im in manly beach. i brought the crap weather over with me from west oz. theres a bit of surf but there is a ton of wind on it. i think im going to the gold coast. should be a good time up there. im hoping to get super bank at least thigh high, just to have surfed it. try and check out some of the other points as well.
oh yeah, i like getting comments but advertising on my comments thing sucks ass so you assholes that do that please stop.

so today is my last day in margaret river/western australia. i have to drive up to perth this afternoon and i fly out tomorrow morning to sydney. i really love western australia because the people are so mellow and pretty much everybody is out to have a good time. the surf is usually really good down here in margaret river but i got skunked this week. it was rainy and onshore the whole week. not a big deal because i know that i will be back here. the heussemstams are always so accomodating and they are really good chefs so the food is good as well. this style of life is definitely different from back home. for example, yesterday i went with karl (oldest son of the heussos) out to film these twelve year olds doing burnouts in a beat up car in a sheep paddock. then afterwards they came back to have some beers and get a tattoo. going out at night is different too because you go to taverns instead of bars. i know they seem to be the same but once inside youd see theyre quite different. plus all the good looking girls have boyfriends. this is because there is an abundance of guys and not that many girls, especially good looking ones. the taverns are really fun but after they close everyone gets a taxi home because nothing is within walking distance. well i didnt know this and got separated from karl and i ended up having to walk six miles home in the pitch black. i walked in the middle of the street because i could see the white lines and nothing else. every now and again there would be a car and i would try to hitch a ride. i didnt get a ride until i got almost all the way to the house. and even then i got picked up by this guy that was wasted and swerving all over the road. he almost killed us by running into a pole but swerved at the last second and only ended up grazing the side of the car. i didnt want any more trouble so i just had him drop me off there to let me walk the last quarter mile. of all the adventures to be had in western australia that is one ill be okay with if i dont repeat it.
sydney is next, get there in time for the melbourne cup. this is a horse race comparable to the kentucky derby in stature but its a way bigger party. apparently the whole country shuts down and parties. ive heard that the day after is like a national holiday because no one goes to work. so that should be fun. im going to try to get up to the gold coast and surf a bit up there. the weather is nice up there so ill at least get some beach time.

so what would you do for a pair of sunglasses and a watch? so today i found out what id do. gabe (heussemstam) had a contest in perth so we all trekked up there to go do it. quicksilver was the contest host so they were giving away free stuff (like watches and sunnies). Hoyo (matt hoy, famous aussie surfer of the 90s) was on the mic giving away hats and the like and said that if anybody would paddle out in one of the bright white kelly slater wetsuits and surf a MR (mark richards) retro boards he would give them both a pair of sunnies and a watch. nobady did it for a while, and as it got towards the end i figured that id do it. now remember these are people ive been hanging out with for a total of three days and they see this stupid american paddle out in a absolutely bright white wetsuit. the looks on the faces of the guys out in the water was of absolute disbelief. i looked like an idiot, but hey i came away with a couple hundred dollars worth of product so im happy.
gabe wasnt so lucky though, he ended up buckling his board and blowing out his knee in waist to chest high slop. i felt plenty bad for him because his team had a chance to win the comp to get a free trip to the gold coast and surf a heat at kirra during the quicksilver pro.
anyway, the surf has been average in west oustralia but ive been having a great time. everyone ive met has been really good at helping me out. i could definitely move here.

so ive spent my last few days in perth hanging out with jeremy. it was a great weekend to visit him because there was some surf, the weather was nice for the first time in a while and it was his birthday which was cool because it meant that hanging out on the weeked was really fun. met some cool people and some fun girls. the girls here are really mellow, i feel like they are definitely less bitchey than american girls. had a bit of fun and now im in margaret river hanging out with the heussemstams. gabe and karl are the captains of beer fridge, the local clan of debauchery. everyone seems to know them because the put out a bunch of surf movies and they are really crazy. its mellow right now because i have just been hanging out with their parents, mark and leslie who went to school with my parents. they are great people and fun to be around. all i need now is for the surf to pick up and lifes good

im in the singapore airport right now waiting my transfer to go to sydney and then to perth. i have made a four hour flight a 24 hour journey. today i had fun in kuta after a big night last night. the surf was flat so i just roamed around kuta bargaining with all the shopkeepers for deals on stuff. i also got a four dollar foot massage. it was nice because my feet have been beat up from the reef. kinda a girly day but what the hell. be in perth tomorrow night hanging out with jeremy so that should be good. final call for my flight right now...so here i go

ive just spent ten days in eastern java. its a place called grajagan that is famous for one thing, and that is surf. there is nothing else there except a fishing village forty minute boat ride away. its really a magical place. i surfed on one day with this guy from san clemente named blaine. we walked down the beach because g-land was huge and closed out. we ended up finding this left hand reef that spun and went for a couple hundred yards and we were the only ones out. it was so remote that we couldnt even see any sign of human life around anywhere. the days after that the surf got a bit smaller and i got some great barrels at g-land. it is such a fun wave. it isnt as perfect as i had thought but there are some that come through and are real gems. one of the other things that was cool is i got to be a part of a indonesian full moon party that included all of the traditional dress. they actually had me dance with these girls..five times. it was a lot of fun because the indos are very warm and inclusive, everybody is welcome to their parties. the area i stayed in was a bit buggy at the end when it started raining but other than that it felt like paradise. it was different being removed from everyone for that long but it was really cool. im glad i spent as much time as i could there because it is really different from everywhere else i have been. i got to see monitor lizards too which was cool, they get really big. the monkeys there are not afraid of you and will steal your stuff if you dont look but i still like having them around. the real surprise was seeing a huge sea turtle pop up while i was surfing there. im really excited to get leave and get to australia now. should be fun to see jeremy and the heussemstams.

