Australia - April 2009 Trip Report

 

 

01 – Get Me Out Of This Place

Everyone in the Pacific Northwest would agree that the winter of ’08 –’09 was the worst ever…No debate or even a discussion of the facts, it simply was horrible…Layer that funk with a deep smear of dread that the economy in it’s accelerating death spiral, falling like a parachutist with the main chute deployed and failing, and the safety chute wrapped around it doing no good …Not so good for the home team… Combine all that together and you have elements of a societal non nuclear, nuclear winter….Just try to find a smile on the street these days… Me, it seems like I’ve been grinding the days off of a stone calendar…Working too hard, for too long , for too little, with not enough play time…I need a  break…A serious change of scenery…There I feel better having said that…

So here I sit above the South Pacific Ocean…Believing I’m safe inside this 747, destined they say for Australia… The time of day is what my body says is morning, but the fact is it isn’t…It isn’t even the day it should be…Eight hours ago it was Monday, now it’s Wednesday…Just jump right over Tuesday…I blame Einstein…Relativity and Time and all that Woo-Woo science…Whatever day it is, I’m on my way to the Land Down Under, primarily to teach a couple of “How To Build A Hollow Wood Surfboard” workshops… The workshops will be in Perth and Melbourne… Both places I know exceedingly little about…I do know that it is predicted to be 95 degrees when I get there…Change you can believe in…

OK to back up to where this trip to OZ started…I was contacted about doing a workshop in Melbourne, then Perth wanted one, then Adelaide wanted one and it made financial sense to do all three…Planning happened, plane tickets were bought, then one of the classes cancelled, then another, but the first one to cancel got it going again…That’s the short story…Here I am, bouncing over the clouds...

Day One – March 23, 2009…

The getting ready is done on every level I can think of…Time for motion…My sweetie Pam (she can’t go on this trip, she has a job at a school) gives me a ride to SeaTac, and leaves me with hugs and kisses on the curb…No tears, but I know she did once she got in the car… Time for me to check in… not possible curbside, so I do into the Terminal (soundmen pads deadly)…A clerk tries to speed check me through on the touch screen, but after twenty minutes, I need to talk with an agent…My flight was supposed to be from SEA to LAX, but not it connects in SFO… Whatever…Just take my bags and give me my boarding passes…I’m traveling with two check in bags, minimal clothes but lots of surfboard frame components and a two part, put together surfboard…It’s just under the oversize limit so it flies for free compared top the typical $150 each way charge…When they ask what is inside, I say”A display board and some art supplies….Works so far……

(…as I’m typing this there is SIGNIFICANT TURBULENCE similar to a 6.9 earthquake…!!!... Really rocking and rolling…The Flight Attendant says it’s like this over the International Date Line…Does the words ‘International Date Line’ sound like a call in number for those who can’t find someone closer to home…)

SEA –SFO

(Above) As uneventful a flight as there is…On time lift-off… On time landing…One can of tomato juice, no pretzels…

(above) SFO international terminal…wide open and shiny…

SFO-SYD

The big bird, 747 less than a quarter full…Room to stretch out… dinner was served about a half hour after lift off… Miniature food…After feasting, I gathered the available pillows and blankets and made my own three seat wide nest…Time for an early springtime siesta…Felt like sleeping on a moving camel...But sleep I did…Six hours solid…A rustling sound awoke me…The flight  attendants (Pre PC they used to called Stewardesses) were setting up for what I thought was a party…We just crossed the Equator and since this is my first time over, I thought they do this every time…In the darkened cabin they passed out cold ham and cheese sandwiches, tightly wrapped in cold paper…Pretty special…Our party drink choices were Coffee or water…WOWWEE…”Make mine black coffee, please”…Apparently black coffee on this side of the equator comes with cream in it…something I will need to adapt to in the next month…Perhaps it was my accent…Oh well…time to nap again, my first this autumn…Did I just sleep through summer…???...Perhaps...

More time in my nest…Sleeping better than I thought, when that now familiar aisle commotion enters my awareness…Primal response, more food…Ah, yes, breakfast…”Omelet or Pancakes, sir?” …Omelet…!!!...

(above)Well look at what the Iron Chef behind the curtain has stirred up…Not just an omelet, a deeelux omelet….Yummelicious…After that stomach stretching feast it’s time for another nap…I think I’m leaving my PNW blues behind…

(above) My first real look into the southern hemisphere…

(above) Soon enough we have landed in the land of OZ, and I’m off the plane ready to make another connection…

 (above)Southern hemisphere painted sunrise...

More later … On to Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth…

Paul

BTW: this first e-mail is always too wordy, sorry about that…It’s just airplane travel does not lend itself to anything really unusual, especially at night…

BTW#2…Also attached is my bio, if you are new to these…

 

 

02 – The Getting Ready – Part 1…

Day Two – March 26, 2009…

The last time I wrote I was in Sydney, waiting for a connecting flight, to a connecting flight that would put me on the plane that would get me to my final destination of Perth…

(Above) Sydney Sunrise...

(above) I spent a lot of time this day looking at these…

(above) This is looking out of the Adelaide airport….Warm, dry, very pleasant…

 

(above) Wandering the airport magazine racks I saw… Occy on the cover of Readers Digest... Surfing is very mainstream here…

I finally arrived in Perth close to sunset, gathered my bags, found a rental car, loaded it up and hit the road, WITHOUT a GPS, just a map…Here they drive on the left side, and since I drove in Ireland on that side it wasn’t as intimidating…It still requires a lot of focus, especially after a 32 hour day of traveling…

My hosts (and now friends) Richard and Lynne live south of Perth in Fremantle…So I followed my instincts and a few road signs and after being misdirected only a few times, I found there home, where they were getting ready to have dinner…We visited for a while then I went to bed…Exhausted…

Today was all about getting the materials for the workshop…Lumber yards, tool supply stores, big box stores, etc…

(above) Richard talks plywood with the guy who sells it…

After all our hunting and gathering we dropped off the stuff at the shop, then walked to lunch…A sidewalk café (Lots of them here, that kind of climate) and I had a homemade ravioli meal…Super good…The owner of the café came over and talked to Richard…they are old friends who CONSTANTLY rib each other…Fun to see…Sorry no pictures, I was just not into it then…

After lunch we went back to the shop and did about an hour of work before calling it a day…I followed Richard back to the house…

(above) Lynne is a nurse who was getting ready to teach a course…this was on the kitchen table…It even felt creepy…

(above) After a Heineken, it was time to walk their boys…A pair of Irish Setters to the beach, which is a five minute walk away…

(above) Lynne, Richard and the boys, and another dog or two…

(above) Early evening, Fremantle, Western Australia, Indian Ocean…We all went for a swim…Water temp in the 70’s…To me it felt like a swimming pool…The surf here is generally pretty small since it is blocked by several offshore Islands…

(above) While Richard and Lynne walked back after the swim, I stayed around for the sunset…

(above) Wish you were here…???...

