Aussie Surfing Blog by Mark K

Mark is a former professional whitewater guide for our company, WET River Trips. His love of the water took him from rivers to oceans and back again. Mark is back in the wild, wild West of California surfing now. Still paddling, still surfing the waves in any way he can, he's given us a little surf update from the even wilder surfing Australian coast. Take it awaaaay Mark!

AUSTRALIA Surf Update:

My bro Justin, hooked me up with a cheap plane ticket to Australia. First Class ticket for $250, although it was stepped down from First Class because of an argument about my luggage. I didn’t have to pay the excess baggage fee. Never ever.

I flew into Sydney and I sat in the airport listening to Flower beats. My neighbour in Los Angeles, Katie, gave me a loaded Ipod for a going away gift. I got an overpriced coffee and doughnut. Hmm. When I ordered the coffee, they called it a "flat white."

Weird enough, the Canadian girl I shagged in Baja found me on myspace a few weeks before I left and asked if I wanted to travel with her through Australia in her old Volkswagen van.

I thought it was crazy, and I debated about it a lot, but I thought,"... why not, I can always bail if she is lame." Plus, she was starting from Perth and that was where the Base and his friend were from and they told me all about some good spots to surf. So I went.

I bought a ticket to Perth. Instead of meeting up with Jamie, at first, I made arrangements to meet Chantal, an Australian chick who I met in Los Angeles through another girl. My plan was to spend the weekend with her.

Chantal picked me up from my hostel and introduced me to my first moments of Australian culture. Chantal was cool as f*ck; she windsurfed, road dirt bikes, owned property, and took good care of her body... really good care.

I was so jetlagged. Two long flights moving ahead of time. Took me days to properly recover. Anyway, we went back to her house. We just talked and had some food. That night I was escorted by two fine looking women and the bouncers never noticed my thongs.

I met Chantal’s friends, Jamie, originally an English man and Phil an Aussie who we met windsurfing. Two very funny guys. We all got drunk and laughed the whole night. Jamie was hilarious.

By the time we arrived in Margaret River I knew I couldn’t hang with the Canadian girl. We were in a land of Limestone reefs, and I was trapped with an annoying novice surfer who constantly complained about the perfect conditions. The Volkswagen van was totally impractical and totally unaffordable, and I was spending too much time inside it with a girl who I couldn’t give a damn.

It was on a rainy Sunday morning when I checked the notice board and saw that someone just put an add up for a room for rent in Gracetown, a surfer’s paradise. The only problem was that they didn’t leave a phone number. I scanned the notice board looking for another ad with the same handwriting. Two tickets to Big Day Out (a concert in Perth), in the same writing and with a number, I was in luck. I was also trapped. How was I to look at the room since it was kind of far away from where we were. I soon after did one of my biggest Australian regrets. I asked the Canadian if she wanted to look at the room with me.

When I met Johno, he told me the room was gone, but I could stay in the living room. I liked his attitude. After that, he offered me another room in the house. The room of an Irish guy who had been in a near fatal car accident was shown. I was stoked. I then asked if the girl could share the room with me. I wish I never asked and gratefully he said no.

I was so ecstatic to be living in Gracetown. It was a surfer’s paradise. Two point breaks in view of the house and several waves around the back. He even hooked me up with a beat up Subaru for $600. It was a good car and it made it all around Australia. WA was all reefs... truely the wild wild west.

Reports from Aussie Surf by Mark K former whitewater guide for WET River Trips