so today might be my last post for at least a week. im heading off into the jungle of eastern java in search of surf. i will be staying in grajagan surfing one of the most famous lefts in the world, g-land. im pretty excited but it should be interesting because there is supposed to be a big swell coming in. im not sure ill have enough board to handle that super fast wave. ill just hope that the first few days are relatively small so i can get accustomed to it before i decide if it is too big for me or not.
bali has been fun for the last few days, uluwatu is an insanely good wave. i will have to say that using the mopeds here is one of the most dangerous things i have ever done. there are no rules in bali. you turn right from the left side and vice versa. the idea of driving on the left is not so much of a rule as it is a loose habit. there are donkeys and mopeds and motorcycles and buses and taksis (taxis) it is just insane. they really believe in the survival of the fittest here. if your vehicle is larger than the other persons then you get right of way...no matter what side of the road. this puts mopeders in a predicament when there is a truck overtaking another truck. i felt fortunate to actually get out alive. there were times when i didnt think i would make it but im here.
well for now ill be heading to check to see that my luggage makes it on board the transit and i leave in four and one half hours for g-land.
o i almost forgot. i got the longest fastest barrel of my life at uluwatu yesterday which was really cool. especially because someone hooted for me on the shoulder.

so after a long haul on planes and in the airport i finally made it to bali. this place is really different from most places i have been. its like mexico in paradise. there are crappy taxis spewing smog and even more insane moped drivers everywhere. its definitely one of the most difficult places i have ever seen for driving. but then you get to the beaches and there are these huge green cliffs that go right to the ocean. once you get down to the beach there are these caves that are enormous. its really crazy to see a place like that. then you get to the wave, uluwatu, which is about as long a wave as i have ever surfed. im going to say that for the conditions i got uluwatu was much longer than jeffrey's bay was. and you go so fast on it. it couldnt have hurt that i got it really solid size. it was actually too big to surf the normal part of ulus so i surfed outside corner which really lines up and fires. i felt like rob machado in september sessions when he is just going up to the top of the wave to go fast back down it. it was really cool. my new board seems to work well, i definitely got some good waves on it. it would have been cool if ulus was doing the whole barreling thing, but im not going to get too persnickety. im also really excited because i just booked a seven day adventure to grajagan (g-land) which will only cost 350 all inclusive. i even get three beers a day on that food allowance. it should be insane because ive heard that it just fires, which will be really fun. im actually thinking about extending the trip to 10 days for an extra 150. i mean i like bali but its not my sort of place to be by myself. i rather have the surf in the wilderness, all you have is a book sort of thing when im by myself. anyway, im hungry, which should precipitate into me leaving

durban, south africa
dan left a few days ago, but not before we had a good night out on the town. anne ellis, grants mom, lined us up with a couple guys from the local lifesavers to show us around. we had a few drinks and went to a club. that was interesting, guys in sa take their dancing seriously and they have this thing where they are keep there distance from girls. i must have dancing confused because the only reason i like dancing is to be close to girls. there havent been any nights where ive just felt like dancing. so needless to say dan and i stuck out a bit. we were a bit all over the place and we actually approached girls and tried to dance with them. this could have worked better, i think that the girls here actually prefer the guys to stay far away. its weird, but atleast we got shot down really badly. no big deal, just happened again a few moments later, didnt seem to hinder our spirits though.
after dan left i went to a rugby game with grant's dad, bruce. we went to the durban sharks game as they played against the western province. they looked pretty good in the first half but they got smoked in the second. i really like going to sporting events, no matter what sport or country, and this was no different. ill be spending some time in the rugby part of the world so ill get to enjoy it some more.
the surf has finally turned on a bit. the last two mornings have been fun, yesterday was really good and today was not as glassy or big but still very worthwhile. the ellises have been way more than accomodating towards me and it has made for a very enjoyable experience. they are very similar to my parents in that they have been around boys for so long that a quiet house is not what they are used to. i actually think that they have been enjoying having me around. i know ive been really enjoying it here as well. even grants friend mark has been a big help. he took dan and i to the tony hawk skate demo ( i know, i have to go all the way around the world to see a guy that lives less than an hour from me at home), he helped us with surf spots and he's just been a cool guy. the other thing that has been cool is that the ellises a have costco sized version of my dog named malcom. malcom is about twice as big as cali, he just looks like a pony sized labrador, so that has been nice.
i leave in a few days for bali. in the wake of the bombings over there i wasnt quite sure what to think. i know the first thing i heard from my mom is that i can go somewhere else if i like, but then i starting to really evaluate it. i believe that right now there will probably be more security around and this is also a time that bali would most need a continuance of tourism to keep going. im not sure what is to be done there, but maybe i could help some as well. i know ill still be surfing a bunch but in between sessions i could try and help out. im really not sure how this whole thing is going to work out so wish me luck and safe travels.