(above) Sometimes it all makes sense…

After washing off the salt we went out to dinner…Lot’s of very casual places on the waterfront…We went to a big deal brewery with great food…

Another day done…

Tomorrow, is time in the shop cutting parts, then in the late afternoon, I’m heading down for the weekend to Margaret River for some surf…

More later …

Paul

 

03 – The Getting Ready – Part 2…

Day Three – March 27, 2009

 After dinner out last night, we went back home and I fell asleep fast…I awoke around 3am to the extreme moaning sounds of a woman in one of the neighboring houses…The sound of passion…LOUD rhythmic moaning…Going on and on for over ten minutes at a time… AHHHH…!!!!!....AHHHHHHHHHH….!!!!...AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…!!!....I fell asleep wondering if this was the aussie way…I awoke an hour later and she was still going loud and strong… AHHHH…!!!!!....AHHHHHHHHHH….!!!!...AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…!!!....My goodness, is nothing kept private here…I fell back asleep…A half hour later she is still expressing her pleasure very loudly…I’m impressed…

In the morning I get up and see Lynne making coffee…She asks if I heard the neighbors…”Well, yes” I said understated, keeping any judgment out of my answer…Lynne tells me the midwife is still over there…Click, the light bulb goes on…

Today is a work day…Richard will prep the wood we need for the deck and bottoms of our boards, while I cut the rest of the frame parts out…But first a little tour…

(above) The Fremantle School Of Fine Furniture…The building was built in 1912…The building also houses ceramic and sculpture studios…

(above) Inside the woodshop Richard and today’s student have coffee and muffins while discussing the ongoing projects…You can see this place has some space, which I like…

(above) The heart of any woodshop is the table saw and this one is the Aston Martin of table saws…They do things right here, as I’m coming to expect…

(above) Just outside the shop doors is this mini-park.…All so very well done…A cut stone table with some random sculptures in the field…

(above) A one minute walk across the mini park leads you here to water’s edge…

This bay was a whaling station back when they still did that stuff…It’s mentioned in Moby Dick, or so the signs say…

Yes, the sky and the water really look like that…No sky darkening filters or photoshopping…No, it is not as warm as it looks, it’s HOT…Low 90’s I’m guessing…My Fahrenheit to Celsius converter is misplaced….

(above)  Just behind the workshop is a cliff with a super old building on top (I’ll get to that next week) and this tunnel is shortcut under it…They close the gates overnight, I’m not sure why, I haven’t seen anyone who looks like they might even be anywhere close to homeless…I’m waiting to see my first non-white person…It’s just how it is here…

 

(above) Back inside the shop…For me, today was all about cutting out ten sets of stringers and frame rails with a router…

(above)  Doing what needs to be done, while marinating my strict cutting edge fashion sense…Some guys got it, some never will…

 (above) After a long hot day of work, I drove back to Richard’s place… It’s a five minute drive right along the waterfront…It is everything boats along that stretch…This is just on of the boat yards. (Picture taken from a moving car, sorry)… Jeff, you would be in heaven for weeks along this stretch…In one of the shaded green grass city parks they had a huge, small power boat expo set up for the weekend…Lots of shiny fast fiberglass…Dream stuff…More on that next week too…

Once back at Richard’s I showered and packed for the weekend trip to Margaret River…Lee, the main guy who got this going on here ,has in-laws with at vacation home down there…Lee came by, we loaded up and did the two hour drive south and got there after dark…Inside the modern rammed earth house was Lee’s extended family, his wife and a couple family dogs…Immediately Beth (mom-in-law) fixed us each a plate of organic pasta, toast and set us up with Coronas…I can get used to this… After we ate we joined their ongoing game of Balderdash and laughed a lot… Bedtime was around 11:00… Another very full day…

Tomorrow, we surf…Hopefully…

More later …

Paul

 

04– Water Time – Part 1

Day Four – March 28, 2009

After another incredible night of sleep, it’s finally a day to get down to one of the real reasons to be here…Surf…

(above) West Oz, architect design rammed earth, circa 1991…Way cooler inside than out, which ain’t bad…

(above)  A two minute ride to the village gets you to the bakery…Witness a Chicken Meat Pie…As Australian as a kangaroo…Rather plain looking, but warm and don’t you just know it is oh, so, good…Unlike anything you can imagine being available in the States…One reason to never leave her…Strong black joe on the side…Equal to as good as I always expect…

(above) Choices, choices…How about one of those…???... Yeah, the big one…

(above) Look close to see the steam still rising…What you can’t see is the smell…

(above) Half of the meat pie selection...I had the Satay Chicken…

(above) The village has a park in the village center… Saturday mornings have a gathering of tents and new and used odds and ends…The sliding quality scale varies…

(above) A surf shop owner was unlocking as I was standing by…He pulled this moth off an outside rack and introduced me to the local…He said that often he will be driving and run into swarms of these… Messy is the word…

(above) Plain and simple, we all use these…This is how they look here…Cost per gallon is near $5 US…

(above) Alright, after a minor amount of asphalt time we get to what is on the top of today’s “Must Do” list…The Margaret River region has a LOT of breaks… Mostly rock reefs with sand beaches…Not bad…This was our first surf check and this SUP guy got one that made paddling out worthwhile…

(above) And this goofy guy had this in play…We saw all this and though there were better waves with our names on ‘em down the road…

(above) This is how it looked part of the time down the road…Ass stereotypical as the paved roads get in these parts…

(above) This was a surf check to the right and left, but the best picture was straight ahead…Over the horizon is Africa…

(above) A dust stop on the road… Four shot panoramas stitch…Lee to the lower right…

 

(above) Here’s where it gets fun…4WD is MANDATORY to navigate these dust/sand/rock motor vehicle trails…More gnarly than it looks…Add speed into the equation and you have crazy laughter…

(above)  After much rocking and rolling we end up at this parking lot…Lee’s truck is front and center…

(above) A faint rainbow on the Indian gives hope…

(above) From the car park we see these and reject them…Better is in our future…

(above) Sand requires momentum and a heavy foot…Lee has plenty of both…. ‘Hold on’ is the word to the wise…

(above) Next stop, Bay # 45…Looking better in the corner…A fair ways away…

(above) This will do for my introductory surf in west Oz…Could definitely be worse…

(above) But first Lee and I decide to sample a few of these right in front…After a half hour of these we get out and do the 20 minute, golden sand walk to the point where we once again enjoy the gifts from the South Indian Ocean…Life sure is good…

(above)  A last look before heading back to the home of rammed earth, cold beer and Australian Rules Football on the tele…(Our team lost)…

(above) After the game, while others snapped, I walked the 200 meters to the village to get caught up on e-mail and enjoy a cup of the strong black organic and read up on Australian Architecture…Hey Ruben, try it some time, you might find it all pleasantly addicting…

Tomorrow, better surf is in the cards, Lee says so…

More later …

Paul 

 

05– Water Time – Part 2

Day Five – March 29, 2009

(above) Another day, another search for the perfect point…

(above) Most of the point / bays have waves on both sides…This one is opposite the one in the previous picture…

(above) The same point as the first picture…

(above) Down a washboard road to more reefs…

(above) I can  relate…

(above) Lee...

