Better Late Than Never...

Wow. okay, so, it's nearly august now, and i've been back in canada for a while. I really should try to get this back on track (ha!) and hash out some of the details of the rest of my time in Oz.

Here we go, coles notes version recap:

Played with flav and dan at federation square the following day, but we didn't play long. It was an alright shred as i remember, followed by a night on the piss at a cool bar located down a sketchy looking back alley. The place was called hell's kitchen, but i don't think they even served food... at least i don't remember seeing any.

That was the last shred i had with the crew. The other melbournians were MIA, dan left for prague a couple days later, and flav and andreas headed north in their wicked camper. I think i had 2 solo kicks in st. kilda for the rest of my time there. However i got major props one day from a former professional soccer player. The guy was in his late 50's and used to play in some pro league i europe back in the 70's and had moved to australia to raise his family. He was absolutly gobsmacked at what i was doing and sat there watching me kick for over an hour, completely ignoring the tennis match he and his grandson had been having, despite the attempts of the little grom trying to get pappy back on the court. eventually teh kid gave up, dejected and sat on the bench beside pops and watched without interest while pappy clapped and shook his head in amazement after ever string i did.

The real "highlight" of my time in melbourne was the valentines day party at the hostel, where i met some crazy icelandic people, drinking their crazy cough syrup vodka stuff, having complete memory loss, and waking up covered in sand with bruises, a very tender ankle, and 2 bloodied, gashed fingers. Heavy night. I managed to piece the night together over the following days with the help of the other guests. To my surprise, it turned out that i managed to pick up the girl at the front desk (despite being blind drunk) and we headed to the beach for a root. The rest of my time in melbourne, thankfully, passed quite uneventfully.

Next stop was Tassie, where i crashed with jeremy o'wheel. The guy is a legend! After meeting him, i now look at all the posts he has made over the years and finally get that about 99% of the time he's taking the piss. And that he's very intelligent and just enjoys a good debate without getting emotionally invested in it. He's also a damned good shredder! He throws down big combos mid string with ease, has a mastery of a heap of different concepts, and unlike most shredders, seems just as confident on both toes and clippers in a world full of clipper dominant players. we had a number of memorable kicks in hobart that were all time, and i especially enjoyed one at salamanca markets. He really loves sports, and does some form of it everyday of the week it seems.

Jezza's house is also awesome, located right on the waterfront, and his roomies are good fun. We drank alot of beers and played alot of halo3 that was projected on the wall. One of the best parts of my visit to tasmania was a trip we took to the upper florentine, and the hike we did through there. Absolutly gorgeous, and it was interesting to visit the logging protesters camp. The protesters are very passionate about what they are doing, but i'll be damned if i would put my life on the line they way they do. Props to them for having big brass ones!
Meeting Lotus was also a big highlight for me. I had seen him post on the forum a number of times, mostly in the bags and equipment forums, as well as in the arts and leisure section where he posted alot of his photography. His photos are really awesome nature shots. He obviously has a great eye for the uncommon and finds some of the most amazing and unusual patterns in his surroundings. A leaf that looks like a person's face, a geometric pattern that appears to have been drawn into a rock formation. Things that the average person would overlook, or pass by completely. And his shredding is on another level!

Sure, his name is not going to appear in the nemisis head count, and he won't knocking on BAP's door any time soon, as he is just grasping the basics of high performance footbag, but his performance style is unmatched by anyone. He uses feet, legs, hands, arms, head, eyes, any unusual surface he can get the bag to rest on, and mixes it with spins, flyers, and a mixed bag of ducks and dexes to blend it all together seamlessly. I have to pick my jaw up off the floor hen i see him kick. I think to my self, 'what he's doing isn't hard', but try as i might to replicate what he does, it never works out. He's got a strangle hold on his own style, and i doubt any one in the world can hold a candle. Unfortunately, the 'rules' of freestyle competition will never allow him to be world champ, or even pass through a heat at a high level competition, but the guy deserves an award or atleast some recognition for what he does. It's absolutely phenomenal! And he's always smiling. Always.

After a week in tassie i left incredibly early in the morning (i didn't bother to wake up jer to say goodbye. yes, that early) and caught a ride to the airport with one of his roomies. I bummed around in Bondi with Max and Ben for a couple more days, and had an absolutly epic session. Max and i both were really on fire, each of us racking up combos that we had never done before. I think i posted the highlights earlier, on the day they happened.

