Margarets 50 Year Storm

The scene was set for a week mahem...surfing, windsurfing and whatever in between! I headed over to Western Australia after boxing day to meet up with my mate John Brown who recently moved over there in the search for better weather and pristine desolate perfect barrelling waves.....well it may of been because his girlfriend had moved over and was busting his balls to come over as well!

The gear i lugged onto the plane.

Lugging the usual quiver of surfboards and windsurfers on the plane, Virgin you are the best by never charging me a cent for excess luggage, John picked me up from the airport sporting his new, well 1984 ford van he picked up for a lazy $1,800 clams! We headed straight down to Margrets where he had booked us into the caravan park at boganville...sorry Dunsborough. However, the weather was very unseasonal with cloud cover and rain....Was something brewing.

After the 4 hour drive, we rocked up to the beach to be fronted by a growing swell and onshore messy conditions. Due to the considerable swell size, we hunted around for a protected bay and found this peaky little beach break with a million shark biscuits on it and too many grommets who rip.

Crowds...You could swear they were sitting in a lake

After the surf, the rain persisted and increased. Eager to find out what the hell was happening to the weather, we checked out the forecast to discovered that a massive storm was brewing..http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200701/s1820750.htm

Labelled as one in a generation storm.

This meant one thing for the Western Australian Coast Line....BIG SWELL AND A HONKING SOUTHERLY WIND PERFECT FOR WINDSURFING AT MARGRETS!

Well the next morning definetly didn't dissapoint. Rocking up to Prevally Main Beach (AKA Margaret River) i was encountered with 8 to 10 foot surf and 30 knot cross shore winds. Rigging up in the carpark were the 2005 wavesailing world champion, Scott McKercher, Peter Voltwater and 2nd in the womens world wavesailing, Karin Jaggi. Knowing that going out in these quite extreme conditions for me (well not for the locals as its like this a bit but i haven't had a wavesail in over a year), i knew i would be kicking myself if i at least didn't give a shot, or get wet and say i went sailing...who would ever know!

Rocking up to Margarets to this....They still look big from 600m away.

Fate...Destiny...Stupidity...FUN! For the windsurfing lads, i had a 4.2m rigged flat.


Warm up wave!

Sailing out and jibing around on what seemed like a moving mountain of water, my balls crawled up to my throat as i dropped in to the biggest wave i have ever surfed. Luckily enough, i managed to survive by being a bit of wuss and hugging the shoulder. As my confidence grew, i started having a awesome time by taking off deeper and deeper. As always when one confidence grows a little to quickly, mother nature soon puts an end to that by being wipped out by mast high white water which John later told me held me under for a good 8 seconds. I had 2 sessions that day and no one could wipe the smile of my face for the whole night...well to 9pm when i went to bed because i was so knackered.

Gramps..AKA Scotty! World 2005 Wavesailing Champion and local to Margret River (believe it or not, this man is only in his mid 30's and truely looks like he has spent a good portion of life in the sun)

Peter Voltwater. Professional Windsurfer
Nice off the lip.

Big Forward

John cuddling up to a beer.

The next morning saw very similar conditions with the swell still around 10 foot and the wind slightly more off shore and lighter at around 25 knots. Things were alright until i mis-timed a top turn and ate it. Unfortunately my foot got stuck in the foot strap with the board going one way, and i going the other way! The consequence was....

Big wave...

then.....

HOSPITAL



I suffered severe bruising to my foot (it felt like i had a car run over it) and was on crouches for the remainder of the trip:(

For the next 3 days, i was succombed to brides maid and just watched John attempting to surf while picking up a bit of a tan as the 50 year storm had passed and weather had resumed back to normal WA bliss of not a cloud in the sky.

John Surfing

Even thou the trip ended earlier than expected, it was still well worth it because is vicco, conditions like those don't come around to often and if they do, i am most probably at work. The next plan is to move to WA and find a rich girlfriend who has a holiday place down Margrets way...Thats not asking to much!

Cheero