Gold Coast Trip

Sorry for the delay in writing this post.

At the start of March, I took a trip up to Gold Coast to visit Keegan and George - my two friends from IOP that I grew up surfing with - and to catch the end of the Quiksilver Pro at Snapper Rocks. There are too many stories from this trip, so I will just detail the main highlights and the best stories for you. First of all, it's no coincidence that George and Keegan are in Australia at the same time. We were all supposed to be in the same place living together, but after multiple difficulties trying to find the right mechanical engineering class, I wasn't able to go to the Gold Coast with them, leading me down here to Newcastle.

To get to the Gold Coast, I took a quick flight with a carryon backpack as my only luggage for the week stay. To kick off the trip, Keegan picked me up from the airport, and we went straight to Duranbah to surf.

D'Bah

For all but at most 2 days, the waves were really fun ranging from waist high at the worst to head and a half at the biggest. We spent almost all day everyday out surfing, and by the time we got home at night we only had the energy left to make dinner before crashing. While I'm on the topic, the living arrangements were rather humorous. George and Keegan are sharing a one person suite on-campus at the university George is attending. Keegan sleeps on a small couch while George takes the bed, and it wouldn't take a detective to realize that surfers were living there: about 5 boards leaning in the corner, boardshorts hanging up to dry on the little porch and in the bathroom, and other stuff laying around like ding repair equipment, fins, and wax. The poor, overworked mini-fridge was stuffed full for the duration of the trip with food for 3 people. I spent the night on their neighbor's couch and all the rest of my time in their room; well actually, we didn't spend much time in that room.

A little messy, too

The coolest beach we surfed was South Stradbroke Island, an uninhabited island to north of Gold Coast. To get to the island you either had to paddle the inlet or pay to take a ferry. The guy running the ferry must be a brilliant entrepreneur! He outfitted a board holder on the top of his 20' (guessing) T-top boat and charged $6 for a round trip to the island, dropping you off and picking you up just outside the lineup. While the paddle is not that far or hard, it does save you from the tricky task of getting out on the slippery rocks. You had to find a good exit spot and get your timing right with the wake pushing into the rocks. My hands and feet survived fine with just a good number of small cuts.

The inlet you had to cross to get to South Straddie

Sign warning surfers before they paddle the inlet

Once you were across, however, there was a pipe that dumps dredged sand onto the beach, forming a great sandbar where the waves broke powerfully and consistently. Despite the slight difficulty getting to the island, the lineup is usually quite crowded. I did well surfing when the waves were right around head high, but one morning I had trouble getting used to the head and a half, choppy waves. Surfing small, gutless waves and surfing powerful, full waves require almost a wholly different set of fundamentals, so I keep reassuring myself that if I put in the time and practice, I will improve.

One day we decided to go spearfishing and surfing at Seaway Spit, which is on the south side of the inlet from South Straddie, where we found a seabird caught in a fishing line. After we saved the bird, we decided to use him for a little prank. Before releasing him back into the wild, we brought him home in the back of "the Stallion" (George and Keegan's beat up surf-mobile) and put him in the neighbor's shower. Though, the seabird got revenge on us by slinging his own throw up all around the back of the car. We almost had to pull over the smell was so bad, but instead we held our shirts over our noses and stuck our heads out the window the rest of the way home.

Funny Prank! The seabird's life was not endangered but rather saved by our actions

The Stallion

A typical load in the back of the Stallion: surfboads, spearfishing equipment, camping equipment, sunscreen,  and of course a gross seabird.

I was a little worried I was going to miss the Quiky Pro because they had completed all but the final rounds of the contest before I arrived. Then once I got there, the contest went on hold waiting for better waves. Thankfully, the finished the contest in one day while I was there, and I got to see the finals of the contest. We showed up right as the final heat was beginning. We saw Taj Burrow win narrowly against Adriano De Souza in an exciting back and forth matchup. The number of people spectating was staggering; looking down the beach, you couldn't see the sand, just people crowding the water's edge leaving standing room only. Through the madness of people, I couldn't get any autographs of my favorite pro surfers, but I did get Adriano's. He was really cool sitting at the edge of the stage for a while after the award ceremony signing autographs, taking pictures, and meeting his fans. I'm not disappointed that I only got to meet 1 pro, though, because I knew a number of them were coming to Newcastle the following week for Surfest (I'll have a little post later about that).

The camera crew getting shots from the water. Also, you can see Surfer's Paradise (it's the city) on the horizon.

