Up North for New Year
4-Jan-2011
First of all I wish everyone a very happy New Year and hope you all had a great Christmas!
We were still in Esperance when it started to look pretty promising for up north. We made the most of our last day in Esperance with a fun surf in the morning followed by a bit of windsurfing - just playing around in light winds and small waves. We decided to hit the road that evening so that we would make it to Geraldton in time. There's over 1100km between them, so after a short stopover in Perth we drove straight up north, stopped for a sail in Green Head on the way, and ended up in Geraldton in the evening.
We sailed heaps again, in Coro's mostly, which is always awesome fun when there's a bit of swell around. I was on 4.2 and 3.7 every day all day long.
As a welcome into the new year the swell picked up and we woke up on the first of January hearing the sets breaking at Sunset. With Sunset only working with a big swell we knew it was on!
I surfed for hours that morning, so happy. The sea breeze kicked in late morning. I rigged up my 4.2 and used all I had left in me to catch as many more waves as possible. Some of the sets were lining up really well.
I was having so much fun I just couldn't come in. But when tacking is turning into a difficult move I know I'm close to exhaustion... I was on a pretty big one when I flamed a top turn. I thought I'd saved it but no, I got smashed by the lip which threw me right on top of my gear. Pretty painful. So I decided it had to be my last wave that day before I'd hurt myself more.
By then we had windsurfed and surfed for hours and hours every day for 2 weeks straight, making the most out of each day. It's just the best feeling.
The drive back was pretty quiet. Sitting in the van, smiling and processing a pile of amazing times. Stoked.
