Western Aus road trip December 2010 - January 2011

It had been a miserable summer so far in Melbourne. Cold, lots of rain and worst of all no wind. Our Western Oz trip couldn’t have come soon enough. The plan was 3 weeks away. I had decided to team up with good mate Craig (Spotty) and take to the open road and drive west, rather than fly. Driving over had its benefits . The best part of driving was not having to worry about excess baggage. Which is normally a big problem with flying. I almost took this as a challenge and packed as much equipment as possible. On the other hand the drive normally takes 3 days from Melbourne to Perth.

Windsurfing gear: Board, 5 sails, 3 masts, 2 booms. Kiting gear, and my SUP, (9’6” MacTavish.) Add that to, camping gear, cooking, camera equipment, and all of Spotty’s gear, and we where fully loaded!

We finally hit the road at about 2.30pm Wednesday the 22^nd of December. Escaping the Melbourne traffic and cursing along the high way. We put in a good effort that night, driving for almost 12 hours, making it about 1 hour out of Port Augusta SA. The next morning we got going early and continued West towards the Nullarbor. We were chasing the sun, so it was hard to keep track of time. It was a long day, Im not even sure how many hours we drove for in total. That night we made it well in to WA about 2 hours of out Norsman, before finding a truck stop and pulling in passing out in the back of the van.

With the change in time zones, we were up early again and made it to our first stop, Esperance, on the South coast of WA. We pulled into town a bit dazed and confused. It was only 9am, but it felt more like mid afternoon. In an effort to try and adjust our body clock we decided to get stuck in to a big breakfast and some coffee’s at the tea rooms, right on the water front over looking the Port and the Yacht club.

This my first time in Esperance so Spotty did his bit to try show me around town before the wind picked up. From this point we could see people our surfing, on some nice waves. Instantly I perked up and forgot about the drive we had just done, I couldn’t wait to get in the water. Jumped in water and paddled out, only about 4 other surfers in the water. There was a nice steep head high left hander. Awesome fun! Just what I needed after a big drive.

Christmas day, we woke up and cooked a big breakfast on the Barbie and ate until we couldn’t eat any more. Sat around relaxing for an hour or so before we noticed the wind picking up, time to get wet!

It looked like the place to be was Fourths beach. I rigged a 5.0m, Spotty a 5.8m

Pretty fun head high some were bigger with the wind a little cross-on shore. Good opportunity to re-learn how to jump on the port tack.

By the end of the day it was firing, I was fully powered and the jumps were awesome! Great way to spend Christmas day.

Boxing day. A little more swell, similar wind. We headed down to 9 mile or Observation point for some good cross-off shore conditions.

The wave was super clean punchy beach break. Awesome fun getting some good rides and some aerials. We sailed all day until we had no more energy.

Back on the road again, headed North west for Perth to meet up with the rest of the Melbourne crew who flew over.

We made it into Perth by mid arvo met up with everyone and had a few beers at the Little Creatures Brewery in Freemantle.

Next stop Lancelin, about 1.5 hours north of Perth. We were now traveling in a convoy. Spotty’s Mercedes van (The Silver Bullet) 5 campervans and another normal van. We arrived in Lano, to find that it was windy, perfect!

15 – 20 knots so time for some kiting.

Finished the day with a pub meal and a few beverages. Nice!

Next we pushed further north to Geraldton. Probably the most fun place to windsurf I have ever been. I hadn’t been there in a couple years so I was pretty excited about it! Quick stop in town to set up camp then made a B line to Coronation Beach, which is another 20mins up the road North.

Once again it was windy! 25 knots swell was head to about ¾ mast high. Again, perfect! Had an awesome sail, massive jumps, big back loops and some fun wave rides. The beer in the Coro’s car park tasted particular good that night!

We headed back to the caravan park in town and cooked a bbq, and re-cap on the days events.

The next 2 days we did exactly what we did the day before. Couldn’t ask for much more really! Finishing up with New Years Eve. Which was kicked off with a 20L container of fresh Majito’s.

