Gidget goes night surfing

When a friend called me the other day and asked if I wanted to come and surf for a Strongbow shoot and I would get to keep a board, I was easily convinced (that’s all it takes …give me a free board and I’m in). When I was told that it involves night surfing on a glow-in-the dark suit on a glow-in-the- dark board I was intrigued to say the least.

We all rocked up there got into our wetsuits on top of that we had to wear suits with a glow wire throughout. We all got our boards with in-built glow wire too. They were pretty heavy by the way. Everyone was very excited to get into the water. Before, we went in we had to turn on our suits and boards (they had little batteries in there) which looked soooo amazing. We jumped off the rocks at the Icebergs and paddled out. We were all so stoked. It was so surreal. If anyone would have told me that I’ll surf off the rocks at Icebergs in pitch black night on a glowing surfboard in a glowsuit, I would have declared them insane. Everyone reckons that we were pretty good shark bait out there. I was not so much worried to start with as there were like 15 of us and we were all screaming and having a ball. I only got worried about sharks towards the end when we paddled in one by one quite scattered. Also, if you are wondering what it’s like surfing in the dark….hard…you can’t see any waves until they are right in front of you. And then you better be lucky to be in the right position. In my case, it did not necessarily help that I’m a little night blind (note to myself, if I ever do that again bring contact lenses). Once I got pretty close to the rocks too. So for those who watched from the Icebergs, the little orange glow worm duck diving 10 times in front of the pool, that was me…

The most amazing part was when the fireworks went off. There we were … glowing in the dark watching fireworks. Just crazy. All fun things come to an end though and eventually we had to paddle in. That’s when I almost got electrocuted … or maybe it was just me being stoked. The thing I forgot about was that it was still a shoot and there were hundreds of people on the beach with cameras who wanted to take photos of us… not that I’m vain or anything but being on national TV with slicked back hair without make up is not the best of looks. Oh well. Did I mention I got to keep the board and the suit? So guess who …when you see an orange gidget in the night.

Here is the little vid they put up on youtube already:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2hgvGnwr_8]

Oh and here is some of today’s media coverage with a nice photo gallery if you wanna see more pics >>