Time: 1 hr 30 mins
Conditions: Hip to shoulder high, bit choppy, very crowded, high tide. Onshore wind.
Today, I'd like to welcome Alice from the Netherlands to The Sydney Surf Diary. She bravely volunteered to take the 9' 6" McTavish out for a surf at the very crowded Mona Vale...and then write her own blog entry!
Alice Surf’s – Mona Vale
I woke up 5:30 AM so I could meet up with Mark after work at 4:30 PM and make a surf blog and film.
I’d seen Mark’s blog when I was searching for videos on the web. I actually wanted to see the beaches where I’ve been surfing obsessively almost every day now. Couldn’t find much at all (weird!) on the Internet, but when I saw Mark’s blog, I loooved seeing his movies. Beautiful shots that show what surfing is all about! I immediately responded to take part in his experiment.
I made a promise that I'd show an impressive still from the footage...and right this second it looks good [Mark]
I was really looking forward to surf a McTavish longboard custom shaped 9’ 6”. And indeed, the session reminded me how stoked longboarding is: it makes you even more hungry to score waves. Makes you feel like a puppy dog who is seeing all these balls coming at you and you WANNA catch them ALL!!!!! Longboarding does that to you, cause you can paddle for SO MANY waves which would otherwise be totally out of reach on a shortboard. It’s a great feeling how the board just goes and goes. Just the paddle makes me stoked.
What’s so good about surfing is that it shows you how simple life can be! Surfing is absolutely pointless, and at the same time you could call it “going to church on a Sunday”. The beauty lies in it being useless. Like the movie ‘Glass Love’ tells you, “life is a dance”. I used to think “cut the fluffy crap”, but I am starting to see it might be the best way to express yourself! All right cut the fluffy crap!
It was a bit crowded in the line-up so you had to take the same wave everyone else wanted, because it was really just breaking at one particular spot. The waves were a really perfect shape and it just seemed to get better every minute as well – glassy and beautiful!
I had said to Mark that I’m a crappy surfer, but that I would get him lots of material…the first statement was correct, but the second...but anyway. I had a GREAT time and learned a lot from surfing his board. For example, that I need to own a board like that ;) OR Mark’s you gotta give me a second go on that board, please, please ;)
How come this guy's not swearing his head off at Alice? [Mark]
After having surfed the longboard and then switching back to my custom 8’ board, I felt like my positioning on the board was a lot better.
What a great session! I wanted to stay in the water longer, but my arms didn’t wanna paddle to catch waves anymore; my fingers were like raisins; and my body was completely empty. When I got home, the first thing I did was finish a whole pack of disgusting, three day old, donuts!
Can’t wait for tomorrow...
I wanna send some kisses to Klaas, DaGlobalBunnies, Duindorp muppets, surfingSuzy en JEEVEEDEE!
Mark's Surf - Mona Vale
- Very crowded...I nearly ran over a grommet!
- Caught one great right hander on Alice’s 8’ board
- Conditions really improved in the last half hour or so as the crowd thinned out and the wind dropped off.
- Landed on my left big toe once...ouch!
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