New Year Day brought with it a hang over, new swell and 25 – 30knots. Sunset beach was breaking with waves up to ¾ mast high. So we rigged up in front of our tents and campers and walked the 80m to the water.

Great day, the wind swung a little off shore towards the end of the day which cleaned the waves up. Welcome 2011!

Unfortunately there was a tropical cyclone up North off the coast, and as usual this heated up the temps on the WA coast and killed the wind. We decided it was best to make our escape and head South. Back to Lancelin for the night, again no wind there either, hot and humid. The forecast for the week was not looking good…

The next 4 days were basically a right off. We hung out in Perth in the cheapest hotel room we could find that had air conditioning. Finally on Thursday the wind looked like it was going to make its return, so we headed back to Lancelin.

Friday the 17^th of Jan, was the start of the Ledge to Lancelin event (http://www.lancelinoceanclassic.com.au/)

Friday was the qualifying event for the Wave competition, Saturday was the Marathon race (Main event) and the Wave finals. In less than average conditions I floated out to the South Passage of Lancelin for my heat in the Open Wave qualifying. 5 – 10 knots cross-on with wave sets up to and sometimes over mast high. Not ideal.

In the 20min heat I managed to get 3 waves that’s all I had time for as the wind was so light I couldn’t move around the beak any quicker. The first 2 waves were about ¾ mast high, the 3^rdwas just over mast high, pretty scary with no wind!

Somehow I managed to score highly enough and progressed through to the next round. Saturday brought more wind than the day before. By the time the Marathon race started it was about 20 – 25 knots. 300 sailors lined up at ledge point for the start if the world longest ocean race. Quite a spectacular view, helicopters in the sky, TV cameras everywhere and hundreds of people on the beach watching. Spotty had a great start off the beach but unfortunately his new boom exploded before the first mark. Race over.

Later on the wind turned a little more off shore things started looking good! The final for the Open wave comp was set to start at 6.30pm. I went out for a quick burn around to test the wind strength at about 6, I felt pretty comfortable on a 5.3m most people felt the same. 6.30 the final started a 20min round. Once we were out the back of the wave break we all discovered that it was much winder than we expected! I should have been on a 4.7m I was well over powered!

This made landing tricks hard, so I didn’t go for many I was having way too much fun catching waves! I got about 6 waves, I had some great turns and even got some aerials. Way too much fun! Unfortunately being too over powered and not jumping cost me, and I didn’t place in the final.

Later on that night we found our self’s at the Endeavor Tavern, official watering hole of the event. Many drinks were drunk by many people. It was a great night! Followed by the after party, which didn’t finish up until the sun came up about 5.30am.

Sunday - Hung-over we packed up and headed out of Lano south to Perth. The trip was almost over. Early Monday we woke up at a mates place in Cottesloe and headed off back to Esperance, as the forecast was looking good for the afternoon. 8 hours later when we arrived at 9mile beach we found a good breeze but not a lot of swell, only about chest to head high in the sets. We still went out and for our final WA sail.

After sailing we packed it in, got the van sorted and hit the road headed for Melbourne. That night we made it about 2 hours out of Norsman still in WA. Up as early as we could the next day and drove all day, we made it to Port Wakefield SA, about 2 hours out of Adelaide. Drive home day 3 we pushed on into Vico only get stopped by some flooded roads just out of Horsham.

The final day was a killer, so close, yet so far from home, we finally made it into the Melbourne by about 6.30pm. Massive journey, back to the real world!

The final days living on Maui time

As our time here on Maui draws to a close, I feel like I have almost fully adjusted to the Maui time. There’s been no shortage of wind. We have been on the water everyday for over 2 weeks now. (Well that’s kind of a lie, I did take a day off after I injured my knee.) Unfortunately the swell didn’t really pull through for us. Which we now know is totally normal for this time of year. We really only had the wind swell to play with. This can still be good fun. But nothing like the Circus we saw at Ho’okipa when we first arrived. 4m wave faces, strong cross shore winds, most of the worlds pro waves sailors on the water at once getting it done! While helicopters hover above filming and shooting photos. A sight to see!