I had been wanting to pick up surfing again for a long time, and decided to go to the Ripcurl Surf Camp Australia. This would ultimately end my footbag froth in australia/ life. I spent an awesome 4 days in Gerroa (a small coastal town of 500, 2 hours south of sydney) surfing and having fun with the crew down there. My surf coach and i got on really well, and at one point i said that i was really into footbag. She bugged me all week for a demo, and finally on the last night i did a little demo for her. Before long, there was a big group around me checking out what i was showing. Eventualy she just said "every one needs to see this" and i was hauled into the centre of the barbecue area where i gave a full on footbag demo for about half an hour, ending with my worlds routine. The staff went absolutly nuts, and the 49 other campers were also really stoked on it! Hands down, the best reaction i have ever received for a demo!

After my first day there i had been interested in working there. It just seemed like it would be the greatest oz experience i could have: living by the beach, surfing all day, meeting heaps of people, and doing a bit of cooking on the side. They had a full staff and didn't need any one, and a bunch of other people who wanted the job when there was a vacancy. after my demo they were stoked for me to get in as soon as possible, and when they saw my resume they wanted me there even more. After a week, i was running the kitchen.

I went up to the northern beaches after surf camp and just frothed on surfing for about a week before they called me back to camp. I would be replacing one of the cooks, a bloke from norway, who was heading back home soon. Working along side me was another canadian kid from vancouver, who i would really bond with over the following months, and a crazy belgian dude, along with about 14 crazy aussie instructors and 1 from the UK. To sum up the next 3 months of my time there: wake up, surf, make breakfast, surf, make lunch, surf, make dinner, drink beers and party. Daily.

Having been a skateboarder/ snowboarder since i was 10 i caught on quite quickly, and the crew was amazed at my progress. All of them agreed i was the fastest learner they had ever seen, and it wasn't long before i had my own quiver of boards and was heading out on mini surf trips to heavier breaks in the area in the surf van with the instructors.

On occasion i would do little footbag demos for the crews that came through, but only a couple minutes at a time. I also had maybe one or 2 solo sessions when the waves were flat, but really surfing took over and i would just as soon paddle around the line up when the waves were 1 foot as have a kick.

some times we would go up to sydney to Scubar on thursday nights with the past week's crew to party with them. I did this the weekend before the Asutralian open, and txted Dan Boyle, who was already in sydney for the comp. We met at scubar and i introduced him to my frinds and co-workers, had some beers and caught up a bit, talked footbag and about the open. I wasn't going to be attending for a number of reasons, first of all i hadn't kicked in about 6 weeks, and i didn't have days off that coincided with the event, and i didn't want to miss any swells. My days off were thursday night, friday, and sunday night. Technically, the rest of your waking hours your are working. Of course, there was cleaning to be done during this down time around camp, but just so long as it got done before a new crew rocked up on friday night, it didn't matter when. However, asking for time off was a no no, as there were a bunch of people ready to take your position if you left, and i was also the most junior of the crew.

Well, Dan is a fucking legend. After we got a few beers in us, he pretty much talked me up to my "bosses". "Do you know who this guys is? he's second in the world. the WORLD! He NEEDS to be at this event! etc., etc." After a few more beers, both the guys were like "fuck yeah andy! show em how it's done! We'll make sure no one takes your spot! You're the best guy we have at camp!".

I was pretty stoked, but didn't have any of my gear so friday morning i hopped a train back to camp (2.5 hours), walked to camp from the station (45 minutes), packed my gear for the weekend (15 minutes) and headed back to the train station (45 minutes) for a train back to sydney (2.5 hours). Dan had managed to swing us a cheap rate at the central YHA so i went and checked in and we all went for a few drinks.

The event was pretty awesome, and was held at the 2000 olympic grounds. We played on a big stage at the royal easter show, and did request, battles, shred 30 and sick 3. Ian and Dylan did an awesome job of putting the whole thing together, and for the most part it ran really smoothly. I came away with 4 bronze i believe, but felt pretty rusty through out the event. Again beers at night and we all danced up a storm. The following day we went to north sydney to do routines and circle. I came 2nd in routines and 3rd in circle and felt alot looser this day, but man oh man was i dropping alot of things i should not have been dropping!

After an awkward awards ceremony in a rainy, wind swept park due to us running out of time at the event site, we all said our goodbyes. it was going to be awkward to get back, as the trains were not running from sydney to wollongong (3/4 of the way home), but copey and dan said they would go a couple hours out of their way and just drive me back to camp! Legends!!! I still owe them for that!

