The Mex (OFSC No. 4) spent the evening of the eve of the 2nd Annual Invasion Day Tour of the West Coast packing and double checking that all things surf were in the back of his trusty Subaru. "I didn't want to get there and find I'd left my wet suit behind or something stupid like that" said the Mex. Creature comforts were considered secondary but he did manage to pack an air mattress to protect his aged bones from the cold hard ground under the tent floor. he was packing the night before as its a five hour drive to the west coast and the boys wanted to get away early to enjoy an afternoon's surf in the predicted 2m swell and offshore easterlies.
(Evening Stroll, Day 1)
Mex arrived outside The Dude's (OFSC No. 12) palace at 7:30 am to find the surfing stalwart almost comatose in a chair in the driveway. "What's up?" asked Mex concerned for his fellow surfing tourist. "Moo Flu" groaned The Dude. Mex loaded the suffering Dude into the trusty Subaru and they began the 2nd Invasion Day Tour. As the journey progressed the Dude slowly came round and it turns out that he has a secret life as one of society's most sought after avante garde authorities on fine art and was invited to the VIP opening of MONA, the art worlds newest and greatest private art gallery. The gallery owner, a private billionaire, had sought the Dude's personal advice on his collection. "This was to affirm his personal art choices to boost his expensive ego in preparation for potentially soul crushing bitchy reviews from art critics who think there isn't enough pink in today's art collections" said the Dude. It turns out that the Dude was pretty impressed with the gallery saying "it wasn't just the free Verve and Moo Brew that I was impressed with, I told him he got the mix right as there were lots of rude bits, macabre images and inexplicable sculptures thrown in to bamboozle the public and con the critics." "My favourite was the little dudes hanging out in the building services as living art, and, don't forget the poo machine, which I was told by the owner, managed to drop one every hour" he said. The Dude's conclusion, "definitely better than the Guggenheim in Bilbao".
(Dawn Day 2)
The boys arrived at the coast early afternoon on Day 1 only to find that the wind had inexplicably turned onshore. They surfed a small fat alternative alternative that was protected from the wind, the Mex even managed to make a complete nit of himself on Sammy the SUP while the Dude dosed his Moo Flu with a bit of salt water. That evening a counter meal of fresh flake at the local pub washed down by a couple of beers and the boys couldn't wait for it to get dark so they could get to sleep early and get up fresh for a surf the next day. The Mex thought he had packed a single air mattress, however, when he pumped it up it turned out to be a double which covered the whole tent. Not wanting to appear too cosy, the boys top an tailed their sleeping bags, however, as they tried to settle for the night they discovered just how unstable an air mattress can be with two people on it. A small movement by one person causes the mattress to bounce anyone else on it. So the boys tried to sleep and not move. The Dude did find one advantage of the mattress though, "whenever the Mex started snoring I just bounced the mattress till he stopped" he said. "It was very effective".
(Duck diving a big fat one)
Dawn on Day 2 and the boys were into a 2m west swell and off shore breeze. A couple of two hour sessions each and they were knackered. "The waves were big enough to give you a nice drop and a bit of speed but fat enough to make it easy for the oldfartsurfers to paddle in to" said the Mex. "Just perfect" said the Dude over a post surf cuppa tea.
(Fans arrive by sea and by land)
The third day was forecast to be onshore and raining so the oldfartsurfers packed up and drove home for a comfy mattress and the good women. "Another successful tour for the oldfartsurfers" said the Mex. "I could get used to this". "More research" said the Dude.
(The lefts were the best)
(West Coast Nessy the kelp monster, soon to be seen rotting art at MONA)
(Two lefts)
(Oldfartsurfers prefer big fat peaks)
(Team wave, sharing and caring)
(The Dude recovering from Moo Flu and a couple of big sessions)
1 comment:
Mex/Dude - another great story, great photos. Travelling to the West coast seems to be a popular pasttime with you guys "...in search of the BIG drop" eh.
Dude - next time you'd better be in charge of packing the camping gear. Alternatively may I suggest a sharp knife accidently finds its way into the lilo. From memory the last time I camped with Mex was at Cloudy. I was in charge of accomodation (3 teenagers in a 2 man tent) - Mex was in charge of provisions and nearly starved us! But that is another story perhaps you can convince Mex to dig out of his endless archives.
cheers R
Post a Comment