(above) South West Australia reef surf…

(above) If you want it, there it is…

(above) The talent level here is uniformly high…

(above) Big backside bottom turn…

(above) Margaret River…Today home to a WQS contest…

(above) Beach fashion…

(above) Outside the contest area…

(above) Inside the contest area… #1 of  6…

(above) #2 of  6…

(above) #3 of  6…

(above) #4 of  6…

(above) #5 of  6…

(above) #6 of  6…

(above) #1 of 3…

(above) #2 of 3…

(above) #3 of 3…

(above) Non – contest area…

(above) The Box…

(above) Another beach…Multiple waves…

(above) Same place, further out…

(above) Down the beach…

(above) Early fall, Sunday morning, Margaret River region…

(above) This is where Lee and I surfed…Another surf trip gone good…

(above) On the far side of the main point is this wave, the domain of the nutszoid body boarders…

(above) WHOMP…

(above) One last look at today’s venue…

(above) Just to keep this e-mail balanced, here’s some local color…

Tomorrow, back to Fremantle and day one of the workshop…

More later …

Paul

 

06– Perth Workshop – Day 1

Day 6 – March 30, 2009

(above) Driving back from Margaret River, this sunset exploded across the sky… it faded as fast as a firework too…

(above) Monday morning, down by the workshop…Diving cadets test the water …They later swam out 200 meters and did the diving thing…

(above) I took a short walk out to the end of a jetty…There is a red twin on the opposite jetty…

(above) Morning sky…

(above) That’s what it says…!!!...

(above) I was tempted to get a hammer and tap the ends…Which might explain the sign in the picture above…

(above) Side street from the workshop…

(above) 9:00am…Introductions and expectations…

(above) The deck and bottom wood gets sorted and patterns are established…

(above) Fine tuning a stringer…

(above) Just like Santa’s workshop…

(above) Time for some epoxy…

(above) The competency is high…

(above) Teamwork is definitely in play…

(above) One of sixteen…

(above) The workshop has great afternoon lighting…

(above) Future boards are being planned…

(above) 5:00pm…School’s out, time for a walk…

(above) It was pretty windy most of the day…A non-threatening front is offshore…

(above) Bikes to be borrowed and returned…

(above) Evidence opulent wealth…Higher than average around this part of Western Australia…

(above) Old town Fremantle…History book classic…

(above) Love in Tokyo…???... A clothing store…

(above) They are glad to know they are linked to the past here…

(above) Street corner…

(above) A church…

(above) Is where I’m at…

More later …

Paul 

07– Perth Workshop – Day 2

Day 7 – March 31, 2009

(above) Where I’m staying, Lynne is a fresh organic coffee aficionado nutcase supreme…Hand selects each bean, hand-pump vacuum storage, precision mill grinder, commercial duty espresso machine, planetary alignment chart next to the machine, the whole thing… Art, black magic and science…Every morning I’m having a couple of these bad boys… Here, I’m ready to roll to the shop in the Corolla (note: Not the Hotel Corolla)…

(above)  Moving on from where they left off yesterday afternoon…Pulling masking tape…

(above)  Comes off a little harder than it goes on…

(above)  Frame assembly time for Olivia…Lee (tall guy in the center) who is the prime organizer here, is playing catch up laying out the wood for his deck and bottom skins after working the real job most of the day yesterday…

(above)  Rob hot-glues the nose of the board that will be his wife’s…Yeah, sure…

(above) Greg and Will, each at a critical point in the process…

(above)  Ready to ride in a week or two…

(above)  Mid afternoon a semi-famous reporter from the region and her tag along photographer came by…The typical questions were posed and answered, all with a smile…The photog had a specific vision for  his pictures in mind and directed Will and me exactly how he wanted it to be…Right down to the emotion each of us should be expressing…I politely pointed out that in the USA a good photographer can get the shot in such a photographically rich environment without staging any of the pictures…I also pointed during the shoot, several better angles and more natural vantage points, given the lens he was using and the quality and angle of the light at the time…( I know some of you are nodding or shaking your heads right now…What else could I do…???...I was just trying to help the guy…Quit laughing, I’m telling a story…!!!...)…I’m not sure, but I think he has worked with better sheep in the past…He left before she did…Kind of in a hurry to go too…Today another reporter and photog from another newspaper are coming by…Might be interesting, I don’t know…

(above)  Lee and Richard getting ready to mix some epoxy, while Alan sands the tail of his 9’er…

(above)  Greg with his fingers at the butt crack (that’s what it’s called, I’m not making it up) feeds his deck skin into the self feed surfacing sander…

(above)  End of the day, Olivia thins out the nose by 1.125 mm so the skin will follow the frame easily…

After work (yes, it is work) I talked with Lee about some new and original wooden surfboard construction method / design ideas he has…. He’s a thinker…Lynne, Richard and I then went to dinner at a nice place with a view, but it was dark…They are back to standard time since last weekend…Dinner was fine, not incredible…One thing about Australia, the cost of food is more than the US…Well in reality, the US had probably the lowest cost to eat of any of the countries…Not necessarily a good thing…Just look at the people…

More later …

Paul

08– Perth Workshop – Day 3

Day 8 – April 1, 2009

(above) Back at the Fremantle School of Fine Furniture, day three of the Hollow Surfboard workshop resumes after everyone had a night’s rest…here the decks are attached to the frames…The first phase of a busy day…

(above) Details of a not so top secret process…

(above) Dreams being realized…

(above)  Investment tip…Buy stock in Hot Glue Sticks…Gonna get HUGE here Down Undah…

(above) Today’s media visit…Another print media photog from the local paper…

(above)  A couple of proud guys…

(above) Say “glue stick”….

(above) Speed up that shutter, Hugo can be a blistering blur…

(above) “Hey Hugo, fade away, this is supposed to be all about ME…!!!…”

(above)  The two premier Western Australia male models strategize the next shot…

(above) Hugo reluctantly shares his spotlight with plus size model Alan…All in a day’s work…

The afternoon became very busy and I flat out didn’t have time to really shoot anything…Some days are like that….

More later …

Paul

09– Perth Workshop – Day 4

Day 9 – April 2, 2009

(above)  Why have breakfast at home when you can dine by the seaside…???...

(above)  Time fore the do it everyday morning dip….Still warm enough…

(above)  Fresh plants protected from the wind, the seemingly constant warm Indian Ocean wind…There is a reason Fremantle hosted the Americas Cup…Wind…

(above)  Back to the workshop…Will and Greg router away the excess deck and bottom wood…it was a very noisy morning…

(above)  Alan does the same on the bigger board side of the shop…

(above)  Meanwhile Olivia cuts out her ‘Rising Sun’ fin…

(above)  Where it’s at…

(above)  Richard who established the school, gets the frame on the bottom skin…

(above) Joel and Richard…The brains and brawn that is the Fremantle School of Fine Woodworking…

(above) Looking mighteeee fine…

(above) Rail prep…Cover the work...