After that went back to camp and pretty much just surfed for another month and a half. Had some days that were all time out the front, and a couple good ones out at werri, bombo and jones. I won't bore people with the details of every swell, and every surf i had, but be happy in knowing i went out every day got some good waves, surfed with dolphins on the regular, saw some whales, etc., etc.

Camp finished up on the 7th of june, 3 weeks later than expected. Me and a couple of the boys did a surf road trip up the coast. We hit as many surf beaches along the way, and we wound up getting crazy lucky with swells in bonny hills. It was also the time i saw my first shark in the wild.

Sharks are ambush predators, they like dark murky water, making river mouths nice places for them to congregate. Also, river mouths are full of little fish, which are eaten by bigger fish, which are eaten by even bigger fish, which are eaten by sharks. Well there was an awesome right peeling off from a river mouth break wall. I had caught the first wave of a big set and then paddled back out whil every one else was catching waves in. As i made it out just past the break wall, i saw a big fuck off fin go past me, maybe 10 meters infront of me, cruising the river mouth. I freaked and pulled my feet and arms up on my board, yell to my mates. Locky was right behind me paddling out, and started rapid firing me questions. We figured out it was a bull shark, a man eater and one of the most aggressive sharks around. Locky weighed the situation, and decided the waves were too good to pass up. I reluctantly agreed to stay out, and we continued to surf for 6 hours. Upon coming in we talked with a couple other surfers. turns out there had been 4 shark sightings in the past week. heavy.

We made our way north to byron bay and on to queensland and coolangatta, but to my disappointment, d-bah, snapper and the superbank (R.I.P Kirra) were all flat. That's okay though, because they are all rights. Eventually we made our way up to the sunshine coast, where we had a place to stay in mooloolaba. We called it the shakey shack, because white ants had decimated the beams in the place. every one walked very softly. I wound up staying there for my last month, no job, just surfing the beaches of the sunshine coast. My big disappointment was that when i went to Noosa it was flat (also okay, because they are rights), but a small session at A bay with no one else out made up for it. The major highlight of the trip was getting shacked! i had pulled into dozens of tubes but never made it out. i finally scored a clean ride at wurtulla and it was the most amazing thing i have ever experienced. If you've never experienced it you won't understand, but it's something like this:


Eventually i went back to sydney and crashed with Max and Benoite again. Ben had decided she is done with footbag, and is moving on to other sports. She was frustrated by her inconsitent play and decided she was happy with how far she had come, so good on her for being one of the small had full of girls in the world who has played as long as she has and hit as many tricks as she has. Best of luck to her in what ever her new athletic endeavour may be (golf i'll bet). Max continues to kick and we had a massive gathering on my last saturday. Dyalan, Ian, Max, Dan who was on his way to europe for worlds, my self and a new guy were there to throw down and we finished up in the pub for a number of hours where we all eventually said our good byes. Dan and i later went to diner a couple nights later and re said our goodbyes and good lucks then. Before i knew it i was on a plane and headed back...

to canada, but i'm not going to say "back home". I feel really out of place here now. All i do is watch surf vids, think about surfing, and work when i have to. I didn't bother to watch any of the worlds stuff, or even follow it. i was too busy watching the US Open of surfing. I got updates on who was winning via Tuukka's fb status updates. I had one session with manna and scott the week i was back, but damn was i rusty! Haven't kicked since i've been back, and untill just recently haven't even had the urge to, but i'm starting to get itchy feet.

I think i'll keep playing, but the drive to challenge my self is gone. I'll kick simply because busting the occasional trick is fun, but i won't be a stickler for adds, big tricks, or even both-sidedness for that matter. expect alot of repetitive, one sided strings in all future videos (even more so than i used to be!). And that being said, i think i'm gonna turn this into a video blog. even just my average updates will be via video. It's easier for me to just talk shit and post it, or quickly edit it, and post it, instead of spending the time that i do typing. I rewrite things 1000 times to try to get my tone across, or to make it a better read. I also tend to remember stuff once i'm 3 paragraphs along and go back and edit everything, so doing it one shot or just rearranging it in video form will be faster. it might also encourage me to post some videos, which i think i will do for my first new style blog post. I also have some ideas for how i would like to do the blog, but we'll see if they pan out. i won't say what they are just incase it doesn't work and people are like "OMGWTFBBQ?"
SO, that's pretty much got you caught up on what happened in Oz. Thanks for following along my travels, even if i didn't actually do it while i was on my travels, and check back in a couple weeks for Blog version 2.vide0.
Cheers!