must be a buzz seeing everyone using that ramp Stu

Yeah, though it's more fun riding it. Real easy entry onto it, via a low angle, and then you've gotta tilt the bike as the ramp also increases in angle.

Feels like the old Rotor ride at Luna Park as it picks up pace. The faster you go the better it feels.

@Roystein, I got back into it via my 10-year old son, as did many of the guys I ride with. Seems like half of Sandon Point Boardriders is up the mountain during the surf downtime, and many are with their kids. For my eldest boy, it's the first Big Thing that he's ever latched onto so it's good to be there as he discovers it.

Thanks Craig the old b&ws come up pretty well through my (cheap) scanner, the colour is less reliable.

blindboy wrote:

Thanks Craig the old b&ws come up pretty well through my (cheap) scanner, the colour is less reliable.

BB have you seen scanning using a 35mm with back light for negatives and slides?

Results look pretty good been meaning do myself.

I am pretty sure this was the first photo I everhad published SW 74 or 75. Easy to pick the spot!

.

I focus I am using a Glanz scanner. It is OK for internet use but the colour is not up to scratch for much else. Drum scans are the standard and Andrew at Switchfoot did a couple for me but I'm not really interested in going that far myself.

Mountain biking is really good for your surfing if you dont get injured..good for learning about flow state of mind.

I agree groundie. Ive noticed that in one respect it’s the inverse of surfing for me tho… I find with mountain biking you need to be focused 90% of the time and you can zone out for 5-10%. With surfing, depending on the conditions of course, you spend more time between being relatively unfocused sitting out the back (20-30%); active but not unfocused, paddling out, paddling to the right spot etc (50%); mostly focused but broadly, such as paddling for a wave especially if it’s crowded (10%) and totally focused on a wave (10%)

If I zone out mountain biking I crash or lose flow completely. I can MTB for 30/45min competently. I can surf for 2-2.5hrs. And then reset and do it again.

True etarip also another one is driving games or racing cars...rally like simulators and other computer games are designed to target"flow" state of mind.

I don’t tend to take good photos, but I was pretty happy with this one.
From a ground floor beachfront unit at Bilinga.

Love it, Wally.

Coastal noir.

This day was during a 12 foot ssw swell at one of my fave waves in Indo. I had just hitch hiked to Bali and back again to give my fingerprints to imigrasi, to stay there for another three months.On the way to Bali i noticed Padang Bai point (near where the bali-lombok ferry ports) was 3 foot and pumping. But i didnt have a board or camera..anyway this day i got back to Sumbawa port and had to wait for a bus as everyone i was hitchhiking with were going to sumbawa besar. a man let me sleep in the back of his ute where he had a mattress. I slept for a few hours then he frantically tries to wake me up as the bus was about to leave. I said can you buy me the ticket, he said yep its 150 000 rupiah...i then got on the bus and asked what the price was and he said its 50 000 rupiah to the town i was staying in.

Anyway i got back to this surf spot and the tide was too high for it and there was no surf..but i waited for the tide to drain out a bit and it got to 4-5 foot and as perfect as any good day i saw , actually had a few wide growers like this sequence. I paddled out and had to hassle for waves a little bit but then this wide one came in and i peak chased/scrambled to a good section to takeoff on, looked back hoping no one was snaking me and no one was there... in front of my mates boat full of tourists and locals who were yelling at me to go. I made the drop and pulled into a near double overhead pit and i reached my arms up to slow down and scrape on the top of the barrel but nearly knocked me off the back of my board. Last time i ever tried that trick. anyway it just kept on barrelling but i saw one guy paddling out in the corner of my eye and had to come out of the barrel to go around him, as you often run into people in the barrel out here and if you do that on a sharp nosed surfboard it could kill them. Anyway pulled back in and it went for another 200 meters way past where you usually make it to and started doubling up and reef sticking out etc i nose dived into the reef but that was the longest barrel ive ever had on a shortboard or bodyboard. That night i slept like a baby..heres the sequence of one set.

