Still Sizzling

It's been hot hot hot here. Not a lot happening surfwise, but there's plenty in the pipeline.
Tomorrow marks the start of a girls' surf weekend, so it's off to Lancelin for some fun and, with any luck, decent waves!!

Yallingup long weekend the following week and we have all our fingers and toes crossed that the conditions will be good.

Summer in Oz - hot hot hot!

We've been keeping busy, making the most of the Summer weather and fairly damning lack of swell. Even a few trips down south didn't turn up the goods. Instead, we've been getting some regular dosings of island time...

Rottnest

Main mode of transport on the Island

reliving our youth

Walking out to Penguin Island. 700m from the mainland. Felt like survivors from a shipwreck with all of our flotsam.

Into another world

Click through for more goodness in the flickr set.

I've also been busy...check out my art blog

Surfing in the Desert - Video from Gnaraloo, Western Australia, July 2010

On the mend

At 5 and a half weeks, the Dr has given me the ok to stop wearing my splint and boy is it a welcome reprieve! I've been doing the stretches the physio has given me so that I can increase the flexibility in my wrist from nonexistent back to normal. Strengthening starts next week and then, so long as I have normal mobility, when I hit the 8 week mark I can go surfing!

Swimming and "water exercise" is apparently good for healing a break, so I went for a paddle on my 6'8 the other night. Sitting on my board, chatting to a mate and watching the sun go down was pretty special.

So the forecast is that we're gonna have a hardcore cycle season. Pretty sure that's the meteorological term. That sucks. But if it has to happen, I'm hoping that we might get a few bursts of swell down here before the Summer flatness descends.

This is my local. One of my favourite spots. I haven't surfed it in almost a year because we were away over Winter. It is seriously swell deficient and only breaks when the rest of the coast is firing. I'm hoping I might get lucky with a few freak sessions in November before we say goodbye to the waves and hello to the sou-westerlies until next Autumn.

3 weeks, 5 days and counting...

So the slow process of sorting through the 3000 odd photos has been made slower by the fact that I broke both my arms our first day back in Australia. Plans for a quick trip down to Yallingup before heading back to work were replaced by trips to Emergency rooms and x-ray centres. The lesson has been learned: Skateboarding and jetlag don't mix.

So now I'm counting down until I'm no longer cripsey and can get back in the water. It's been almost 4 weeks now. It'll depend what the Doc says at my next appointment in 2 weeks. If the splint can come off my left wrist then I can, with any luck, be wave sliding on the first day of Summer.

In the meantime, I've been getting mobility back into my right arm with physio exercises, checking the swell charts to see what I'm missing - nothing - and surfing vicariously.

Some visual poetry from Flickr... mouse over images for credits.

Inspiration by:
umeplumme
sgblyth
meisi
Maddie J
felipesiebert
J.boltz
Sosidesc
JerseySurfing
Zaz by Roxy surf
PatrickSmithPhotography

La nostra casa

We're home!! And very happy. There's so much to digest! We've been away for 2 months. Wow.

Big highlight this morning, besides waking up between our own 1000 thread count sheets, was rediscovering all the clothes we DIDN'T take with us. I'm quite stoked to be wearing a fresh pair of purple jocks, which haven't been shrunk in hostel washing machines...

The girls were a little unsure when we first walked in, but they were pretty happy to be sleeping with their mum on the bed this morning. I walked in to see Maxi snuggled into Hannah's nook, purring furiously. Mini has sniffed all of our bags, then remembered that my lap is awesome.

Vegemite on toast this morning. It was heavenly.

Wow. I don't even know where to start. I think I'll update in a day or so, when I've had a chance to stop. Spent 13 hours stuck in Auckland International yesterday, so pretty blitzed.

But so happy to be home.

 

Happy Father's Day to all the Daddies!!

 

A friend in our backyard!

Today we said goodbye to Jo and James dropped her at the airport to wing her way back home. Our awesome foursome is down to three. We miss you, Jo!

We had a jam packed day! We got off to a slow start after early airport trips and morning naps but then didn't get home until after 9pm.

We went snorkelling at Shark's Cove which was well worth it. Today I used a different pair of broken flippers that served me much better! This is what we saw:

Kristy

 

 

Just floating around

 

Even quite shallow, the fish were plentiful. Some were so brazen they almost collided with you.

Me

There were people scuba diving as well as snorkelling but there was still plenty of room to explore.

Grumpy!!

 

After snorkelling adventures, we had lunch at Ted's Bakery again before setting out to Maunawili Trail and Waterfall.

 

It was really muddy and we had to watch each step on the trail. 

The journey also involved river crossings! 

Maunawili

We topped the day off by heading over to Rhonda and Aaron's place for a BBQ and spa. We got to meet their lovely friends, Jesse and Sean, who live on the North Shore and own the rental accommodation Rhonda and Aaron were staying in. They had a cute cat called Tuesday :* I needed to pat her a lot.

Along with steak, chicken, vegetable kebabs and salad, we had ahi poki, a raw, marinated tuna and then... pineapple and chocolate haupia cream pie for dessert!
Mahalo!