HAWAII & HOME

This is Otto laughing at Dayyan because he has beached himself. Beached as.

G’day Mateys,

First of all, Happy Australia Day to all my fellow Aussies out there on the web.

There hasn’t been many blogs getting posted over the festive season due to the fact everyone has just been
having too much fun to leave the beach or their mates’ bbq to go and sit on a laptop … even for 2 mins Well that’s my excuse anyway.

So now that we are back into the swing of things I managed to grab a few photos out of my iphoto library and throw a couple words down with them. You might find them amusing … or you might not.

It’s a compilation of shots from Hawaii and home – two of my favourite places;

Otto again, getting a photo with Bottle’s big poster at the Haleiwa Reef Pro.

Me and Steddy; shuffleboard cowboys.

Haha, this shot is hilarious, two long-neck giraffes on the MAI TAIs. As you can see by the colour of mine, I substituted the rum for extra tequila (my favourite).

It’s worth flying to Hawaii just to go to Turtle Bay and play shuffleboard. Tommy and Clouse would agree. Even though they’re not that good at it

Glen Hall’s Bucks Night. A few minutes after this shot, his shorts got ditched and he spent the rest of the night cruising around in just his fiance’s wedding day panties, haha funny night.

Parko – Triple Crown Champ: It’d be hard to even imagine how good this would have felt. I’d say pretty damn good judging by the smile on his head! Ben, Sam and me with him straight after he’d won. With his 10 grand watch.

Ben tattooing Mick. You can check out the whole ordeal on the Rip Curl website.

Back home for Chrissy with friends after pretty much six full months on the road.

We were down the beach with the kids every afternoon for the first week of 2009. We even dragged mattresses down and slept at Angourie point on the full moon. So much fun. Left to Right; Bob, Carrier, Nav, Ben and me – plus the kids – Jimmy, Zeah, Taiig, Jaspur and Jesse.

Me, Baddy and Carrier at Spooks point – New Year’s Eve … The wedding of two of my best friends Nav and Jacinta Fox

Me and Laurie get a photo with “Nulla”. Spooks point – last day of 2008.

Backio Day: Everyone comes home and catches up for a big arvo of drinking and celebration down the beach. That’s red wine in my hand and eyeballs, not sure why … sick fun though, yeeeewww.

Anyway hope you have an unreal year. Stay safe, have fun and enjoy the now.
especially you Otto

- D Ross

CLOUDS TASTE METALLIC

Well, this hippy has been on the road for a long time now. Since Bali actually.
But the last three months have been jammed packed full off the hellest times.
Where do I start?

Down in San Diego for the tradeshow. Was unreal to catch up with all the boys again for a couple of quiet beers. The Hurley Trestles contest was so much fun. Pumping waves and such a good set-up for a contest. Everyone was ripping and the last day had some mad surfing. Sick to watch.

About two days before I left Trestles for France, my good mate Crazy Carrier calls me and tells me that we have front row tickets to watch a sold out Metallica concert in London on the 14th of September. So, with my flight already stopping off in London there was no way I was going to miss this chance to see the best band ever … play in a massive stadium … full of crazy poms.
This is Sam and I before the show with our 350 pound of merchandise, haha.

Mental!!!

We ended up having the best night ever at the Bungalo 8 in London: Rocking up to the club with these guys and getting the full VIP treatment, haha.

I missed my flight the next day and ended up having to hang out for another day … all good though. Then it was off to France for the Quiky WCT. The waves were not all that good but it was a fun event — and amazing to see Ace take out everyone including the champ.

A shot of the Mundaka landscape with three Laird Hamiltons in it; Johnny Gannon, far left; TB, in no man’s land; and me, on the draining inside section. I thought Mundaka was such a special place. I loved it. Cool people, good vibes and the surf was incredible. It feels like you are surfing in a big arena, with everyone watching from up on the hill and around the rocks. It was an awesome experience to surf it with just one other guy out. I would have loved to surf a few more heats, but Parko wasn’t keen on the idea and thought he’d put a stop to my fun in Round 3 … again. Thanks mate, haha.

The boys watching Stedz smash his way to the semis. Another fun afternoon.

I stole this leather jacket off Carrier. It looks way better on me. Hell pic. So, with Mundaka finishing early, the two big birds decided to enter into the 4star WQS at La Confital in the Canary Islands.