Classic GS

I always thought I’d met you at that joint, Groundswell. But you’re not a fill in teacher are you? The bloke I met was a lid-cum-surfer from Cronulla who used to be good mates with that lid rider who had the house on the hill but used to stay for fuck all up at Scars.

We used to surf together a bit from June- October in 2012. It was still pretty epic and uncrowded back then as it was the tail end of the Mentawai! Mentawai! Mentawai! Era.

Not you?

I agree that joint is particularly dangerous for running over / getting run over by crew in the tube as the wave pins you in the impact zone on the reef during a set and there ain’t much water to duck dive in!

Not me Blowin that's Rory from cronulla, we call him chachi after the guy from happy days. ill find a pic of him.He charges on both standup and lid but gets a bit loose sometimes.

What a wave, love a grower!

https://ibb.co/PTnFCDT

storm that rolled thru last friday

Yeah nice Wally, very abstract and minimalist.

Dawn, looks like some mammatus brewing.

mammatus brewing - sounds like i'm making some fancy milk!

Haha.

Mammatus - you learn something every day. Also a very cool google search, some unbelievable images

Yeah one of my favourite clouds, insane for sunsets if you get that light on them!

Spring can be nice sometimes. Dont mind being locked down so much when the surf is shit. From our garden today.

Two excellent photos blackers, the one with the bee is special

Yeah, wow stunning!

Thanks Guy.

Very nice blackers. No surf today, onshore and windy so I took a walk around the headland. We had a crazy strong southerly not so long ago that took out a lot of mature coastal Banksias, as in the first shot. The second is a fair warning to keep your eyes on what is around you. It's always a nice walk, stays close to the coast all the way. Some pristine sections.

Same about no surf up here on the weekend, so I got stuck into some long overdue renovations.

Never knew you were a chippy Stu.

It’s frigging awesome

I'm a frustrated tradie yearning to build.

It's funny, the main trail builder on the other side of the creek is a real estate agent.

Never had the urge Stu, I inherited my wood working skills from my father. All his brothers were carpenters. He wasn't. But it jumped a generation sideways and my son does all the fine interior work for a builder on the NB. Big money builds and renos.

There’s something about creating something with your own hands that is extremely satisfying.

One for the petrol heads

Is there a wood working gene to inherit?

Complex characteristics are usually influenced by multiple genes Johknee. In this case they would probably be related to fine motor skills, rather than wood working specifically, and so be associated with other skills such as drawing, surgery etc.

Great work stu, I’ve given up riding the single tracks behind me for the season given two recent close encounters with tiger snakes: came within a few inches of riding over a head of one sunning itself and other was blocking the full width of the path and refused to move!! Riding more open paths atm :)

blindboy wrote:

Complex characteristics are usually influenced by multiple genes Johknee. In this case they would probably be related to fine motor skills, rather than wood working specifically, and so be associated with other skills such as drawing, surgery etc.

I reckon it’s less to do with fine motor skills and more to do with how you interpret the world around you. Some people are able to comprehend the mechanics behind physical structure or maybe the moving parts and inter workings of machinations. Some are able to easily conceptualise music or science. Other people struggle to do any of the above despite having equivalent levels of intelligence.

I don’t think that Stu’s untrained success at building bike ramps has much to do with motor skills. He just seems to intuitively know what’s required. The physical graft isn’t the impressive part of the outcome. Though it sure makes you feel good so it might be part of the drive and attraction.

Hey, I'm quite enjoying my bush carpentry being equated to the skills of a surgeon so enough with your rebuttals.

I think you are right. In that case it's probably largely being motivated. All I know is that you should never trust me with a chisel unless we are working with centimetre margins for error.

It’s all passion

Well 80% anyway

You do what you love and then practice makes perfect

Anyone can do pretty much anything, once you figure that out the world is your oyster

Probably looks a bit different now.

My first Waratah in the wild, and on finding this, there were hundreds in the surrounding valleys.

And Sunset yeah BB?

It's the view from the hill behind Kammies in the winter of 77-78. So Sunset in the foreground Velzyland (I think) in the distance.

Yep, thought so, nice!