Wahoooo!!!

Reunited

Another crazy week down under. Chris and Ariel came and visited this weekend from Melbourne. The weather their first day was killer and we chilled in Surfer’s Paradise soaking up the rays. The next two days we had sporadic thunder and lightning we made for some interesting surfing and swimming. On Saturday the weather cleared and the surf rolled in so we went down to Coola\ngatta for the Quicksilver Pro surf contest at the famous break Snapper Rocks. It was a really awesome setup as us, “the fans” can wade out into the water knee deep which puts you literally 30 ft. from where the pros are taking off on their waves. It was really cool to be that close to Kelly Slater and the rest of the gang as they were tearing it up in the near perfect conditions. I’ve never seen people get barreled so long. 

The Crew for theweekend

This weekend was the first time I sampled the nightlife in Surfers and what a better way to do it with the brother. We had two awesome nights’ outs bouncing from club to club and eventually coming back around 5am. We ended our night by watching a huge drum circle with a bunch of hippies while a British street rapper spit rhymes to their beats. It was a really cool combo! 

After the bro left I headed back to Brisbane for class. As soon as I was done with class for the week I rushed back to down to Surfers as the next day was the Finals of the Quicksilver Pro. I went down with the new Brazilian roommates. The semi-finals and finals were really intense and there was a huge crowd. In between heats we went surfing at a close break called Fingel Point. After our quick session we went back to watch Kelly Slater dominate the finals and take home the win. 

Kelly Slater

The next day the roommates and I drove north to the harbor next to Stradbroke Island. We hopped on a small boat which took us to the other side of the island where we had an unbelievable surf session with only a few other guys. We surfed for almost four hours before we climbed aboard the boat for the ride back. It was one of the best surf sessions I’ve ever had. The waves were huge and really powerful and you can take them either left or right. After a ride I saw a guy duck-dive under a wave which landed on him and when he came to the surface his board was snapped in half. The waves on this island are unlike and other wave I’ve ever surfed. I managed to put two holes in the bottom of my board from landing on it with my elbow. Lucky for me I’m using a beater board that’s probably going to snap the next time I use it. The best part of Stradbroke Island is that it’s only a ten minute drive from my place. It will definitely be going there from now on. After the long day of surfing I hopped on the train to head back to Brisbane for a Steve Aoki concert. 

cruising at the Quicksilver Pro! 

The venue was at a huge club in Fortitude Valley called The Met. It was a four story club with music so loud my ears are still ringing. Steve Aoki is a crazy man with even crazier antics! He brought on stage a blow up pool which he tossed into the crowd. He then climbed up to the second story level and jumped onto the inflatable that we were holding down below. Pretty awesome night!

This morning I spontaneously bought a one-way ticket to Melbourne to visit my brother this Thursday. Our buddy Brad lands in Melbourne on Saturday so I figured it would be great to kill two birds with one stone. I’m looking forward to next week with the Bro, Brad, Ariel n friends!  After we explore Melbourne we plan on flying to Sydney and from there we have no idea. We’ll be doing what we do best… going with the flow!