G-Land Surf was more solid than I expected when I walked down in the morning to check it, the bommy was breaking and a perfect trade was blowing, low tide, nobody out (this was 7:30am) and 6ft double up sets cracking off the Ledge into Money Trees! If I was out of bed earlier I could have been a bit more on to that.
Anyway, after my hearty G-Land Bobby's Surf Camp breakfast of Porridge & Meusli, Orange Juice, Fruit Salad, Scramble eggs with Avocado, Bacon & Tomato on Toast (which I spread peanut butter and vegemite on each piece) I decided to take my time and wait for the higher tide (like the rest of G-Land surfers!). I did a bit of yoga with Fabio, whom kindly gifted me a pair of his infamous Salinas (speedos-like Brazilian swimwear). Very comfortable for the yoga I must say, and had my thighs not been so white I would have worn them out in the surf, but with such untouched thighs after a season of knee-length boardies, they would have got absolutely roasted in the sun.
I chose my Keahana/New Wave epoxy 6'7 for todays waves with a quad setup. Was one of the first people out the main break at 11am incoming half tide, and the sets were solid 6-8ft when they came through. The wind went a bit South for awhile but then a bit more east came back and there were some smokers coming through! The current was constantly present, I paddled for 3.5hours straight. But it was worth it, I caught one of the best barrels I've had in months, a ridiculously deep takeoff followed by pumping as hard as I could in the tube, running one guy over who duckdived in my line, keeping focused, weaving more, getting spat on, then finding the exit someway down the line! Apparently the photographer stopped shooting halfway through as he thought I was a goner! Well anyway it blew my f**#ing mind!!!
Another thing that blew my mind was Fabio's attempt at a 8ft (15ft face) double up during the start of our surf. He didn't paddle hard enough, got hung up in the lip, tried to land an overhead freefall with the lip (wearing his speedo like Salina's and donning a lethal pair of paddling gloves), got exploded off his board, ended up on his back and not penetrating the water whilst the lip proceeded to drill the living daylights out of him, oh my goodness he got smoked!! To top it off the next big wave on his head snapped his leggie, then he spent half an hour swimming in the lagoon trying to get to his board.
Numerous snapped boards today, it was a powerful day of waves, but you had to work for them! A bunch of people surfed 20/20's today, 2-3ft, but reported it being very soft and boring.