(above)  Into the evening now…

(above)  The mercury lights cast this color  over everything, accentuating the glue in a really weird way…

(above)  Early bird and night owl, Will, pushed through 27 levels of fatigue and gets his rails done…

(above) Not having enough to do, Will helps Olivia get her board closer to completion…

Will and I got out of the shop well after 10:00pm, but since he has to leave early on Friday, he had to get his built…I’m there to help him meet his expectations…

More later …

Paul

10– Perth Workshop – Day 5

Day 10 – April 3, 2009

(above)  Sorry, no coffee cup  product placements in this first thing in the morning snap…Today starts out with a slight offshore breeze, another day where shorts and sandals being all you really need…That and some strong coffee…

(above) Between the beach and a harbor is this stuff…

(above) The harbor side… The air here does not smell salty…It smells like money…

(above)  This sums up Freo…Just count the masts…And this is only one slip…

(above) Hippy busses are the same worldwide…One difference here, the have ‘roo bars in front…As much of a driving hazard as deer are in the PNW…

(above) Alright, back at the school…Richard’s 7’3” is trimmed and waiting for the rails to be put on…

(above) Richard goes old school with a chisel…Witness a master of the beveled steel…

(above) A router eats through some bendy plywood…I can still hear it screaming…

(above)  Chris uses one of my cheapo Harbor Freight saws to trim a layer of nose ply…

(above) Lunch time…

(above) So how’s your view at lunchtime…???...This has been mine this week…

(above)  After lunch ( a dang good burger , my 1st here) an adjoining studio is ready to cast some bronze statues…Richard clues me in and I get a safe, decent vantage point…

(above)  This seems insanely dangerous…

(above) The molten metal is like 10,000 degrees Celsius…Roughly the temperature of the sun with gasoline thrown on it, or something close to that…Maybe hotter…

(above)  The artist casting the hot, did this self portrait…

(above)  OK, enough art you heathens, back to functionality…

(above)  These things have come a long way since Monday…Me too…

(above)  Richard and Hugo get esoteric about the benefits of using chalk or crayon for signing the finished piece…

(above)  Lee, shows off his wedding ring after I gave him a hard time in front of his wife and in-laws last weekend, about the need for him to wear it…Good going, bloke…Whatever that means…Pretty pimp that watch of his…

(above) Greg flexes more than muscle to get the tail block done…

(above)  Richard finally snaps…Hugo is forced to agree that crayon is a better way to sign the work…

(above)  J of course is for Jensen…I’m honored…

(above) Hugo (a yet to be surfer) is pretty stoked with his board…He did great…

(above)  Meanwhile Greg is ready for another pass on a rail line…

(above)  All these guys turned out some great boards…

(above)  Mid way through the rail shaping process…

(above) Courtney flattens the tail block…

(above) Finally the lights go on inside and another coat of glue gets spread…A really cool photo I think…

Tomorrow is a half day to wrap up the shaping…Whew, it feels like it’s been a long week…

More later …

Paul

11– Perth Workshop – Day 6

Day 11– April 4, 2009

(above)  Time for breakfast at my new favorite informal outdoor café…

(above)  Although the workshop was scheduled for five days, a half day was opened up for the guys to finish…Here Greg and his shadow fine tune the tail…

(above)  Did I mention this workshop has great light…???...

(above)  Alan had to split before finishing…I had to get a few shots of his ultimate Western Oz rig…Toyota  Land Cruiser, diesel 4x4 with a custom rear half that had seen three other front halves…

(above)  This defines bitchen over here…

(above)  THAT is what I’m talking about…!!!...He tows his 27’ fiberglass boat with it…Way trick,  inside and out…Truly thought out and one of a kind…Me wants it…

(above)  Back inside, Lee ponders the fin options…Twin or quad…???...

(above)  While outside, Rob adds some dust to the environment…Nice footwork…

(above)  The final rail bands on his  wife’s7’4”…Yeah, right…

(above)  Time to get a reference board out for comparison…

(above)  The town clock strikes noon, the local canon goes off  with a severe boom ( yards away) and this class is officially over…Rob with the result of some anguish and more joy…He has a story to tell…Rob says he doesn’t smile a lot, he has a reason to here…

(above)  Chris also had a few struggles, but you can see he achieved what he was hoping for…Me, I’m stoked for him and all the other guys…

(above)  If I said it once this week, I said it a thousand times this week, “It’ll be ok”  (Australian translation “ No worries mate”)…Chris’ eyes confirm that…Me, I knew…

(above)  Courtney  came from Adelaide, a half country away…Ask him if it was worth it…

(above)  Greg really fine tuned his beauty…Ready for glassing, right now…

(above)  Me, as you can see am somewhat glad that everyone is going home with what they hoped for…Not always easy, but absolutely  worth the time and money invested…Again, read the eyes…They don’t lie…

(above)  After everyone split and the workshop was left cleaner than we started, Richard and I had a beer together…He went home, I went for a swim…That Indian Ocean is getting cooler…Oh yes it is…Was 72 degrees when I got here…Now it has dropped to 71.875 degrees… I felt it…  Brrr…After my swim I ran into and had a very enlightening conversation with this bloke and his friends who were sun lizarding on the steps to the beach…These guys I’m guessing had more than a few beers into them at this point…The talk of what I was here for came around, then that led to the question from Tony here, “Who was the greatest surfah of all time?”…”Easy” I said…”Michael Peterson”… The dude popped up, threw out his hand and we ‘Bro shook’…Big time…”Mate, me and Mick lived togethah…!!!...Her was too famous to go out and get his food, so I did it forh (sic) him, right on bro…!!!...”Talk about giving the right answer…Toothless Tony (yeah, and his buddies were too, real bad toothless at that) immediately granted me inner circle status and told me stories for over half an hour about Mick and the good ol’ days and Kirra and the way it used to be…It was a cool slice of first person historic OZ surf history…Was worth the time to stop and talk, go figure…

(above)  After the Toothless Tony exchange, I was dry and ready for an afternoon walk…First stop the local art museum, where this installation from a Balinese artist was on display… He was there, didn’t speak a word of English, but I told him what I saw in his work, he nodded a lot and smiled… Sometimes language just doesn’t matter…

(above)  Walking on, I captured this Fall color…Somewhat different than my idea of fall color…

(above)  And there was this view of old town Fremantle architecture…

(above)  I shot this a few days ago near sunset…Worthy of a mid day shot as well…

(above)  Further along the road…Not your contemporary lines…

(above)  …and around another corner…I dig this architecture…

(above) High contrast B&W…

(above)  …and in COLOR

(above)  I wandered into a pretty cool vinyl record store…Had to snap Tom…We saw him in Vegas a few years ago… Tom still rules…

(above)  Of course, it’s Travolta…Who else goes “Pang, Pang”…???...Signature sound…

(above)  Hey Jeff, this is for you…Western Australia representing…

(above)  From the street to a park…Some of the trees here have these crazy above ground roots…

(above)  Late afternoon shadows…

(above)  Welcome to 1896…

(above)  Wandering back to the beach, the sun was getting closer to putting down in the drink over the horizon…

(above)  And turning shoreward I find these suits with red ties on the beach, Australian style…

(above)  What you lookin’ at…????...

