Well the stage was set this morning at 5.30. Salti had called the launch for Coolum beach as he is afraid of the rocks at Yaroomba now he pilots a fibreglass flyer.
It must be the spitfire, it's certainly not the C130 Hercules as he referred it to recently. He didn't even have room for 2 of my rods in that massive hold he has. :shock:
We were joined by Big Kev this morning as well.
The reason I like to launch at Yaroomba is that it doesn't have sandbars and in todays conditions, monsters breaking 100 meters out, like Coolum has.
I can"t complain though Salti had offered to get my kayak down to the water for me as I had a scope on my dodgy knee last Thursday and it is still sore, I thought F--- it if I can work on it I can fish on it.
Well I launched the prowler first as I had left my paddle leash on the wrong kayak and was afraid of losing the yak if I blew the launch. Sure enough thats exactly what happened. I can normally launch in reasonably large surf but I copped a beauty out the back. A whopping set came through as I reached the back of the zone and I was set up perfectly for destruction. As the top of the wave broke right over the top of me, the nose of the kayak was touching the face of this beautiful barrel in front of me. I thought wtf do I do now and instinctively put my head between my knees in the brace position. I Tried to go under it but of course my footprint is slightly larger than a surfer or swimmer and the wave just smashed me, picked me up and took me backwards,I held on for a bit and just went over in the white stuff. Lost the kayak of course, no leash.
The boys caught the yak and set me up for another crack, after I had hobbled back to the car for a new hat, I just keep forgetting that its on my head.
By the time I was ready Kev had made an almost perfect run and was almost out the back. I had a much better run 2nd time round and got through unscathed.
My tailgunner Salticrak then launched the spitfire for a perfect takeoff and met us out the back.
Not much to talk about with the fishing, kev and I both caught a spotty, Kevs was a beauty and poor old Salti did not get a bite, for his second donut this week, bad luck old son
Well it came the time to head back in and as we paddled back with a lot of rather large swell rolling gently towards the shore, I think we all knew what was waiting for us.
I sat back and watched Salti and Kev sneak up into the zone, you could see the people and the flags on the beach, thousands of people, 2 sets of flags and surfers everywhere.
I hadn't decided where I was going in yet, but salti was onto it and took off on a huge wave> I lost sight of him and soon forgot about him as an even bigger set started peaking almost underneath me, I tried to turn around and saw that I had no chance of completing the turn and spun her back around and just missed the wave but it had given me some forward momentum and I was a sitting duck for the next one, I just paddled like hell, not worried about anything in front of me now only what was behind.
I could hear it break and then wooho I was cutting sideways for a minute before I was breached with my arse bouncing out of the seat leaning back like a bull rider, paddle trailing behind in my left hand, right hand gripping the kayk to keep me in the saddle. It was awesome, I nearly straightened it up a couple of times but a double up and another sandbar underneath kept me holding on most of the way. Finally I've straightened up nearer the beach and found my way thru the swimmers for what has to be the best ride I have ever had. "all the way with the OK "
Salti's spitfire landed itself on a confused autopilot. big thanks to a couple of guys who gripped it just before some exposed rock on the runway, followed closely by a very salty Mr Crak.
Kev followed soon after a bit wet as well. No casualties, just another hat! I'm gonna have to start buying them in bulk.
All in all a great morning with great company, time for a beer.
Cheers,
Dave.