Easter long weekend is long weekend and long weekend can only mean one thing = surf weekend away. Surf weekend in Manyana to be specific. It’s become a bit of a tradition. Ten of us shacked up in a house down South again on the hunt for some good waves. In between surfing, we settled in for lots of naps, lots of food, lots of Bells beach watching, lots of playing shithead, lots of Easter egg painging and maybe a few too many glasses of red wine and chocolate eggs.
I drove down Friday afternoon and still managed to fit a little fun sunset surf in down South. Saturday morning was awesome, perfect A frame 3 footers…so much fun. What we did not know then was that this would be the best surf to be had all weekend. Saturday avo still had a bit of size to it but it was only breaking properly on the shorey. A pretty shallow shorey. Neck breaking material. I was pretty tired too and can’t remember a time when I had as many stacks. Not the best surf ever.
Sunday morning was even worse. It was small and dumpy. We would have been better off sleeping in. We headed to town for lunch with a little detour to the surf shop. I kind of have been thinking about getting a new board as my Xanadu ‘Redbull’ was on it’s last legs. I loved that board. I think I had it for about three years but it’s lost its spring so I thought I may as well have a look. I really did not want to spend a fortune on a new board though. Anyway, it turned out I did not even have to. I walked into the shop and there it was. My new baby. It was just there. Waiting for me. Perfect dimensions. And the best thing about it…someone’s surfed it for two weeks and returned it because it was too big (not sure how that works with a 5’11). So I got a new board for about $300 bucks cheaper than the brand new version. I was so stoked. I then traded in my Xanadu for some awesome fins and leash – orange ones to be precise. That’s how my new board ‘Ranga’ was born.
I was a bit upset about leaving my trusty Xanadu back in Milton but the South coast is a good place to retire for my good old board I figured.
Waves were still pretty average Sunday afternoon but I had to give Ranga a try. And he was amazing. I did not realise what a difference it would make to have a new board. Super fast. Super responsive. So much fun.
I can’t wait to take Ranga out again. We are still down South and just waiting for the tide to come in a bit so we can hit the surf again before we’ll hit the road. While we are waiting we were just watching Bells beach. We watched Kelly Slater’s and Parko’s exit in round 3. What a bummer. I was meant to fly down to watch it and my heroes are out. Oh well.
Looks like we’ll have some waves in the week to come – along with some rain and not so great weather. It’s the last week of daylight savings too which means last week of after work surfs for a while.
Have a great week anyway and hope you don’t get stuck in Easter traffic on the way home (wish us luck …I’m praying for anything less than a six hour trip home from the South Coast).
x Clauds
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