(above)  The Big Day and I got to share a used to be known as a Kodak moment…

(above)  Walking on, on the road to the tip of the mole (jetty)…The Raider Nation is well represented…

(above)  At the end of the land, the weather is beautiful, wish you were here…

(above)  Another day done…

More later …

Paul

 

12– Recovery

Day 12– April 5, 2009

(above)  With the workshop  completed, I headed north up to Lee and Michelle’s house for my final day in the Perth area…Here is a somewhat typical Sunday afternoon…Both enjoying the fine day outdoors, Lee with a project, today a surfboard  and Chelle is just relaxing with book in the shade…

(above) Lee and I talked surfboards…During our conversations I said I like to look at board designs as a series of cross sections…  Lee then went into the garage and pulled out this…A well used favorite, cut into cross sections…During our conversations all this week it became really eerie how similar we both are…Starting with both of us exactly the same size, what we do for a living , our  favorite type of sandwiches and the fact we both married women who could easily be super-models…

(above) Backyard shaping suburban Western Australia style…

(above) The day was just off the scale pleasant…Low to mid 80’s with super low humidity…I just realized that I don’t think that I’ve broken a sweat the whole time I’ve been here…That nice…

(above) It was pleasant on all levels except one, the noise…

(above) Make that two levels, the local dust storm…

(above) While Lee got into a groove, I repacked for my flight the next day, I also went on-line and saw that my wife Pam was also on-line so we Skyped and got caught up on all the stuff that stays out of these…It made my day…After that, Michelle’s parents came by for a few hours to just visit…It was at their place near Margaret River that we went last weekend…I fully enjoyed all of our wide ranging conversations…Nice folks…

(above) After a very relaxing day, Lee ordered some pizza and I pulled out this bottle of local red that Rob from the class gave me as a thank-you…A nice cap to a needed day of rest…

More later …

Paul

 

13 & 14 – The Coffee Smells Good…

Day 13 & 14– April 6 & 7 2009

My flight from Perth to Melbourne was at 6:10am, so I was up before 3:00 and in the car heading to the airport shortly thereafter…The GPS guided me in fine…Drop off the rental car, head into the terminal, find a luggage cart, load on the board bag and the other piece of  luggage, find the self-check in kiosk…All done like a seasoned traveler…Grab a cup of coffee and wait for the baggage check-in crew to arrive at 4:00am…They arrive close to on-time and soon I’m in front of a local  woman with as thick an Australian accent as they come…I had to have her repeat virtually everything she said…Frustrating…She weighed my bags and informed me that the combined weight would result in a $120 overweight charge…WTF…!!!...I asked why and how and she told me that the fee two days ago was $20, but the policy has changed and now it’s $120…I got riled up, I did…I am trying to bring commons sense, fairness and reason to the discussion, but she was un-moved…She went on and on in her thick Australian accent about the fine print of their “Terms and Conditions” being subject to change, blah, blah, blah when suddenly, brilliantly, as if the hand of God was involved, my surfboard bag which was standing tall on the rolling cart somehow moved, shifted, something, and out of the 360 degree possibilities, fell forward toward the desk, where it made full contact like a bowling ball on the  head pin with my large un-drunken from coffee cup on top of the check in counter…The whole 16oz (or whatever they call the metric equivalent) went forward over the ledge, onto her side of the counter, soaking not only all the papers she had there,  but also drenching her computer keyboard, phone and some spilled onto her 4am clean uniform…Wow…That coffee smells good…!!!...Due to her hostile attitude I am moved not an inch to clean things up on her side, and since she was doing almost all of the talking I felt it was my turn to retort…So at that point I pointed out that , in essence, ”If this silly discussion over your unfair fee policies had not taken place, I would be sitting upstairs and enjoying that cup of coffee that is now part of your day…I could be waiting for my plane, but instead here I am watching you look for a paper towels to clean things up”…I felt just fine making that point right then, I did…

I was realizing the futility at that point of trying to get her to make any kind of executive decision, so as she was smearing the aromatic wet brown around with insufficient paper towels, I asked to talk to a Supervisor…I would call it a glare, that look she gave me…She got on that now damp brown phone and called a Supervisor...My feeling then was, I was gonna get some green squeezed from my credit card unless someone who could, had a real look at the overall fairness involved…Fairness should be a universal reality, right…???...So this big bloke  in standard issue company colors waddles, over glances at Mrs. Thick Accent trying to sop things up with paper towels as absorbent as newspaper and gives me bluntly  the company line about excess weight…Looking at him I could have really gone off the rails about excess weight, but I didn’t…At that point the look he had , with the red face, bulging neck and forehead said ‘No way am I bending any rule for you, Mr. American Tourister’ …But for purely entertainment value at that point, considering I am now paying for this show,  I asked him if the policy was written anywhere and if it was I want to see it…He looked around then pointed to a freshly stained piece of brown paper under the glass at the counter, and he walked closer to read it when I covered it with my hand and said “No…You don’t read it…You tell me what it says”…That shocked him more than a bit I think…Mr. Red N. Blue mumbled and stumbled and got more of it wrong than right, but at that point I knew if I kept on pushing what now was becoming fun, the chances of my bags ending up in Hong Kong were more likely than them being in Melbourne when I got off the plane…So I reluctantly conceded to his authority (Yeah, right) and gathered my stuff slowly and  walked away with a smirky smile that they didn’t see…They were now both heads down, muttering, wringing and wiping…

Within a minute I did the customary security check through, then took the escalator up to the waiting area…I got another coffee…Black, Shot in the Dark…Went to a seat and kicked back…First sip wasn’t black coffee…Cream…Yuck…Back to the coffee cart, where they made it right…One of those mornings…

Waited a half hour until the boarding call was made…Got out my passport where I keep the boarding pass…It wasn’t there…!!!...I talk to the gate lady and she says the overweight baggage has yet to be paid for…News to me…!!!...”Where and how do I pay for it?”...”Down the escalator to the window on the left”… I go OJ…Make it down to the first floor and to the counter fast, “excuse me” in front of two people, deal with another company extortionist, then head back to Security again, just as over the intercom comes “ Will Paul Jensen please come to Gate 3, your plane is waiting to take off”…I suddenly feel important, empowered…”Your plane”…A few more “excuse me’s” through Security and a brisk 50 yard walk and I’m strolling on the plane like Frank Sinatra walking onstage in Vegas…I did it my way…

The flight was uneventful …

In Melbourne, I rented a car, drove to the host here,  Neil Hemington’s home, went with him to get some wood and had a pleasant evening with Neil and Tanya and their two under 4year olds… Tanya cranked out a great home cooked meal, and Neil was presenting me with micro brew options that made me feel like I was back in the PNW…Life is good…

Today was routering and prep…I accidentally deleted the pictures of yesterday and today, but you’ve seen most of that action already…

I will get some non woodworking local pictures tomorrow…Then head out to Bell’s Beach (Bell’s Beach + Easter = Classic) or the other way on the coast Friday or Saturday and Sunday  before the weeklong course here…

More later …

Paul

15 -16 – Melbourne Prep – Days 1 & 2…

Days 15 & 16 – April 8 - 9 2009

(above)  This is what is home for the next week or two…The Hemington’s…

(above)  A slice of 1950’s Australia suburban pie…

(above) ‘Tan’ is short for Tanya…Neil calls her “Ten”…I call her Mrs. Hemington…

(above)  This all in one espresso machine is my friend early in the morning…So simple...Push one button…In the morning, I like simple…

