As the crow flies

Surfing Capital of Oz

Have you heard of Bells Beach? The RipCurl Pro Classic that occurs over Easter each year? Bells Beach is in a place called Torquay, which is where we were for the past two days. Checking out the swell forecast, it seemed that it was to be 10ft. Now when measuring waves in Aussie terms you usually double it to what regular people say. So if you see the face of a wave and a 6 ft dude is riding it at the bottom and there's 4ft of wave above him, that you would think would be a 10ft wave. Actually that would be considered 5ft. Needless to say we didn't go to Bells, since it was a huge day. Instead we went to Torquay beach where it was 5ft. And I found out just how poor a surfer I really am. Surfing the mush in Oregon is nothing compared to here. The pure volume of water that comes at you when the wave breaks is incredible. I got pummelled a few times, did a sommersault under the water, yet still had a good time, having some decent rides.

posted by Aaron @ 10:22 AM