The flat spell

It's been over a week now.

Cold windy and sometimes wet mornings followed by crisp clear sunny days.

But one thing remains the same...

A flat and flawless ocean.

I've been desperately trying to get my surf fix by reading mags and watching DVD's.

But I've stumbled upon some new sites in the process which have got me amped for the next time a wave decides to form upon the sunshine coasts shores... which if the swell maps are anything to go by should be tomorrow... But they've deceived me before... In the meantime check this shit out...

http://runamukvisuals.com/ The guys who put this site together are Sunshine Coast locals. The daily blog often puts a smile on my dile and if you've got some spare time up your sleeve, check out the video section which is quite tasty.

http://stabmag.com/ I also find these guys quite amusing.

http://www.dontevenreply.com/ This one has nothing to do with giving you a surf fix inbetween flat spells but it's pretty funny.





Good Surf'n and bye for now

Thomas J

The Melbourne Identity

After a long stint in the heat of the Queensland summer and with my brother heading over seas for a year long European adventure, I decided it would be a good time to head back to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia - 'the garden state'.

I touched down at Tullamarine airport on a Friday night and the Melbourne Autumn night chill was instant - but a friendly reminder of Melbourne.


Picked up by my brother Matt, it was off to a warm corner pub to meet my other bro Jeremy and catch up over a few Cooper's.

A band was starting to set up in the corner. The members of the quartet ranged from the ages 45-50... But they weren't your average 45-50 year olds. They were 45-50 year olds from Fitzroy. That consists of 'chopper reed' like facial hair, Vintage hats from any one of the shops on brunswick st and instruments that would fit in nicely at a museum.

It was fair to say I didn't know what to expect.

If someone told me that this band was about to play a cover of 'I kissed a girl' by Kate Perry I would of said "yeh, and grizzly adams had a beard"...

Well it turns out Grizzly Adams did have a beard and this group of 45-50 year olds did do a cover of Kate Perry's 'I kissed a girl'! (along with a version of 'teenage dirt-bag' by whetus, however they removed the word teenage and aptly replaced it with 'middle-aged'.)

A crowd filled the dance floor and sitting at the closest table to the action we were soon ushered out of the way by a keen dancer we later nicknamed 'roley poley'.

This was the closest thing I could find of what 'roley poley' looked like... (the body part anyway... He wasn't actually a fat weasel wearing clothes.)

It was the perfect start to my Melbourne weekend having all that I missed - A stiff breeze, AFL on a telly in the corner and 'roley poley'... Well I never actually missed 'roley poley' but I do now.

Here's a link to the band that was playing there - they were awesome, try catch them next time your in the Fitzroy area. (If a guy ushers you to move back to make room for his dancing and he's about 4ft3, theres a fair chance thats roley poley).

http://www.prayerbabies.com/index.php?option=com_aboutprayerbabies&Itemid=50


On Saturday I found myself at the brunswick St oval watching the Roy Boys (Fitzroy Football Club) play some good ol' fashioned ametuer footy. The Lord Newry Hotel was soon to follow and was to lay the foundations for a boozy night on the town.

I caught up with good friends Jimmy Grundy and Franky Mynard at the Lord where we planned the nights proceedings.

It entailed a trip into China Town, down a dark seedy alleyway and through the doors of a club called 'Euro Trash' - which was trashy by name and by nature.

This is a picture of one of the bartenders at Euro Trash.

We all know what path the usual Saturday night takes although it sometimes varies, but the next destination was ofcourse... A fastfood establishment.

(I actually didn't order a thing, whatevers on that table is all hers.)

A lovely Sunday lunch and a few glasses of water with the family on Sunday capped off a great weekend and gave me my long lost Melbourne fix.

Till next time trend setters... Good Surf'n and bye for now...

Sharks in the bay

It's a fact - the internet can be friggin addictive. Facebook, Supercoach, News updates...
It can draw you in to look at the site and burn your time like theres no tomorrow.
Call me old school but I've just discovered another time waster.

Ebay.

Yep I know it's been around since the dawn of internet time but I have just started to become a serious 'user'.
My housemate is to blame. He bought a brand new Olympus underwater camera for $250. They retail at around $450-$500!

I was in and I was having fun - cheap t-shirts, jumpers, 2nd hand jocks...
It was all too easy and I wasn't doing too much damage to the bank account.

Then I discovered the dark side of the bay. Here's the story -

Back home I have quite a large palm tree in my backyard and apparently they can fetch quite a price. ie. resorts, housing estates, councils.
The palm tree was just sitting there doing not much so I thought - what the heck lets chuck it on ebay, see if I get any nibbles.