(above) With that cup of espresso I am ready for my connection to the world…

(above) After taking care of the worldly contact, I am off to  Neil’s work studio…The plastic is wishfully put there to keep down the dust…One can only hope…

(above)  Mr. Chips N.  Shavings cutting frame parts with a router…

(above) More than a few frame parts…

(above)  After work it’s time to relax…get to know Neil a little better…What do you want to know about Neil…Punching bag, art, beer fridge = Renaissance man…

(above)  Renaissance man and Mr. Hairclub For Men…

(above) The next day, we went to check out the facilities where the workshop would be held…

(above) The outside of the workshop…I like the architecture…

(above)  The inside…I like the workspace…

(above) The main shop…I really like the setup…

(above) I really, really like the tablesaw…

(above)  Then there is the whole next level…A $250,000 CNC milling machine…My imagination just went haywire…

(above)  They have the basics here too…

(above)  The hand power tools are all Festool…The absolute best…As close to a dream facility as there is…If only I could get Neil’s espresso maker here…

(above) After the shop tour, we went to Ken’s house…Ken works with Neil…The house was built in the early 1900’s and has been a work in progress since…Inside is a mix of classic Australiana  with a South American  twist…Ken’s wife is from Chile…

(above)  The million dollar view…

(above) Ken just made a pot of coffee, so we chatted on the veranda, had a few biscuits and a cup…So very civilized…

(above) The house sits on ten acres, with lots of traditional fruit trees and many exceptional rare trees…This region has a lot of nurseries and Ken benefits from knowing the owners of a few of them…

(above)  We came here to cut the wood we will use for the deck and bottoms of the boards…Part of the shop space…

(above)  Neil moves some of the Paulwonia…Almost as light as Balsa but it works like Cedar…Marvelous stuff…

(above) Every shop should have an old reliable tablesaw…

(above) Ken feeds and I tail-off some Cedar that I suspect came from a tree back home…

(above)  Ken made this boat…

(above)  The guy has serious skills…

(above)  It’s Fall here, but there is still some fresh color…I can only imagine what it’s like in the Spring…

(above)  These gnarly things are something on a tree…

(above) By the front door, some tranquility…

(above)  In a year or so the plant thing on the right will grow over and make a green, living tunnel…

(above) Another Australian sunset…

(above) Moonrise over the valley…

(above) Neil and I worked in the shop while Ken fired up the barby…

(above) Mmmmmm…Chicken, beef and roo…

(above) Salad, fresh tomatoes and corn, salsa, kangaroo and a cold beer…Life is good…

More later …

Paul

16 – Melbourne Prep – Day 3…

Days 16 – April 10 2009

(above)  “G'day Mate…Hop in the hoopdy, we’ll rolly down the roady and get us some brecky down at the bakery…!!!!”

 

(above)  One of two bakeries within a few hundred meters of each other…Both run by Vietnamese immigrants…The French were in Vietnam before things went haywire way back when, and these families learned their baking skills from the French…AWESOME pastries…!!!...Can easily rival Europe…

(above)  Two down, two to go…

(above)  We are back at Ken’s shop to finish the wood prep…The fruits of their harvest….

(above)  The day was mixed up….Sun, clouds, rain, thunder and lightning…

(above)  The sawdust pile started small…

(above)  …and finished big…

(above)  A final clean up with Neil adding enough atmospheric dust to ensure great sunsets for a generation…

(above)  Nighttime in the Australian hills…

(above)  Another day done…

More later …

Paul

17 – Phillip Island – Part 1…

Days 17 – April 11 2009

(above) After grinding through several dust filled days , Neil and I headed out to get some surf…Neil insisted on recreating “Driving Miss Daisy” and here I am in the backseat being chauffeured to the beach…

(above) Ross, one of the guys who will be participating in the workshop has this beach house he build…He builds good things like and better than this…

(above) We walked the duckboards to check the surf…

(above)  Ross gives quick right to left surf break synopsis..Suffice it to say this area is loaded…

(above) Ross Bakkar, lifelong surfer, connoisseur of Bali boat waves, builder par excellence, and still married to his high school sweetheart…Cool guy…

(above) Out front, the wind was on it a bit…Yesterday was really wind and today the swell was supposed improve…

(above) We drove a few miles down the beach to this place…The warning sign is no joke…

(above) South Australia on the Southern Ocean…The swell was looking better here, the wind more favorable too…For size, look at the guys paddling out on the upper right…

(above) It didn’t take long to decide to suit up and paddle out…The channel made for a pretty easy paddle out, if you got exactly in the channel…Ten meters to either side and you got blasted…The waves had some real power…The swell was growing and more than a few sets caught everyone inside with a harsh deep water reality…The side shore current was at times mild, at times a liquid treadmill…I surfed for a few hours and have a further appreciation for Australian power…The 9’0” Bisect board I brought is turning out to be a great travel companion…

(above) After the surf we went back to the beach house and chilled and just hung out on the second story deck…

(above) The view towards the beach…The dunes are the nesting ground for a bird, the shearwater that fly in from Alaska and are here through spring and summer…They arrive by the millions and darken the sky…

(above)  Late in the afternoon we went back to the beach…

(above) …for a walk down to some rock caves….

(above) A very pleasant early fall afternoon…

(above)  Australia certainly has it’s moments…

(above) Down at the rock caves the tide was too high to go into them, but that did not diminish the “wow” factor of the late afternoon…

(above) Out in front of the caves, this wave was going off…The swell is looking pretty solid now…

(above)  Stress levels near zero…

(above)  The redness of the rock is amazing…

(above)  Board of Tourism sunset photo #578,658…

(above) Kirsten and Jordan, mom and son…

(above) Every picture tells a story…

(above)  So very, very peaceful..

(above)  One last look before heading back to the beach house…

(above)  Good night…

More later …

Paul

18 – Phillip Island – Part 2…

Days 18 – April 12 2009

(above)  Life connected…French Press is the beverage on this Easter morning…

(above) Ross’ son’s Danny Hess handgun…The kid totally is into it…Nice to see an appreciation of the more esoteric devices to slide…

(above) I see something like this in my future…

(above) The early walking surf check said nothing close enough was the call…Kirsten, Ross, Neil and me, Mr. Coffee hit the island road and checked out the dead ends…Nothing really piqued our interest…The wind came onshore steady overnight…

(above) This place looked interesting but has a rep of being the breakfast spot for the White Pointers…Maybe another day…

(above) We went to a beach that Ross and Kirsten hit to collect some round rocks…On the way there…

(above) Mr. & Mrs. Flintstone put nature in it’s place…

(above) ‘Still Life In Stone #1’

(above) Pyramid Rock and a ten minute creation…

(above) On the duckboards on the way back to the car park…

(above) Those more creative than I positioned the stones on the coppered logs…

(above) Wilma & Fred…

(above) Ross (AKA Fred) was to meet a childhood friend at the beach house, so Neil and I set out to find something worth riding…This beach was gorgeous, but lacking the object of our current desire…

(above) Another beach had this, which according to those who are witnesses, can get EPIC with the right ingredients in the mix…Today, not so much so…