Me and Botz — messing with the settings on my new camera.

Streets of Las Palmas: Killing time, waiting for the waves and comp to start.

And then, to top it all off, I won the contest. It was my first ever time getting chaired up the beach, a dream of mine for so many years. It was such a good feeling. Check out the lucky “Jay ‘Bottle’ Thompson Signature Boardshorts”. Cheers Grom.

© aquashot/aspeurope.com
Pretty fun wave to surf in a contest. You take off on a little peak that pushes across the reef and wedges up into these round little caverns. I was frothing.

© aquashot/aspeurope.com
I rode this board off Christiaan Bradley on the last two days and it was perfect. I have been loving his boards.

© aquashot/aspeurope.com
It was so sick to surf against Stuey in the final, He was doing some crazy surfing in every heat. Him and Owen were both on fire. Guaranteed, these two will be sniffing around the top 10 of the ‘QS next year. Go the Aussies.

10 GEEEEEEESS, YEEEEEEEWWWWW.

- Rossy

PARLEZ VOUS ANGLAIS

Organic cocktail

Well … seeing as I had such a good time in Bali, I thought I’d throw you a few more shots, plus a couple from over here in France.

I haven’t had any good results on the WCT yet, so France seemed like the perfect option for me to go and hang out with one of my best mates and chase some WQS points in the process.

Buddha and T Whits at Centosa heaven

The waves and weather have been pretty good as you can see, and on the flat days we have been taking a mate’s outrigger – pyrogue – out for a bit of fun. It’s also a good excuse to get amongst the beach scene, which is a reason in itself to come and experience a French summer!

Me and big at Ulus

Just don’t make a junior error, and forget to bring your sunnies like I did one day — Odyssey 20/20s of course. Yes, because they are one of my sponsors. They have a new range called HENDRIX, check them out.

Arriving in Trestles, so until you hear from me next time, check out a bunch of shots below.

Au Revoir,

d r

Chuck it on the roof.

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwww.

I will ask to get more of the beach in the shot next time

Reid and his grom Dane. First time in the waves, nailed it.

Check the technique kids, all core.

I threw this last photo in, just because I’m holding a lion cub … and it’s my Facebook profile shot … and girls like lion cubs.

GET YOURSELF OVER THERE

Clocked a few hours up at Blue Point pool with the boys … sunset was OK.

Coronas, cocktails and $4 steaks … shiiiiiiit. Yes, I had a banging time in Bali … what more can I say: get yourself over there.

Tai "Buddha" Graham is the man for organizing everything, from accommo to pool parties, and if you wanna go surfing he’s onto that too {taigraham@hotmail.com}

Me and Ottz picking Dooly Dayyan up.

Me and Buddha waiting for the boys to rock up to Ku De Ta.

Whippet, Buddha, me and Thomas getting the last rays of UV for the arvo.

Terima Kasih,

- Dan

WEEKS OF WAVES & GOOD WEATHER

The trees I was talking about last blog: that organic mulch will get ‘em charging. BBQ on the verandah: it hasn’t been turned off for the last three weeks.

The days might only be short this time of year but jeez they’re good – surfing, training and cooking up on the barbie every afternoon has been my schedule for this last stint at home.

Baddy has been catching a good bunch of fish in the mornings so I’ve been raiding his icebox through the day and eating fresh fish that night. Cheers Dave, haha.

Boards for Jeffreys; Rod Dahlberg shapes amazing 6′5’s , so I’m taking a heap of them; a couple of Danny Sherrrrwoods from Aloha ; a DS (Darren Symes); and few other 6′3"’s.

There have been some fun days out at the point the last few weeks so I’ve had some good sessions testing out some boards off Rod D, that he has done up for me to take to J Bay.

I was in at the factory the other day chatting to Albert Fox and a few of the other local legends, hearing some hell stories about when they were in J Bay in the 70s; using surgical rubber and rope for legropes, tied around their leg with an old sock. All time, I loved it, it got me so pumped to get over there early and get some waves.

The neighbours … cheeky foxes.

So here I am on the plane, six hours out of Jo-burg and loving my last minute surprise upgrade to premium. Otherwise my laptop would have ran out of battery hours ago and I wouldn’t be writing this blog.