Levi - Trademark top turn explosion

One particular day at Sprecks this week things just seemed to click. I’ve been working on a move while I've been here called a Push Loop. (Basically an over-rotated back-loop landing tail first.) I had landed one or two since arriving, but that day at Sprecks, I couldn’t crash one. Sticking 5 in a row.

The next day we sailed at Kanaha. We saw windy conditions. There were waves, but because Kanaha is an outer reef the waves don’t always break properly. In order to find nice ramps for jumping, or waves for riding a good amount of luck was needed.

Feeling pretty confident with my push loops now, I went for a couple over the first hour. Landing one, and horribly over rotating the other. Things went so bad I some how managed to land off my board with my fore arms on my fins and my face hitting the other side of my arms… Lucky.

I little while later I spied a nice clean ramp in the distance. I bared off down wind in order to hit the steepest section of the ramp. Things were lining up perfectly. I launched into the air at top speed and started rotating back, into the loop. As I passed through the eye of the wind I pushed the sail forward, back-winding my self so that I could make the rotation. Things still going well. At this point I think I must have held the ‘Push’ a ¼ of a second too long. As I spot my landing I can see I’m going to under rotate. To counter act this I tuck my knees up to mu chest to give me a little more room to finish the rotation. I hit the water spot on, perfect technique. But as I was so tucked up I didn’t have any absorption left in my legs to absorb the impact. I hit the water, and I can feel the ligaments in my right knee taking all the impact. I felt popping and I'm knee totally seized up as I fell off my board into the water. Having never done any major ligament damage (Touch wood) I was sure that’s what I had done. Scared, and in quite a bit of pain, I wasn’t quite sure what to do, or how I was going to get back to the beach. I lay in the water for a few minuets. By this time Joel had come over to see if I was alright. Slowly I started getting some movement back in my knee. I still hurt, and felt very unstable. Eventually after having about 15 waves break on my head, I drifted into the channel. By this stage I could straighten my leg. I got back on the board and headed for the beach. In the end, it was just a scare. I don’t think I did too much damage, I iced it that night and rested the next day. It still feels a little suss, but happy I didn’t do anything major.

Mast cam footage of me hold my knee in pain

One morning last week some new friends of our offered to take us to some rock pools about 10 minuets east of Paia near the infamous Jaws surf break. This place is something that a tourist just would find. Luckily for us, we met some nice locals. We drove down a dirt road just off the main highway. We parked our cars high on the cliff top looking over the Pacific ocean, amazing view. The rock pools we were told were much further down the cliffs. So we had to walk. There were paths down the cliffs, but they were so steep that there were ropes stakedinto the ground to help you down. About half way down Joel had a thong malfunction and almost fell, to what might have been the end for him. But luckily he had a hind on the rope, and after sliding for about 5 or 6 metres he managed to stop him self.

We reached the pool without any more incidents. The temperature was very nice, so it was straight in for a swim. After the pools we drove back into town for lunch. Our local friends suggested we go to a place called the Fish Market. Not exactly an under ground ‘Locals only’ place, but the food is awesome! Probably the best burger I've ever eaten. Fresh Mahi-Mahi burger with wasabi mayonnaise. Very good.

Day off the water for me today. Resting my knee. I was posted to filming duties.

Back on the water the next day, and back to Kanaha. I just took it easy, testing the strength of my knee. It wasn’t great, pretty unstable I crashed a lot. I decided to put on the helmet cam and do some ‘Follow cam’ filming.

I pulled up really well after my sail and decided to sail again the next day. My knew felt pretty strong now. I hit the water and sailed out to sea. Sailing out probably 2 or 3 km's off the beach pushing up wind so that I could make the ‘Uppers break’ at Kanaha in one run. I sailed a couple runs at Uppers, the conditions were ok.