(above) Another overlook and our focus intensifies

(above) Search over…Neil on his body board and me on my 4th Gear Flyer surf mat, joined (at the time) a stand-up paddle boarder, a surf ski, a long boarder, a short boarder, and a knee boarder…As diversified a line-up as it gets…Perhaps only in Australia…

(above) Eventually the perfect mix was oversaturated with hard objects…There still were plenty of waves to go around…

(above) This inside peak proved to fun…Neil and I surfed it for close to two hours, then hung around and talked to some friendly blokes in the car parks…Rumor has it that when the swell gets big this wave can go for a leg burning 400 meters…I believe it…These pictures are of just the tip of the point…The mind can wander…

(above) After our surf we went back to the beach house, did a quick shower, visited a bit the loaded Neil’s 4WD for the drive back…Our hosts Kirsten and Ross, we off the scale in their generosity…

(above) Neil and I should have been a bit more behaved, cause after we left this is what the beach house looked like…Sorry Roscoe…

More later…

Paul

19 – Melbourne Workshop – Day 1…

Days 19 – April 13 2009

(above) The Melbourne workshop started with the guys choosing the woods they would use for their boards…

(above) The generous space of the shop allowed the guys to layout their deck and bottom skins out and arrange, and rearrange, and rearrange, and rearrange until they got it as they wanted…Then the would rearrange it some more…

(above) “Maybe if I just move this one.”

(above) Finally the brain freezes up, and you live with what is in front of you…Then they taped the wood together and got ready to fiberglass….

(above) Two of Australia’s leading chemists discuss the effects of Corriolis Force in as still cup of water…”Look , it is rotating that way…!!!!...”

(above) Ready for action…

(above) Steve a seasoned board builder shows the professional squeegee technique…Everyone is speechless with the mastery…

(above) Ross lays it down and spreads it ‘round…

(above) Soon it’s a big ol’ squeegee party…Yeee Haaw…!!!....

(above) With the expectation for day one realized, the guys trace some templates for future boards…

(above) After the end of the workshop day, I went with Ross, and one of our stops was a custom home he is building overlooking the ocean…

(above)  The view from the place…

(above) Australian Tourism Bureau official sunset picture # 678,0876…So many to choose from…

-

(above) Good night…

More later…

Paul

20 & 21– Melbourne Workshop – Days 2&3…

Days 20 & 21 – April 14 & 15 2009

(above) After the Monday workshop I spent the night at Ross Bakkar’s place…Ross and Kirsten designed and built it themselves…Rammed earth walls, red gum floors, engineered wood ceiling (MDF)…Quality par excellence…

(above) The patio and pool…

(above) Master shower…

(above) Hand built (by Ross and Kirsten) wood fired pizza oven…

 

(above) Painting by Kirsten’s brother a designer for (at the time Quicksilver or Billabong …is there any difference)…

(above) A very relaxed way to live…This and the Beach House…

(above) Day two at the workshop…First priority pulling tape…

(above) Many layers of fingertips were removed in a few hours…

(above) Me, I’ve been there…

(above) Cecil De Hollwsurfboards manages his ensemble cast with a wink and a nod…The good guys all do it that way…

(above) Ross is way too attuned to wood, being a builder and all...Here he listens to the wood frame tell him what needs to happen to achieve perfection…

(above) Steve goes Zen with his creation…it’s a spiritual experience for some of these guys…

(above) Andrew Wells… Another master of the wood board (for real), fine tuning the bottom rocker…

(above) Gary and Scott lay hands on the magic that is wood…I think it was beginning to levitate as I shot this…

(above) John hears no evil and smells no evil…To him it’s all good…

(above) So good in fact he freaks out and goes mind surfing…

(above) It’s a fact that gravity in the southern hemisphere is not as good as it’s in the northern hemisphere, so here, It (Addams family reference)  applies the pressure needed to do what comes naturally back home…

(above) Epoxy added to some deck reinforcing…HWS Inside Secret # 657…

(above) Gary with the pink symbolic glove of mastery applies the absolutely perfect ratio of epoxy to glass…An inspiration to us all…

(above) Jared with the natural colored advanced amateur gloves strives to become an epoxy dojo…

(above) Ross has achieved the “I can do this with my eyes closed “status in the cutting fiberglass with battery powered scissors department…

(above) Guess who needs to play better with others…???...Hint: His name rhymes closely with Neil Hemmmmington…

(above) There was a minor drama when it was discovered that one of the skins was a foot shorter than the frame…I called an ‘everybody here” paw-wow and everyone spun out ideas how to get things right…Andrew offered his ‘right for the frame’ skin in exchange for the short one and turned a potential crisis into an opportunity for creativity…Wait till you see the finished board…

(above) End of the day, Melbourne HWS class and no one wants to go home…Except me…

(above) I only had one, honest…Gooooooooood night…

More later…

Paul

22 - 23– Melbourne Workshop – Days 4 &5…

Days 22&23 – April 16 &17, 2009

(above) The start of a day full of cork and flexible plywood…The day to put the rails on…

(above) Leigh, sprays aerosol contact cement on the frame rails in preparation to attach the first finished rail layer…Last night as we finished the class, Leigh passed out three CDs his band, The Renovators have produced…Great stuff, a solid funky groove with a Tom Waits kinda  flavor…Really cool stuff…

(above) Guess what I cut this afternoon…???...Fin wedges…

(above)Today was all about putting the rails on… At the end of the day about half of the boards were 99% ready to shape the rails, just needing to have the tail blocks added… Fine progress considering the relentless, accelerated schedule, with no major casualties, except for one…

(above) …me…8:30 PM…After a twelve hour day someone went looking for me and found me in a remote corner of the huge workshop complex…Here I am, whimpering, quivering and shaking like a chihuahua on an iceberg…Everyone has a breaking point and mine has been reached…Day over, time to wheel me out…

(above) Day 5…After an overnight rehab, I’m ready for the final day…First priority, fire the cleaning lady…

(above) Tailblocks for the fish boards are done something like this…

(above) Ross reached is mind shutdown point with this…He started his tailblock at just after the crack of dawn, laid it out 385 different ways, then finally settling on this unique look…Wars have been started and finished in less time that it took Ross to do this…Atta Boy, big fella…

(above) Steve breaks out his Skil 100 and really shows how it’s supposed to be done…Ross’ sons Jordy and Issy imagine the possibilities…

(above) Gary gets a better understanding of the rail line process…Long smooth bands…

(above) 60% done…

(above) Meanwhile on the inside, Bruce goes for it with his belt sander…

(above) Bruce has thousands of boards behind him and lays out some smooth tracks with the Makita…

(above) Bruce is stoked…

(above) Jordy has a fish frame ready to build and gets a feel into his future…

(above) Rupert lays down the tool to the wood and starts making the magic happen…

(above) A few more hours of fine tuning and it’s ready to glass…

 

(above) Jared built this 7’3” …The design is easily modified from a square tail to this a swallowtail…The tailblock was added later…

(above) Which one do you like…???...Me too…

(above) Steve’s 9’0”…

(above) I’d say he’s stoked…

(above) In the end, it’s not only about a surfboard, it has a lot to do with relationships, and a better understanding of yourself…Those who have been here understand…

More later…

Paul

24 – 25 -Bells

Days 24 – 25 – April 18 – 19, 2009

(above) Neil’s cat Rumba understands that the windows to your soul are your eyes…Feel connected…???...

