Aquaholics Surfing Blog

Australia; land of Crocodiles and Sharks...

Posted on 03/17/2009 at 04:22 am by Nanci Boutet Viewed 3,645 times | 9 comments

Well, the plane ride was way better than expected. We had an exit row, and leg room galore. We flew Quantas and the flight crew was great. Not to say we weren’t tired. 27 hours from start to finish.

Sydney, a view from the plane.

Our hotel is right at the beach and there’s a great little mall with everything you’d need at great prices right around the corner. Our views are amazing.  We’re at the Rydges Cronulla and they charge for everything. Water $4. Mini Bar bottle opener, $4, Beer $6, Chips $4. Movies, internet $.75 per minute!

View from our room looking North.

 

View from our room looking East.

 

View from our room looking South.

 It’s fall here. The weather is absolutely beautiful. A little cool for surfing, but absolutely perfect for sleeping.

We got here Saturday and took it easy most of the day. Sunday we went to Triple Bull Surf Shop in Cronulla and picked up some free demo boards from a Global Surf Company connection, Matt Harbour. Ed Gerbino (the Surfrider party Stand Up Paddle board guy) hooked us up!

The surf has been very small and the water is borderline 3/2 wetsuit temp. I surfed Cronulla yesterday, and it was small but fun. Everybody surfs regardless of the conditions. There are at least a dozen people out for dawn patrol, even with the surf at 2 feet. This is a very ocean focused community.

Picking up the "Cronulla High School Surf Lessons" flags. It's part of P/E here!

Seems like all recreation centers on the ocean.

We met up with Lara Raymond (a woman we met at Surfpenascal in Peru) and two of her friends yesterday. We went out to a pub across the street for lunch and a few beers. Lara is off to Western Australia for the Australian Surf Boat Championships and another of our new Aussie our friends Diane is off to Papua New Guinea for a surf trip. Their friend Bex Tuck took me out to Mourubra (home of the Bra Boys) for a little surf this morning. It was about 2-3 feet, offshore and fun. I didn’t bring a wetsuit (to Moroubra) and it was nice not to have to wear one, but I certainly was chilled. The water was warm, but the wind was cold. The wave there looks like it would be really fun. It walls up and bounces around on some sand bars (kind of like Makaha shorebreak). Even small, it was still busy in the water. While walking down to the shore, I looked down at what looked like a leaf, upon closer inspection it looked like a big seahorse. Bex identified it as a Sea Dragon. It is SO cool. It has “appendages” that apparently grow little seaweed looking reeds that sway and provide camouflage.

Bex Tuck at Moroubra.

My cool Sea Dragon beach find...

Just to show scale.

The beach here in Cronulla has two “baths”.  The baths are concrete pools at the oceans edge, which fill with tidal water (but NOT sharks!) People swim laps and workout in them. One is about 50 meters by 20 meters and the “kiddie pool” is about 25 meters by 30 meters. I swam laps today and it was great.

 

The bigger of the two baths.

 Tomorrow I’m meeting up with Cheryl Hughes, Corynne Bean’s (from Playa Grande Costa Rica) mom for a walkabout across the river in Bundeena. Everybody I've spoken to tells me it's beautiful there. I'll post more photos soon.

The swell is supposed to pick up in the afternoon. I’m supposed to meet up with Bex Thursday afternoon for another chick session. I’ll update in a few days…

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