I seriously didn't expect too much interest but the very next day I received this email...

Hi there,
I am really interested and i will like to offer you $8,200 for it. Please kindly let me know if my offer is accepted and i will be paying through paypal. I will also arrange for the pick up after the payment has been made. Expecting to hear from you soon. James.

Wow. Too good to be true? Probably. He had offerred me more than what I was asking for, but I thought he might of just wanted to confirm his bid. I also suspected one of my mates was playing a trick on me so I sent him my number and asked for him to call so we could arrange the finer details on the phone. He sent me this...

Hi Tom,
Thanks for the mail and i really appreciate it. I really would have loved to come over to inspect it and also to pay for it in cash but i am a petroleum engineer presently working offshore and i am buying this for my uncle. I want to make it a surprise for him and don't want him to know anything about this until it gets delivered to him. I have seen the picture on ebay and i really love it. I can only pay through paypal as i don't have access to my bank account online cos my internet banking isn't yet activated but i have my bank account attached to my paypal account and this is why i insisted on paying you through paypal. I have a pick up agent that will come around for the pick up after i have made the payments, if you have a paypal account all i will need is your paypal email address to make the payments.
PS:I need you to end the auction on ebay as i will make the payments as soon as i hear from you. I would have called but our phone service is currently down aboard and the signal is always weak at most times but i learnt it will be resolved soon.

My suspicion that 'James' was merely a friend playing a prank had gone. A friend wouldn't ask me to take the tree off ebay, there wouldn't be any real fun in it for them. This had to be a serious buyer who just really liked his uncle? I gave him my paypal email.

Hi Tom,>> I have just made the payments through paypal. I am sure they must>> have emailed you too by now confirming the payments through to your>> paypal email address.Paypal have also>> emailed me and they told me that they have given you instructions to>> follow in the payment confirmation email that they just sent to you>> and this instructions are to be followed in order to get the money>> credited into your account.I just checked>> my paypal account balance too online and i can see that $9,200 has>> been deducted from my account by paypal. I added an additional $100>> for the western union charges that you may be charged when sending the>> $900 to my pick up agent. Just go to the nearest post office and you>> will surely see a western union outlet there. Here is my pick up>> agent's info needed for the transfer as i gave to paypal as well:>>>>
Name:Duncan Cooper>>
160,Hampstead Road,>>
London,>> NW1 7AW.>>
United Kingdom.

Just made the payments! I'm rich! I quickly checked my netbank. It didn't have the money in there. I smelt a rat. Hang on - so the deal is I send your 'pick-up agent' who lives in London $900 then I get the $8,200. Your kidding me?! I did receive a 'paypal' email confirming payments had gone through to my account, but I enquired with paypal and ebay and they both confirmed that it was a scam. Dang it.

I thought this guy must do this all the time and con people of cash here and there.
So I'll do my good deed for all innocent internet users out there and try and lead him on a bit.
So I sent him this email...

Hi James,>>>> I'm a little short on cash at the moment, are we able to bump the price of> the tree up to $8800?>> If your happy to do so I will transfer the $900 through to the Western Union> which is just around the corner from me.>> I've had a lot of other interest on the tree so I think you could still be> getting a bargain.>>>> Thanks,>>>> Tom

Then he sent me this...

Hi Tom,Thanks for the mail. Well paying you the $8,800 is no problem at all and i have updated the payment through paypal Note: My pick up agent will come over for the pick up after all this has been done and paypal has put the $9,800 into your account.

He didn't challenge me raising the price of the tree by $600 one bit. I emailed him again...

Hi James, I just realised something... 8 is a really unlucky number for me and selling the tree for $8,800 just wouldn't be right.Can we make it an even $10,000?If that's alright I'll send the $900 through to that address at the closest western union asap. Cheers, Tom

I think the penny has dropped with him now and he realises the scammer has become the scammed.

But all in all lesson learnt - I'm going to tread carefully whilst in the bay. It's unchartered waters for some and there are sharks out there.
But I did pick up a six pack of size 8-10 business socks today for $7 plus postage and handling.

GSBFN

The power of one

Waiting for my fish and chips, sipping on a chocolate big M, I found myself browsing the local shop windows down the road on a Saturday arvo.

