Crescent Head July 2000

To say expectations were not high about getting some terrific surf up the East Coast would have been a gross underestimation, as recent reports regarding conditions up there over the previous weeks were nothing short of excellent. So with high spirits we left Adelaide at 4:30AM on Monday morning with a magnificent full moon over our right shoulders. Around 6:00AM the first glow of what promised to be a delightful sunrise confronted us on the horizon, which eventually turned into a glorious day. Our first stop was at Pinnaroo and the local wildlife sanctuary where we renewed some old acquaintances with some of the indigenous species. Shortly after that the girl took over the driving while I had a snooze for a couple hours, until we reached our next stop where we crossed the mighty Murray River, which has a name that always tickles our fancy and that is Tooleybuc.

Generally I find the first day of the trip long and boring but we seemed to be doing good mileage and those 1200 kilometres seemed to pass fairly quickly. We arrived at Forbes and the River Meadows Caravan Park where we usually stay at the around 4:00PM. That night for a meal we went to the local RSL club where they were having a "Steak Night". You should’ve seen the lineup; the locals were certainly out in force and lined up down to the street, and they all seemed to look like cast members for a "Deliverance" type movie.

Emus at Pinaroo

Monitor

Roos at Pinnaroo

River Red Gums

We left Forbes Tuesday morning before dawn and made our way on the last leg via Dubbo, Coonabarrabran and Walcha to Kempsey, where we arrived at lunchtime. We spent 5 minutes unpacking the car then a quick dash down to Crescents to check out the surf. The wind was blowing a strong cross offshore and as we turned into the small road alongside of the Caravan Park the girl piped up with, ‘I’ve never seen it as big as this before’.

Even as buggered as I was from the trip it wasn’t long before I had the board off the car and into my wetsuit and walking down to the point. I stopped about three quarters of the way out there and decided to launch where I’d seen a couple of others do likewise, which was about 75 metres short of the point. There was a handful of guys riding the big ones that were coming off the point but their rides resembled more like a big blast out of a cannon and that didn’t make it look too appealing. While a further 75 metres inside there were about a half a dozen or so getting some reasonable rides, which was more to my liking.

As I took off I noticed the sand had built up quite a bit from our previous trip and there was an extremely strong drift pulling me back in and down towards the rocks. Once past this obstacle I found there was another strong drift down towards the north and all the time I was out there I was continually paddling back to get somewhere near where it was possible to catch a wave. I kept on thinking to myself, ‘this is not breaking right and it’s too big’. These thoughts were to be echoed by some of then local guys I met later on, who also said ‘you should’ve been here last week, when the swell was coming from the right direction’.

I found out later from a guy I met called Stewart that a friend of his had broken his leash and lost his board. He’d gotten caught in this drift and was dragged a fair way north, then got caught in a rip, which took him further out. Eventually after quite a while he struggled to make it back in fairly exhausted from his plight but he never managed to recover his board, even though he walked down the beach the next morning at first light looking for it. I caught a couple of waves but gave it away after about an hour and came in with the hope that the conditions might change for the better, later. For the rest of the day we just hung around, later I took the camera and walked over to Crescent Head Bay where it was really booming in.

Crescents wind blown

Launching

Blastoff from the point

The next morning we were up and down there before the sun had risen, in the early morning light I could see the swell had dropped but only a fraction with the offshore breeze now almost from the perfect direction. I spoke to some of the local guys who were hanging around waiting for the sun to come up to see if it was going to be worth anything. While out on the point and standing on one of the rocky fingers we could make out the silhouette of single surfer against a framed wall that was coming around the point.

The sun was well up when I finally walked out to the point with my board and decided to go out just in front of the rocky fingered outcrop. Just as I was about to descend down to the rocky beach this bloke, Stewart and his brother were standing there, pondering on where to go out. Stewart had told me earlier that he’d only been surfing for about a year, so I guessed they were a little intimidated by the size of the surf. He asked me, is it ok where you’re going out?’ and I said, ‘just follow me and do what I do’.

We entered the water and waded out to about waist high, then waited for about 5 minutes while a few big sets came through. I think he was getting a little bit nervous, as the tide was coming in and every wave that hit us seemed to be pushing us back onto the rocks. All of a sudden I took of during a brief lull and on seeing the ease of how quickly I got out there he followed. I’d have to be honest and say that I didn’t enjoy this session any more than the previous day, as it still wasn’t breaking properly. I got a couple of rides but decided to save most of my energy for when it was working better.

The Fingers

Charging

Too big

Line up

Made it

On Thursday when we arrived the swell had dropped dramatically and I for one was deeply disappointed, as what was left still seemed to be coming from the wrong direction. The girl decided to go out, as it was such a pleasant day and just perfect conditions for her to add to her learning curve. After a short while I joined and surprisingly enough enjoyed a nice little session, despite all her efforts to drop in on me. I went out directly off the point this time and while I was out the back, waiting for a wave with half a dozen others I thought I could hear bagpipes playing "Amazing Grace". I looked up and on top of the Nobby there was this guy with his pipes playing away to his hearts content, as if trying to get the surf back up. After that I continually had the dirty ditty version of it going through my head, ‘Amazing Grace come sit on my face’. Anyway they tell me that he was playing the morning before, not that I had noticed or cared but he has to take the blame for the bloody swell dropping. I confronted him coming back down the hill on one of my sojourns to the point and asked him if he wouldn’t mind trying a piano next time, as he might have more success conjuring up the surf.

Getting out

Take off

Crescent Bay

Crescent sunset

Friday saw the size no bigger but we hung around for a while, as we were expecting to meet up with a fellow newsgroup surfer from Newcastle by the name of Madrat. Finally the girl decided to go out at Crescents with only 2 other guys out in the water, I heard she paddled up to one and said, 'Are you Madrat?' and he looked at her and said ‘That’s a new one!’ I presume he’d been called names before, but he said no, his name wasn’t Madrat. Out of frustration, I decided it was a good idea to go for wave, while the girl thought it was also a good idea to drop in on me on every possible occasion until she finally hit me with her board. When we were convinced that Madrat wasn’t going to show we decided to check out Big Hill plus a couple of other spots nearby that might be working. Although Big Hill was working there was about a dozen blokes sitting out there, which oddly enough reminded me of ducks in a shooting gallery and I had no great wish to join such a mob. Instead we drove further few kilometres down south along the recently graded dirt track to another favourite break. Although the wind conditions and swell size were perfect for this break, the sand had shifted dramatically, so much so, that it’s the first time I’ve ever seen a wave breaking parallel to the shore like that.