Day 5
The world becomes stationary, the roar of the waves become background noise, senses heighten, heart feels like its beating between your ears. For a second our lives become inferior. That first paddle stroke of commitment springs life back to full speed. This is why I live. Every paddle stroke sends the kayak deeper and deeper in to the wave…it builds… towering overhead. I'm in, air beneath the boat signifies an airdrop. Its heavy today, the wave sucks and dredges the water from the rock shelf growing in size and volume. Contact is made again, I feel the fins under the boat connect and grip the face with force. Now the acceleration is unreal, the wave pitches and throws an arc of water over my head. Heart’s pounding now. Whizzing across the face of the wave, now it’s a game of cat and mouse. I'm winning the race but the wave is sure to bend on the reef, I’m out of the barrel but the window is closing, the second peek has built, I’m not there yet. Throwing out in front of me, there is no escape now. For a second a strange sense of serenity can be found in knowing the pounding of your life is upon you and there is nothing you can do. Taking a pounding on a river is one thing, but the ocean tries to tear limbs off, the feeling of a thousand miniature explosions surround you. Pushed down in to the watery black not knowing up or down. The kayak still shuddering as the wave pushes you closer to the rocks below.
Day 6
Sunrise has this ideal surrounding it, Hayley our photographer seemed to be the earliest riser and always beat me to the coffee pot. Needless to say waking up to the sound of a percolator bubbling over and the soft aromas of coffee on the air is just the ticket when wild camping. Asides the coffee, sunrise tends to mean less if no wind, the surfers dream. Camped out next to a creek with a tiny delta flowing out in to the ocean meant we weren’t the only people enjoying the waves. George and I geared up as the sun pushed its way through the trees, high enough to warm our faces. We clambered across the giant cobble stone rocks and down to the sea. The paddle out was bliss, we could watch the waves form, pump and stack up as they marched their way to shore. Point breaks are great, I was out back and my hair wasn’t even wet. We noted a few inquisitive seals as we paddled to the peek, I didn’t really think anything of it. Then ahead of us a meer six feet was an enormous bull seal, from a glance I would put it at 900 lbs , neck like a hippo, and its eyes, piercing and huge googley things. George noted about five of the beasts checking us out.
Cautiously we took a few waves. But you know what you just can't ignore five or six giant water dogs all really close and staring. Now I've surfed for long enough to know that seals are not top of the food chain and neither were we, in fact far from it. Hayley wants the sunrise surf shot, so we catch a few more waves. A further five minuets and we spotted something much bigger than a seal moving about, its probably just a seal I thought to my self.
Follow the journey.
Lost waves of the North Part 1
Lost Waves of the North Part 2
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