At one point I was way out he back, gibing on a wave. I flicked the sail around and caught the boom. As I grabbed the boom the whole rig decided to lift 100% off my board. I dropped into the water with one foot in a strap and my hands still on the boom. Knowing if I dropped my rig I would never see it again. Some how the bolt the holds the Euro Pin into the universal joint sheared. Something that shouldn’t happen. But its really no surprise to me as I have proven to my self that I can break the unbreakable. At this point I’m a long way off shore. In deep blue water. Almost in the same spot where we had our shark experience earlier in the trip. So I definitely had a few things on my mind.

Luckily I managed to get Phil’s attention, as he sailed past in the distance. He came over and helped me de-rig my gear. Not an easy task in the water. I piled the gear on my board, and used my down haul to tie is all to the foot straps. I Also slid my harness around back to front so I could lye on my stomach and paddle in. This worked for a bit, but I was so far away from the beach it would taken hours to get back. So I grabbed Phil’s back foot strap and he towed me in. Easy as that sounds, its really really hard. Both for me holding on the strap and for Phil, trying to sail with a massive sea anchor dragging behind him. It was tough, but we did it. We swapped positions a couple times. The whole process took about an hour. We were both pretty rooted by the time we got to the beach. My day was over.

Its Wednesday the 19^th at this point, the final day in the water for Phil, Joel and Al. We sailed Sprecks. It was super windy to start with. I rigged a 3.7m sail. The smallest sail I’ve ever used, which was cool experience in it self. It was a fun day with all the boys ripping around enjoying the last of our Maui adventure. After sailing it was beers in the backyard, while the boys washed sails, de-strapped boards and packed everything ready to go back to sunny Melbourne.

The next morning we started early. Up at 4am, I drove the boys to the airport for the 6am flight. Then back home and back to bed for a couple hours. It was my final day on Maui and really the final day of my USA trip. I’ve been travelling around since the start of January, and as I sat at Anthony’s café in Paia sipping my espresso with a mixture of emotions. Sad for it all to be almost over, but stoked that everything worked out so well. I got to do so many awesome things that people really only get to read about in magazines. I’ve been living the dream for a little over 4 months now. Good feeling!

My flight out of Maui wasn’t until 8.30pm so I had time for one final sail. Not much swell I around, only wind swell. So back to Kanaha. Really windy again, I was on my 4.2m. I ripped around for a couple hours soaking up the last of the sun and warm water I’m going to see for a while. Then back home to pack my gear and get out to the airport.

See ya Maui, It was Awesome!! Ill be back very soon!!

North shore Maui – At this point the days just blend into each other

Well the wind kicked back in just over a week or so ago and hasn’t really let up since. We’ve been on the water every day and have gotten our self’s into a solid routine: Wake up between 10.30 and 11.00 am. Eat some breakfast, sit around for an hour. Off to the beach. Sail all day until about 6pm. Go home cook some food. Drink a couple beers while going through the days footage. In bed by about 1am. Then repeat.

Things haven’t swayed too far from this pattern over the last couple of weeks. Apart from the odd BBQ with friends.

There hasn’t been all that much swell around. We have seen a couple small pulses hit the North shore, but not producing anything more than 6ft waves at best.

We have been sailing a different beaches all over the North shore. When there are waves we sail at Ho’okipa, which is the best spot for wave sailing, and also the busiest. Today for example there were some waves, the bigger ones were a little over head height. There were around 30 people sailing the same break. Hectic!

Joel and I sharing a wave at Ho'okipa

Me right - Just finished riding my wave and Venezuelan sailor Diony doing an awesome one handed back loop

Arial - Me

Joel and I on another wave

When the wind is up we often stay local and sail at Sperecks beach, just across the road from our place. Specks is a great location for big jumps, with consistent cross shore wind and steep ramps to launch off of.

