Big Mac

Super Size me Please!

A few pics of  Mark McCloud or ‘macca’ as he likes to be called, from last Sundays surf bonanza….we finally got a nice increase in swell, which seem to catch everybody off guard early , so not alot of people around and we scored our favourite kneelo cove with nobody out…well at first light that is



I had to cut my mat surf short as only having one flipper, the other one broke at the strap while putting it on, and when Macca jumped off the rocks, I went in to plug a few photo’s

Oh My God













































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Oh My God or MyGod….why do I call him this? Many years ago I was organising a kneeboard pro-am here in Wollongong and all entries were sent to me  and as my wife and I went sorting thru them and writing down all the paid entries for the draw to be done, we came across Mark’s entry form with his name scribbled in ink….Mark Mygod which when translated back to english should have been Mark McCloud!….so much for my poor eyesite

Summer Blues

The face on Eric said it all…….I’m over the small wave blue’s


Apart from battling the bushfire’s down here on the south coast, we have had to contend with with the ever increasing holiday crowds as well, with all the caravan parks loaded to the max, so any futile attempt at getting up early and beating the crowds, and you will have the regular locals plus the tourist's all having the same bright idea as us.







Men in tight lycra wandering the roads can also be a hazard, but as you can see in the picture below Paul has a sure fire way of letting them know our pain and suffering…honk, honk!




The beach combing has been a saving grace as have taking my dog ‘bella’ for beach run’s and swim’s




Starfish and Sea Dragons




Life’s a Beach

Plenty of beach fishing to be had




A few words from da Bolt aka Mat Man

Verse 2013

Ours is essentially a tragic age. The cataclysm has happened and we are amongst the ruins. We start to build up new habits and hopes. It is rather hard work, but we persevere. There is now no smooth road into the future. But we continue to scramble over the obstacles. We have got to live on, no matter how many of our dreams have fallen. Luckily we always have the ocean to blank out our cares. Maybe only for a short while, but without our it life would be drearier. Waking up each day knowing that this may be the day that all your dreams come true.

  Da bolt

 

Hallelujah…..





 

What goes up

   

Must come down
 
       

Fellow SCUMM member Paul oily Newman

 

  ‘I’ll huff and Puff till I pass out on the sand”  

Luckily he didn’t and he kindly made this video below of our mornings adventure


























Scumm skunked ! from Bulkheads Stuff on Vimeo.

Clueless

Surfer Tom Backer  Pic by Wayne Kopit


How clueless can a person be?

Well I was fairly clueless to how hard the RFS  (NSW Rural Fire Service) and their team of volunteers work , let alone being right next to major bushfire and seeing it unfold firsthand  in front of my own eye’s




The Monday night was a scare in its self as we (and everybody who else who lives in the Shoalhaven area) received automated phone calls from the RFS stating that Tuesday was going to have ‘catastrophic’ conditions with temps close to 40 degrees Celsius and howling NWN winds, and be prepared to evacuate when told too….wow…and received 2 text messages via my phone as well, well this was going to be serious! Was up early Tuesday morning and walked outside, no sign of fire or smell of smoke but it was already cooking outside and it was only 7am ! Had to meet a client in Nowra early so drove in thinking not much about it till I received a call from a mate asking if I was ready to evacuate and he was already packed and heading down to the water! Driving back down the Hwy towards home and everything was the norm on the road with no sign of smoke or RFS volunteers till about 12pm when the wind really started to blow and the next thing I could see was plumes of black smoke pouring from over the foothills behind where we lived and the buzz of helicopters who were just starting to water bomb the fire. Now it was starting to sink in about how serious this fire was and with the screaming WNW wind and heat , it was going to move real fast and it would no matter how many fire tankers they threw at it, there was no stopping it till it burnt its was thru to the ocean, taking Sussex Inlet and surrounds out with it in its path. Lucky for us the wind kept it on a path away and it wasn’t till 9pm Tuesday night that the cooler southerly finally hit us as predicted , much to the relief of the 13 plus RFS tankers and its teams of volunteer fire fighters who were on the ground trying to stop it crossing the hwy at Jerrawangala….a fairly sleepless night in our house as well! The next morning the RFS threw everything at it, 20 something plus tankers and crews, plus a stream of fix wing and chopper water bombers that never seem to stop flying over our house, absolutely incredible and all I can say is a big THANK YOU to these guys, I never realised how much work and time  these blokes throw in and they are all volunteers leaving there own houses and jobs to fight these fires…it wasn’t till sunday morning that I had a chance to shake some hands of these fellas!
It’s now been over a week since this fire has started and the RFS has finally got a grip on it after it has burnt thru over 8500 acres of bush, with no property loss and now all we need is a few days of rain to really nail it…thanks again RFS!




Tuesday Afternoon













Wednesday morning





Friday





Sunday





Jerrawangala




Even my Drop Bears need some water to cool down






Clueless? say cheese Paul!