Frosty Morning’s and Mat Riding

We had a killer frost yesterday morning, the biggest for this winter , so when Eric showed up nice and early for a surf and I stepped outside to warm up my trusty Toyota ute, I was really surprised to see how frozen everything was……water had frozen solid on the tarp of my ute, the hose had frozen shut and clothes that got left on the clothes line because of the previous afternoons rain, had that nice frozen press about them…..and we were going surfing?









My backyard had that nice winter wonderland look about it




Ice’y




So after travelling down to Wairo and seeing that was actually some swell again with light offshores, we decided to paddle out for a quick one before heading further south to Gorilla country.

da Bolt

Call me a big sookie-la-la but the water was absolutely freezing and matching the air temp, so with the combination of the cold and the waves lacking good banks, I was out of the water after a couple of waves and enjoyed sitting on the beach warming up in the mornings sun, before Eric finally came in and we packed up and we hit the road again!

Coffee at the Tuckerbox



By the time we finally arrived down at the wall, the southerly was blowing a gale and it was still freaking cold to compound the matter, so when we walked out onto the break wall for a surf check and saw only a couple of long boarders out there, Eric was frothing at the mouth to get out there, while mind came to grips of putting on a very wet and cold steamer….









I said to him …’you go out and I will take some happy snaps, might see you out there if it gets better’…..famous last words!



I lasted about 3 waves, he pulled into the barrel on his first wave and came out, so I stuck it out for another couple before saying ‘ bugger this’ and ran back to the ute to get change and get my surf mat!
da Bolt testing out his new ‘duck feet’ flippers






























So I jumped out with my mat and it wasn’t that cold after all, a couple of the long boarders came in and the 2 guys that followed me out were more amazed that Eric and I were riding surf mats, so a super friendly crew to share waves with, what more could you ask for? I have surfed here many a time on a standard kneeboard, so it was a treat to ride it on something different, and much to my surprise, I finally was able to ‘tap’ into the ‘inner-surf mat’ speed on one particular wave…’use the force Luke’  came to mind, but seriously for a couple of seconds my mat took its own speed path with no help from me…stoked and now I know what the potential is.

Moruya Township



After getting changed and warm again, we headed into town for some food and coffee, and with that going down quite well, I went for a walk up and down the main street to check out the ‘wood statues ‘ that have been carved out the remaining tree stumps…so pleased to see that no one has vandalised or ‘tagged’ this beautiful artwork, which has been a great feature of this country town for many years…..great way to finish the day before driving home!