Another good spot is Kanaha beach park. Located right next to the airport. A popular beach for the older sailors because of the flat water and nice grassy rigging area. The outer reefs also provide some good waves for jumping and the odd wave ride. Kanaha as you might remember from my earlier posts is the beach where we had our shark encounter. So of course every time I fall off my board there I can only think about 1 thing.

A run-down of Maui's North shore and sailing spots

Yesterday the conditions at Ho’okipa were less than impressive. So Joel, Al and my self left the beach and sailed down wind to back to Sprecks, which is about 6.5km’s away. The down winder only took about 45 mins. I was a cool experience. The water is so clear! There were turtles all over the place. I even found my self at one point in the middle of a school of flying fish skipping across the water.

Once we reached Sprecks we sailed around for a few runs just before the wind dropped, and we had to float in. Good thing it didn’t happen a half hour earlier while we were sailing from Ho’okipa.

The course from Ho'okipa to Sprecks

Here are some more screen shots from my helmet cam footage

Bailing on a back loop attempt, you can see Joel just to my left also going for a backie

Going through the push loop - Yep, I landed that one

Table top

Things not going well

Swimming after my gear

Discussing moves

Big pushie, landed that one too.

3 days of windless Maui

We woke up on Saturday morning, the 1st of May to find it was totally calm outside. Not even a breath. Bummer.

It wasn't a total surprise, the forecast had been calling for the wind to drop out by the weekend. This is because the high pressure systems that sits just north of Hawaii and causes the trade winds moved south. The forecast was calling for the trades to start blowing again on Tuesday. With an added bonus for a 2.5m north swell arriving on the same day. None wind activities were needed to fill in the days.

Saturday 1^st: Just east of Sprecks where we are staying is Haiku. Haiku is more of a locals suburb rather than a place for tourists. Lots of farming properties scattered around the area. One of these properties are home to the Twin Falls. Which is a group of waterfalls and walking tracks. Really nice cool place to go and escape the heat of the day. With big trees and swimming pools to go and explore.

Feeling like we still needed to burn some energy we went back to Kahalui to rent some stand up paddle boards so we could go for a surf. It was about 5.45pm when we jumped into the water at Kanaha. The beach at Kanaha is normally the place where all the kites and slalom windsurfers go out, because there is a large lagoon like area in front of the waves that is almost a kilometer long. It took probably 20mins or so to paddle all the way out to the break, we also had to battle a 10knot head wind. Joel and I made it out first and caught a couple of pretty average waves. Phil was lagging about 5mins behind. When he finally joined us he got taken out by the first big bit of white water that he had tried to get over. As he fell of his leg rope also broke and took his board about 50m away from him. Joel and I paddled over to help him. I paddles to his board, and Joel went to Phil. Just as we reunite Phil with his board I notice the there is a huge turtle just behind Joel. We were all sitting within a couple meters of each other. Phil was still trying to re attach his leg rope when I got a little closer to inspect the turtle, when I notice that the turtles body was starting to look less and less like a turtle. I yell, “Shit, that’s not a turtle!” At this point I’m paddling backwards, Phil has managed to jump on his board. In a panic we all look back at the shadow to confirm is definitely a shark about 2m long thrashing around in the water looking a little aggravated. At one point it came strait for us and then turned sharply. We all paddled together to try and look bigger. I don’t think I ever paddled so fast in my life. So much so my left shoulder is still sore. It took about 12 or so mins to paddle in. SCARY! Later on after looking at some shark photos on the internet, we decide that what we saw in the water was a 2m Tiger shark. Not cool.

Sunday 2^nd: Started the day with a lazy paddle out the front of out place. Catching a few fun little 1ft waves, and more importantly getting back out on the water and confronting the shark fear.

Just having a stretch

Just after lunch we went to Lanes, a surf break just to the west of Ho’okipa for a surf on the stand up paddle boards. This was pretty fun, the waves were pretty fat so perfect for the SUP. The bigger waves were probably head high. The only problem was getting in and out of the water. On the way in I managed to jump on a sea urchin, getting a big spine in my heal and also slicing a good sized flap. Hmmm…

Later on we decided to drive up to Haleakala volcano to watch the sun set. The highest point on Maui just a little over 10,000ft. Pretty high! Amazing view very cold too.