I came accross a news article posted on one of the shop windows. It was an article on a local pro surfer Julian Wilson describing his new training techniques for surfing on the world tour. He explained that different methods of 'power yoga' helped him to perform at his peak and generally surf better. There was much emphasis that 'power yoga' wasn't just yoga, but yoga with the word power in front of it. Basically it sounded like it wasn't for pansy's. I then realised the article was stuck to the window of a small 'power yoga' studio.

It was beginning to look like a pretty good excuse to try my hand at yoga. Sorry, 'power yoga'.

The studio was just down the road from my house, Local pro surfer Julian Wilson did it and local pro surfer Julian Wilson wasn't a female. Lets face it, when we think yoga we think middle aged women in leotards - and because of that fact I still wasn't totally convinced to give it a go.

Then on a lazy Sunday arvo after a surf I found myself back down at the local shops. This time I noticed a bloke standing at the doorway of the power yoga studio chatting to a fellow 'yogarian'. I decided to wander over and inquire about the classes.

I got chatting with the bloke and he dispelled many of the myths and stereo types about yoga. He insisted that many local surfers and sportsman alike come along to the classes and it's not just middle aged women in leotards. Ok - thats enough reccomendation for me, at least one class can't hurt - Wednesday morning 6am see you there pal.



Wednesday morning 6am:

Here I am super psyched with my towel and water bottle (the power yoga flyer I picked up reccomended you bring those saying 'you will sweat'.)
As I approached the studio the first thing I noticed was a middle aged woman in a leotard at the front desk - the instructor.

Where the frig is that dude I was talking to, and where the frig are all the other dudes.

I started to fear the worst.

The instructor looked me up and down a little and asked politely "So is this your first time?"
"Uh oh this is weird" I thought standing there in my footy shorts and bintang bali singlet as middle aged women passed me in there leotards and loose tracky pants with draw strings.

I was directed to grab my yoga mat and grab a place on the floor to limber up.
Yep the nightmare stereotype situation had come true. There I was stretching my hammy's in the middle of the class surrounded by middle aged women in weird positions.

When it said "you will sweat" on the flyer they weren't kidding. half-way through the session I was drenched, whilst I noticed the instructer at the front of the class didn't have a bead of sweat on her. She was a freak. I remember at one point seeing her with her legs straight and her head on the ground.

I must admit though it was a good feeling. It was like an extreme lingering pain for an hour. Mm that doesn't sound that good - but it's good when you stop. You feel really relaxed and can breath really slowly and easily.

I don't regret going to 'power yoga' but I haven't been back yet.
I will but I'd rather have a wing man - I'll ask some boys at footy training...
"hey knackers do you wanna do some yoga tommorow morning? Bring a towel, a water bottle and your leotard."

Good surf'n and bye for now...

Eggscellent Easter (see what I did there)

well Easter has come and gone and whilst the majority of people had Easter Monday off - I was set to go back to the daily grind. Usually I'm not one to complain but due to a long list of booze filled events that began pre-easter weekend (just to warm up) I was in a whole world of pain by Monday morning.

It all started Thursday night @ about 6pm. I was to have the first of many beers.

In retrospect that night was close to becoming the pinacle of the weekend... I had a great night. The first stop was Uni night. Under normal circumstances uni night is big - but the night before the Easter weekend transformed it into huge. So huge we couldn't get in.

Now usually that would mean the night would slide into dissaray and arguments between friends would break out with "I told you we should of got here earlier" or "we should of gone to that bar"...

But there was to much excitement in the air - in fact there were more people outside the pub than there was inside. So a sub-party to uni night was created outside the pub which boosted morale and layed the foundations to an epic night.

My memory becomes slightly blurred from what happend next but I can assure you fun times were had by all. Daylight arrived and begged for me to go for a surf. It was a good move.

It looked like there were a few other hungover campaigners who decided to stay in bed a little longer as there were only a few blokes out. It was well worth while and after it I felt a million bucks.

Friday night was fairly tame although it did involve a taxi ride to McDonalds and the order of 30 cheeseburgers.

yep 30. It's a disgrace.

A friend of ours by the name of 'Dokes' had just moved into a new house so by Saturday night it was time for that house to be warmed! Homemade punch, a funnel and a dice made for a good night.

By Sunday it was family time - a trip to Noosa to catch up with the rello's. More beer, prawns and my first taste of chocolate for the weekend. The Sunshine Surf Club put on a good show that night followed by some pizza's at zachary's on hastings st. Attempts were made to go into night clubs but due to an underage patron that was with us our luck had run out. home sweet home.

6.am Monday morning and the alarm on the mobile is blaring. ouch. You all know the feeling.

Well to next time folks. Good Surf'n and bye for now.