The crowd spreading from waist deep in the water all the way to the road.

Taj Burrow. It was so cool to be so close to the action!

People watching from the rocks at Snapper Rocks

I was trying to get a picture of me and all the different flags, but this guy was so rude photo bombing my picture. Who does he think he is? The greatest surfer to ever live? 11 time world champion? Youngest and oldest guy to win the world title and still dominating the competition at 40 years old? Oh.....Kelly Slater, ladies and gentlemen! This was as close to him as I was able to get.

Aboriginal guy playing the didgeridoo and beating on it with his boomerang. He gets out on the rocks at Snapper Rocks during the contest and "summons" the waves. Apparently, he is a fixture of the contest.

Easily the most adventurous thing we did during my stay was to go slide down the Clarie Hall Dam spillway. After a beautiful but long drive and stopping twice for directions even though we were following a local, we finally made it out to this place in the middle of nowhere. We had to get over a barb wire fence at the top of one of the walls to the spillway, jump into the 5ft deep reservoir at the top, slide down the spillway on our bodyboards (the easy part) where you slammed into a little mound of water at the bottom (it hurt if you hit it wrong, and I did), then throw your board up over the wall, and climb out on a rocky wall. All in all, it sounds more dangerous than it was, and we later found out that when there is about 6ft of water running down the spillway you can get going up to 100km/h, and you dont stop at the end, you keep going down the rocky stream: all which is actually very dangerous and potentially deadly, but not to worry, when we did it, there was like 6 inches of water at most. So, now I'll walk you through the experience with the pictures, starting with my favorite sign (although the koala crossing signs were a close second).

If you can see the little symbols on the left, they are the best part of the sign. The pictures show a number of absurd things that could happen to you, like a tree falling on you or a limb falling on you, and then adding to the humor of the sign is the absurd number of things they say can happen to you. I should be careful what I'm saying or else y'all will worry I'm a crazy person laughing in the face of extreme danger.

The scenic drive. Keegan was commenting on how cool it is that when you drive inland, the landscape starts to look like Hawaii.

Clarie Hall Dam Spillway!

The barb wire you had to climb over

or around if you prefer

The view from the other side of the fence. Notice the green on the opposite wall. That is how high the water can get! The jump into the water was probably about 15ft.

For a little perspective on the size.

Excited to slide!

George and Keegan again showing you how big the first section is.

George and Keegan on the second section of the spillway

The bottom of the spillway

George climbing out after his first run

Video of our dam fun adventure

I slide down at 1:23 on the left. I have a better video but I couldn't get it to upload properly to the blog...

Then an unfortunate occurrence prevented us from going straight home....

and someone was driving on the right side of the road

1 distracted driver messing with the radio with no passengers going slowly on a wet road drifted off the road. Once one wheel was off on the wet leaves and dirt, there was no correcting. No one was hurt, and surprisingly all we had to do was change 2 tires, after the tow of course. Unforgettable day!

The last day at Gold Coast, Keegan and I went to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary where we got to pet kangaroos, hold a koala, and see a multitude of other Australian creatures. Great fun!

monitor lizard. poisonous saliva 

the real black swan

dingo...pretty much a dog 

porcupine. I have a video of them waddling. so cute

watch out for godzilla cat 

Thomas! My parakeet came over to keep me company

Every night a swarm of lorakeets descends on Burleigh Heads, all chirping.

Bird smuggling case. I'll just get one of these, mom, and I can bring you home some lorakeets and cockatoos. Also, if you can read the sign on the right, take a look at the last sentence and the word choice.

Oi Croiky! Look at that Huge Croc! 

Tasmanian devil 

These lizards are everywhere, and this one was bold enough to let us touch him

The emu didn't fall for me trying to trick him into thinking I have food 

He wouldn't fight me

they didn't mind us at all 

little Joey

Just stretching his arm

tree kangaroo 

sleeping koala 

if you look closely, there is a baby koala hugging it's parent tummy

sleeping and eating, that's the koala's life

I don't know how I forgot to put this photo in the original post. I think I forgot because I intended to scan the picture, but here is the photo of a photo of Keegan and I with a Koala. Thanks, Keegan, for letting me be the one to hold him! He was so soft and cuddly. I want one

Just a few pictures as I was leaving:

a beautiful river mouth. I snapped a picture while we were driving

view from the plane as I was leaving. That's the Gold Coast