board, and the people.  Talked to a couple people in the water, one guy just started Uni there from Sydney, two older woman who longboard here when its not too crowded, and two younger Japanese kids who didnt speak English, but would yell and smile when anyone caught a wave.

After leaving it occurred to us that if the quiksilver pro starts up tomorrow, where are all the pros?  We found them just around from Snapper Rocks.  A break called D-Bar.

Road Trip to the Gold Coast...

Just about 10 hours up the east coast of Australia the Quiksilver Pro is about to take place.  We have a rental car with unlimited miles, Oak Vanilla Milk, two boards, and a map.

Arriving at Coolangatta Beach we looked out over Greenmount, the first waves we saw were epic.  They were small, but it seemed as if the break just kept going, and then we realized we were not seeing the start of the break.

We walked out to the end of Greenmount to see just where the begining of this break was.  Found some interesting artifacts...

Shark Tower?  Should I be concerned that there isn't anyone in the shark tower keeping an eye out, or should I be concerned that were at a place where they need shark towers...   and just around the corner was Snapper Rocks...

Central Coast

 First morning out.  Just a quick walk down the street and over a sand dune to check the surf.  Water temp and air temp both around 75F.

 

Nice peak breaking

  

 We ended up going out just north of 'Soldiers'.  Great spot.  Right before going out I learned a new Aussie slang word, "Sharky", as in: "It doesn't look too sharky today."

 

First Stop, Kincumber

After clearing customs our first stop was to see Bill Cilia at his shop in Kincumber, NSW. Bill has a great collection of boards in his shop. Each one seems to be better then the last. Not only is it the shapes of the boards, but each one its the finish look of the lam, the pin stripping, and other artwork that he puts in to each board.




Another example...

Flight to Oz...

The flight to Oz is long. 14.5 hours, from runway to runway, but there are some cool things on the Qantas A380, dozens of movies to watch, and even a live picture of the plane outside.