Monday 3^rd: Early morning, up at 4am. In the van by 4.30 headed over to the Lahaina mariner over the west side Maui so that we could go fishing with the guys from Real Hooker fishing charters. Awesome day for it, not much wind and pretty calm seas, well for Maui standards anyway.

All 4 of us went out, we were lucky enough to get the whole boat to our self’s. Unfortunately we didn’t see too much action. We were blue water fishing, and I guess sometimes that’s just the way it is. We were after: Yellow fin tuna, Blue Marlin and Mahi Mahi.

I was the only one to see any action. I brought a nice 15kg Yellow fin tuna. Which was pretty cool, the biggest fish I have ever caught.

An littler later the deck hand prepared the freshest sashimi I have ever eaten.

Once we got home we feasted on the fresh fish. I made sushi rolls and Joel made some crunchy shallow fried tuna steaks.

Yellow fin tuna is going to be on the menu every night for the rest of the trip now. We have so much fish to get through!

Maui update

Saturday 1^st May: After a week or so of nothing but eating, drinking, sleeping and windsurfing, I feel like I’m starting to settle in here. 10 days windsurfing in a row now. I think that’s approaching some kind of record for me.

The first 5 or 6 days were pretty tough on the body. My arms hadn’t see that much exercise in a long time. My hands were falling to bits. All sorts of problems… But a couple days later I feel like everything’s starting to sort it self out.

The hours that we rented, is pretty simple, but its all we need. The best part about it however is its right across the road from Spercks beach, and awesome windsurfing beach, perfect for jumping and the odd on shore wave ride.

Sprecks beach

POV screen shot from me doing a push loop at Sprecks

Just 5 mins East from our place is the world famous Ho’okipa Beach. Lately we have just been sailing here because the wind direction is better for wave riding.

When we first arrived there was a pretty solid swell hitting the North shore of Maui. The bigger waves at Ho’okipa were about mast high. Having been out of the water for almost 4 months, I decided to sit it out and watch Joel Ryan and Al McLeod get out and mix it up with the worlds best.

Levi Siver ripping at Ho'okipa

Al McLeod getting into it

Ho’okipa was a bit of a circus when we arrived, this is the time of year that most of the top sponsored sailors from all over the world come to Maui to test next years equipment, and to shoot the Catalogs for the summing season.

The cliff to was scattered with photographers. There were even a couple right in the break getting shots from the water. There was even a massive helicopter hovering about 10 – 15m above the break getting shots from the air. It was all happening.

The next couple days we sailed at Sprecks. I was slowly feeling more coordinated. Time to check out Ho’okipa for my self. Luckily for me the swell had dropped off quite a bit so it would be easier to get out, and get back into the swing of things.

Me doing an off the lip arial at Ho'okipa

The swell has been small for a few days now, and now the wind is looking like it may drop right off for a couple days. Today might be the last time we windsurf until maybe Tuesday.

At this stage there also looks to be another swell coming in from the North East. Fingers crossed for that.

Me cursing out the back of Sprecks

Me jumping at Sprecks

Haines to Maui

After waiting around all day with no car and nothing to do. I got a lift to the ferry terminal in Haines and started the trip to Maui. I made it to Juneau that night by about 11pm, checked into a hotel room and got some rest.

The next day I had no plans, just catching a plane at 8pm. So went the down town in Juneau to check it out. After about 10 mins I had covered all there was to see there. Not a great place to be a tourist… Somehow I managed to kill 5 hours, before going back to my hotel and getting to the airport 3 and a half hours before my flight, mostly because I had nothing else to do.

All my gear. It is actually possible for me to move all of this around an airport without a trolly

I flew to Seattle that night, checked into another room, slept for 6 hours. Got up at 6am and made my next flight at 8am which was direct to Maui. Woo Hoo

I made it to Maui!!