Road trip up the coast with no real destination in mind just packed the bare necessities:
- 8ft 6 Barry Bennett
- 6ft 8 Mark Richards Twin Fin
- Guitar
- Skate Board
- 3 Pairs of boardies
- No Map
- Shelter Soundtrack
I was leaving on a monday to go have a couple of days of solo surf trip before i met up with my girlfriend and family on a holiday. I decided to take a road i had not traveled up through Newcastle, not before long i was driving next a train next to a Oil tanker. It was bizarre to see 3 different modes of transport in such a small space.
I had set out in the hope of finding a pealing right hander and no one out, on a quite little back beach. The first beach i arrived at was Zenith beach near the mouth of Port Stephens
After discovering the surf there was a near flat shore break i decide to head to box beach which wasn't much better...
I went and checked out Fingal bay which was like a lake...
After getting some lunch i headed south to One mile beach after spotting some waves from a look out, but when i got there it was crowded and not worth the trouble. So i drove around a bit looking in little bays, one that had a lot of potential was boulder bay, located next to a water treatment plant it had some like point breaks rapping into mini coves but once again the swell wasn't big enough.
After driving a little further i came across a small beach called Kingsley part of a national park, the beach was a little walk down a track to check it and after doing so i discovered a deserted beach with little 2-3ft wedges which pealed into the beach.
I grabbed my boards and headed out, too stoked to be cautious of any possible dangers I was surfing alone. I always imagined it to be boring because no one would see your waves but after catching a few i was enjoying the solitude.
Two hours had past and a southerly had picked up chopped things up, returning to the car I was exhausted i quickly grabbed a few shots of the beach and just chilled by the car in the shade.
It felt weird not surfing with a mate, Im so used to talking to someone after a surf, rejoicing on the time and waves, but there was something about being alone that was comforting. I headed back into town and got some dinner and then drove to nice quiet street to watch the sun go down.
Waking up in the car in the morning with stiff neck and gnarly hip wasn't fun but seeing the sunrise kind of made up for it.
For breakfast i had left over twisties and red creaming soda, with my brain in overload i drove down to kingsley to check the surf only to find that a massive southerly swell had bumped up over night and was around about 6 - 7 ft.
The day before was hard enough to find somewhere big enough, now the challenge was to find somewhere that wasnt too big. I drove back to One Mile Beach to find it going off but also crowded as.
Knowing the surf was pumping i drove from beach to beach only to find it to be closing out or just a mess of white water so i decide to head up to hawks nest where my girlfriend and family were staying.
Appon arrival Hawks Nest Beach was around 6ft and clean but the tide was too high and was mainly a fast closeout shore break, i decide to go and kill some time down at the local skate park till the tide dropped a few feet. When i got back to the main beach the waves had turned on.
Coming in after a 2 hour epic surf it felt like someone was watching me, looking around i saw two heads duck behind the sand dune next to me, i waited a moment and up popped my girlfriend and her little brother. Them finding me totally made the day, and we got swell for the next four days.
Here is a few random shots from around Hawks Nest/Tea Gardens:
