Extreme Mat Sliding

Pic above by Eric Bridges


Yep , that's me about to get smacked in the head and lightly rolled across the reef…and the view from my helmet cam as I was taking off on a fun one!




‘Lefties’

We have often looked at this wave break and wondered if it was possible to ride it on a mat, nice and sucky, more the domain of the boogie riders and quick footed stand ups, so when the swell and wind came together the other day , it provided the chance to see what we could do on a surf mat. I had to work first up in the morning, and after a call from da Bolt saying that he was heading on down, I was keen to finish and make the most of the high tide before it drained to low. As I pulled into the carpark , I was surprised by the amount of cars, but spotted da Bolts car and was soon walking up the path towards the reef when I saw and heard  a few of the local crew yell out ‘go the mat man’ , amongst the hoots and hollers! Yep , Eric was out there pulling into some great pits, much to the delight of the younger crew, so it didn’t take long for me to ‘run 'back to my van , grab my gear and hit the water quick smart before the tide made it a really difficult wave to ride!








So with a super low inflation on the mat, and with a lot of egging on from da Bolt, I was soon on the take off zone with just one lidder and a couple of stand up lad’s. My first wave was a nice soft one, and gave me a chance to feel out the drop, so the next one was way deep and got barrelled off my head , but mowed down as quickly as I pulled in…at least I didnt get rag dolled across the reef, so that spurred me on to see how far I could push my little MT5 mat , and was surprised how well I could get a rail to bite and hold its line down the sucky faces.


Eric below about to ‘share a wave ‘











‘’You can go this one’’


A pecking order was soon in place, with the lidder taking the main bombs ( closeout 6ft plus barrels) leaving just me a one other foot boarder to share the medium plus waves, so was surprised when a nice sucky one stood up and the look on the stand up was priceless….ýou can take this one’…and so the pecking order was set, much to the amusement of myself considering that I am a 51 year old mat sliding grommet and been given waves by a young 18 year old rooster…have to remind him next time its     3 feet and he wants to paddle on the inside of me…classic!





Nice Drainer





We had a ball, but the tide was soon too low and causing the waves to really shutdown across the reef, so it was back to the local shop for a feed and a short rest before heading off on our next adventure.


Video below via my Helmet Cam

Something Softer


Surf Number Two…..After a quick drive down a few bush tracks, we were soon down at one of our old favourite haunts, and with nobody out it was a nice relaxing surf after the earlier womp-a-thon.





A truly Tropical Place, where thongs grown on the tree’s!

Next Weekend….be there or be SQUARE