(above) After the workshop and a great night’s rest Neil and I hit the road for the Bells Beach area…Here you are looking straight into Bird Rock…

(above) Straight out front the Sunday massacre session was happening….So many guys, so few waves…

(above) Matthew is a wood board builder we hooked up with and shared some design talk with and later some fun waves…

(above) Here Neil explains to Matt, this is not a clothing optional beach, to which Matt replies in song, “…I’ve got to be me, I’ve got to be me…”

(above) Trees die and we smile…

(above) This glimpse of Bird d Rock post session does not get close to revealing the fun this wave is…

(above) Nearing sunset South East Australia…

(above) Pretty typical of a beach town around here…

(above) Neil works with a guy who has a place here…

(above) Typical of this caravan park…

(above) Inside our palace…

(above) Most of these trailers have been here a while and have a room added on…

(above) Dirt to the rim suggests that the bearings might need grease…

 

(above) Across the track is this offering…Examine this pictures for the richness of life, caravan style…Could be yours…

(above) The next day we went straight to the world famous Bells Beach…

(above) Bells wasn’t exactly ringing…

(above) As you can see, the Rip Curl Pro 2009 Bells Beach Classic sponsored by Snickers had just finished a day or two earlier…

(above) The wind was howling onshore doing this…

(above) In the old days we just looked for the water…

(above) Pro surf contests now employ aid to a surfer after riding a wave…Paddling abilities are not really a factor in pro surfing contests these days…

(above) Today was not exactly the stuff surf dreams are made of …

(above) A few desperate to get wets were on it…

(above)  Surfing without sponsors is so last century…

(above) Surfing, all you need is a board and a photo ID VIP pass or do the long walk around…Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy about Rip Curl and Snickers…

(above) After the judges decide who danced better, the winner stands here…

(above) Or more precisely, here or there…

(above) And the announcer thanks those worthy of mention…I’m guessing money gets you on the list…

(above) Yeah right…

(above) Truth be told…

(above) Heroes and Villains…

(above) Surfing, the healthy lifestyle choice…

(above) Down from Bells is Winkipop, a world class wave anywhere, but not today…

(above) It wasn’t this good…Unmakeable sections every ten yards, but on the right conditions it reels fast and clean…

(above) Iconic rock…

(above) Bye bye Bells…

More later…

Paul

26 - Torquay

Day 26 –April 19, 2009

(above) With the wind causing the surf to crumble like a month old cake, we headed into the epicenter of Australia corporate surf, Torquay…Above is Rip Curl World Headquarters…

(above) Rip Curl – Quiksilver – Billabong are all HQ’d here…From belts and watches, to wax and boards, anything with a surf logo is for sale, sale, sale here…

(above) 97 flavors of the same flavor of vanilla…Creative variety, eh…???...

(above) On a side street is this place…

(above) Worth the price of admission…

(above) A great representation of what is the essence of the salt water pleasure is on display here…

(above) If these boards could record fear, the stories they could tell…

(above) Some of you understand the significance associated with the names displayed here…These guys are the pivot points in surfboard design…

(above) From one era to the next, the transition of design was moved forward by really only a handful of designers and shapers in each era…

(above) A hollow plywood board from the 50’s or 60’s…Pretty cool considering the available products…

(above) Hollow board deck detail…

(above) From mild to WWWWWild, this place has ‘em…

(above) A riveting aluminum board…

(above) If the Tin Man surfed…

(above) After the two hour museum stroll, we went down another side street and met up with this bloke who designed and built this hollow…

(above) Great wood and the paint pin lines add some visual pop…

(above) In the oven was his boss’ board…The room was like 160 degrees, maybe more…The idea of baking the wood freaked me out as wrong and asking for a de-lam...I was bothered by it and left after less than a minute shaking my head…Wrong…

(above) I was shown by a few guys these computer generated custom hollow board plans…I was blown away at their precision and was somewhat stunned to see my designs  (not this one) adapted and replicated so easily on a computer…I need to get up to speed on it, I do…

(above) After all that Torquay stuff, Neil and I drove to Lorne for a lunch of meat pies and sausage rolls…Mmmmmmm…

(above) a drive to the ferry dock and we were on our way across a bay on to see Steve Friedman…

(above) Sunset from the ferry…

(above) Said it before, “wish you were here”…

More later…

Paul

27 – Mornington Peninsula

Day 27 –April 20, 2009

(above)  After a solid night sleep at Steve and Jill’s, Me, Steve and Neil follow our shadows to the beach on another classic fall morning in SE OZ…

(above)  With the early shadows still long, we get our first look at Steve’s liquid domain…Steve said it is really too small to surf at this size and he knows better than anyone what works here…Twenty plus years of local knowledge…Looks promising…

(above)  Steve animates what the perfect angle is for it to really fire…

 

(above) Pretty clean lines roll into Head Damage…The name describes the bottom… Head Damage is a long, long way from help…

(above) Reefs and Coves each with their own special nuance, and Steve knows what each place is doing by simply smelling the air…

(above) The observation deck has been here a few seasons…

(above)  Steve moved from SoCal to Maui to here and has no plans to leave…I can see why… This is only three or four feet and it’s a set…This place holds serious size since it tapers to a channel…

 

(above)  These set-ups have no easy way in and double the difficulty getting out…No beach, just limestone slab…Steve says maybe later with a pushing tide, but now is not the call…

(above) We go back to Freidman Flyer world headquarters…The mail box post is about 956 board’s worth of resin drips…Solid poly…

 

(above)  Steve has shirts for me and Neil…Neil swears he needs a large…

(above) Like 100% of the shapers in the world, Steve has a few boards lying around…Check out the knife tail balsa on top…

(above)  The fin blank for Steve’s HWS…

(above) Neil gets schooled by Mr. Old School about fin placement…

 

(above) On the door to the shaping bay…

(above) Just a fraction of the balsa that Steve holds…

(above) A possible future mailbox post…Only 885 more color jobs to go…

(above)  One week ago this did not exist…

(above)  Nor this…

(above)  Amazing what one can do in a week…

(above) Steve holds the Guinness record for having the most graduated mixing cups in Australia…

(above)  Dylan said it, “…the words of the prophet are written on the shaping room walls”…

(above) Workhorse…

(above)  Ray Pino was a close friend of Steve’s…Velzy an influence… 

 

(above)  Time to seal coat the wood…

(above)  I think this might get water time before next week…

(above) It’s all about the details…

(above)  After the seal coat was on we went for lunch then checked out another beautiful beach…

We cruised for a while seeing the historic village then made it back to Steve’s and packed up and hit the road to see Ross and give a critique of his shape…

(above) For a guy who never built a board his turned out like guy who has made hundreds…Neil and I needed to head back to his place since I needed to pack for my flight back to the States the next day…

This past month has been a buzz and a blast…Exceeded my expectations on virtually all levels…I can’t wait to come back, and I will…

Deep heartfelt thanks to all who made this journey so memorable…

Until  later,

Paul

BTW’ I’m off to France and the U.K. later next week and will keep you on the “List” unless you want out…Let me know either way…