I live for chasing swells on a days notice. The anxiety and adrenaline started from the minute I received an email from Harro stating there are some good storms approaching West Aus. I was sitting in Teahupoo. I just surfed 10-12 ft Teahupoo the same day. Immediately I emailed the boys at red bull for some travel help and they approved it. Now was the time to pull the trigger. I emailed Harro once more to confirm the mission was a GO! It all happened fast and smoothly. I was on my way to Sydney then to Perth the next morning. Harro met me a the airport in Sydney and we proceeded to Red bull to gather the rescue sleds. The next morning we were on the flight to Perth. We met Paul Morgan at the airport who I just met in Tahiti and surfed the same big swell with him at Teahupoo. Upon our arrival in Perth we proceeded to the car rental agency to pick up our two 4wheel drive vehicles. All the logistics were going great. Next stop to pick up my red bull Jet Ski at red bull in Perth. Alfy Carter was also waiting there with all his equipment ready to charge. We had all the heavy machinery and enough red bulls to keep you awake forever. A few stops in Perth to buy food and we were off. After driving for 4 hours we were smashed. We pulled off the road in the middle of West Aus and all slept in the dirt for 3 hours. As we lied down it started to sprinkle rain. We were all so tired we just pulled our sleeping bags over our heads and took cover. We got back on the road in time to make it to the destination where we planned to surf. As we arrived we find out that the wave we set out to find was too far out to drive Jet skis. We opted to head to the ugly slab Cyclops. Morgs and Alfy had a go. I didn’t want anything to do with it. It's not a wave you surf, you survive! Both Alfy and Morgs survived and we called it a day. I was disappointed! Cyclops was the last wave I wanted to surf, and we went there on my first day of the trip. Luckily there was another swell two days out that would offer waves worthy of me travelling to Aus to surf. The second swell proved to be bigger and better. We left the area of Cyclops and headed to our next destination where there was a few spots to choose from. One of the waves I surfed a few years ago. A great left hander that served up some fancy tube time. The other wave we found on a day when the swell was dropping and we were driving down every 4wd track in the vicinity looking for possible places to tow-in. From the beach you could see it capping and the right would run down the reef. It was so far out we couldn’t really see if it was a wave or a piece of Indian Ocean mush. The next morning we were out the door before the sun came up. It was our last chance to get some surf. The day turned out to be a special day. We scored the left at first light. We all bagged some good tubes then proceeded on a 30 minute bouncy jet ski ride down the coast in search of the right hand bombie we scoped out the day before. When we pulled up to the slab smiles were beaming. It was 8-10ft with subterranean holes in the ocean folding over. I was stoked to be able to get a mix bag of waves on this West Aus wave chase. We named the right hand bombie Poodles. We each had a handful of great rides at the powerful outer reef before our petrol was running low. We all made it back to the beach safely and in good spirits.

 

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