Recently I had the best surf of my life. Okay, yes the number of days I’ve been surfing doesn’t add up to the hundreds, perhaps just over a large handful. But still, I had an epic time and I want to record it on the blog (and maybe even brag a little bit).
Surf spot disaster
I’m going to start talking about the surf spot: Rennies beach. I had been talking with surfers at work, they all ride shortboards and in my head shortboard riders = way better than me. Anyway, so they’re telling me about this spot, Rennie’s is somewhere I hadn’t been yet. New breaks are a bit daunting because you’re not sure whether there are any rocks under the water, or you don’t know how far out you need to paddle or how big the waves are going to be typically.
I tried Rennie’s a couple of times after they encouraged me to give it a go, and it felt so chaotic, it’s not what they described at all. However, I hadn’t gone to the back (where the waves remain unbroken). I stayed in the whitewash because it felt safer and tried to go for those rare, small unbroken waves. It didn’t work, I was being thrashed about both times, waves were coming from two directions and I kept being dragged along the beach due to the current. I wasn’t sure I was a fan of Rennie’s.
The big day
One morning at 7am, I woke up wanting to surf. I drove us to my usuals, north Mollymook and south Narawallee. Both were a no go. I thought I’d just take a look at Rennies, and if it was no good, I’d get back into bed. I warned Ben of the longer drive (about 10 minutes) and we set off, me in the driver’s seat, and Ben still in bed. The forecast was 2-3+ ft, light offshore winds – the perfect conditions for someone like me.
I gazed across the horizon at the lookout. Just glorious. The sun was shining, the waves were rolling in and epic surfers were making turns and even a pod of dolphins, 20-30 or so…
Going it alone
You must know, surf can be deceiving. You can look at waves from the shore and think they’re so small they’re not worth it, but when you get in the water, the water is towering over you, wave after wave breaking right on top of your head, ripping your board out of your grasp. I decided to go for it.
This time, there was a section where the waves weren’t breaking, a perfect opportunity to paddle out with more ease. I waited for the end of the set and paddle as hard as I could to get out as fast as possible. I had texted a few workmates about the spot but I had entered the water without hearing back, so I was alone.
There were about 15-20 people on my right, all in the same spot for the same wave and when one arrived. It was absolutely chaotic. I watched as 5 people paddled for the same wave, 1 bailed, 2 got wiped out and another 2 caught the wave. What a frikken nightmare. As someone that’s only just learned to turn, how the hell am I supposed to dodge that? As well as the surfers sitting on the inside (in a position in front of the wave breaking closer to the beach). No thank you. I remained where I was and watched the waves for a bit, looking to my right to watch the chaos and to my left where there was a wave breaking, but nobody was there.
In the surf, commit, or get hurt
Sometimes when there are no surfers in a spot I do question the reason. Is it a crappy spot? Will I not be able to catch anything if I go there? Would I be better off in the hoard of 20 people? I paddle left, because I’ll learn myself if it’s crap, and if it isn’t… well as far as I’m concerned its the best position.
I turn around and the set begins. The first wave is much bigger than I anticipated, bigger than anything I’ve ever surfed, about the same size as everything that’s treated me like a dirty rag in a washing machine before. It begins to break way to soon for my position and I think to myself “I can either try to paddle towards it to get over it (which has pretty much always ended badly) or I can just take the whitewater wave and practise my pop-up”. I’m learning that in surfing you have to make a decision and commit to it, fast. The injuries occur when you don’t.
The moment of truth
I turn around and face the beach and paddle to catch this white water. It’s like an explosion behind me and foam flies past my head but I manage to stand up and turn to the right, all of a sudden, I feel I’m on the unbroken section of the wave, and I’m leaning forward and going faster and faster across the face of the wave. I notice it’s about head height as I crouch. This is the best frikken wave of my LIFE. Damn, the excitement, its exhilarating speeding down this wave, I’m trying to focus but also take every moment in. I slow down and the power fades, I’m at the end of the wave and I lie back down on my board.
To my DELIGHT it wasn’t just me that knew about this wave, because Ivan, a workmate I texted about Rennies, was on the beach just as I was riding that wave. I reveal in hearing him say “Yeah I saw her on this huge wave” at work. The best bit about that day? There wasn’t just one of those waves, but 4. One of which I caught green and unbroken and finished it that way, I even squealed on that wave because it was just so damn epic and I got a remark from another surfer “save that for the Taylor Swift concert”, not sure if he was being rude or funny but I didn’t care, I just caught the best wave of my life, AGAIN.
Dolphins and rainbows
The story doesn’t end there, waiting for the next sets I look around. As a wave to my left breaks a rainbow forms in the spray that’s blown toward the open ocean. So we have rainbows. Tick. Oh and that pod of dolphins I saw from the lookout? Yeah they were about 20 paces from where I sat. There were some just having fun, jumping out of the water, some may have been feeding, and even.. Wait for it… A few baby dolphins jumped about too.
And that was it, that was my perfect surf day. Then I tried spearfishing for the first time on that same day. Definitely one for the memory books. Life is good here in Australia.