Anyway, I’m going to bail because the altitude makes me too emotional and I could write some weird shit, haha.

Love yas all!

Dan

SOUTH PACIFIC

Had a big day today, I planted a whole heap of trees out the front of my place. Pretty exciting, they’re going to look unreal in about five years, haha.

The last couple of months has been fun, spending a lot of time in the tropics, with warm water and unreal weather.

View from the water in Tahiti – the sunrises are amazing …

… Sunsets are just as good – Chief sitting on the rocks.

Tahiti was cool, it is such an unreal place – just a bummer that what we thought was going to be one of the heaviest and scariest events of the tour was only head high or smaller for the whole time. Although, I still managed to get a lip to the head first wave and tear a few layers of skin off my back.

Things didn’t get much better in my next heat and I ended up with another 33 in the tally. Except for the right that I got in the last couple of minutes of the heat. Yep, a right-hander out at Teahupoo. It was a good one too. Probably the best wave I caught all trip:)

Ronny Blakos chillin’ by the pool in Fiji. That spa behind him there has the best view you’ll ever see from a spa. You feel kinda spoilt when you come in from a surf and kick back in the spa watching crew getting barrelled for 100 meters.

Cambo and Willsy watching the comp.

Then it was off to Fiji a week later. We arrived to pumping waves and pretty much jumped straight off the boat into 4-5′ Restaurants. There were only a few of us out for about 20mins before everyone hit it. Sooo much fun.

The next day before the comp started I caught one of the most perfect lefts I’ve ever caught. And had a great freesurf but again I struggled to put it together in my heat.

Since I’ve been home I have just been getting into the training and swimming and surfing heaps. The waves pump this time of year at home, and there is hardly anyone surfing — so I’m lovin’ it.

Dan.

HELLS BELLS

What a banging joint at Easter time. I had such a ball down there. Staying with Jack Pezza and his family, I got looked after like a king. I’ve never been down to Bells when the Rip Curl Pro has been on. So to check it out, and at the same time competing in it, was a pretty cool experience for me.

Bells Beach, Australia

I was running down the track for a surf one arvo with Tommy Whits a few days before the contest started and I was saying, “It’s a pretty sick set-up here, hey Whits.”
(Tommy got a 3rd here last year) And he said, “Wait till it actually all starts up and they play ‘Hells Bells’ over the massive sound system while you’re free-surfing … It’s bullshit, haha.”

KP checking himself out, haha.

I got goosebumps at the thought of it, and before I knew it I was out at 6-8′ Bells bowl for my first heat, and frothing, haha. I felt unreal out in the water and had managed to shake off those nerves that I had on the Gold Coast.

I got a couple of good scores and picked off better waves than what Bede and Timmy could find, and ended up with my first heat win. Yeeewww – I was a happy kid.

Really got into the AFL down in Vicco. 45 – Linga’s number.

I had the chance to keep the run going after a good start in my Round 3 heat against Taj, but again my mind got the better of me in the last two minutes and I made a mistake that pretty much handed the heat over to him. As much as it stings – it was another good lesson learnt.

Me and Talig.

My Dad, brother, and his family were all down for two weeks, so it was awesome to catch up with them and spend some time with my nephews – the little legends.

Talig and Jaspur in their new wetties.

I’m in Newy now and then off to West Oz at the end of the week for the WQS event down at Margaret River, it’s always sick fun down there, I can’t wait! I’ve also been practicing some breath holds and doing underwater training for when we go to Tahiti at the start of next month …

Packing for the MR Pro in Newcastle.

… I’m up to 2 1/2 minutes at the moment but I’d say that I would be a little more relaxed on the bottom of a swimming pool, than at the top of a 10′ Chopes bomb. Haha. Good times.

Chat to you soon,

Dan

JUST DIG IN

Thanks to my mates and all the crew from Yamba who came up to watch and support me.

Well, it felt pretty damn good, chucking a pair of boardies and all my sticks in the car to head up the coast for my first WCT event – ever.

I was singing to myself the whole way from Yamba turnoff to Tweed Heads. The waves were cracking in the week leading up to the contest, and when I did managed to jag one off the other 400 frothers in the line up, they were some of the funnest waves I’ve had this year.

MR Mania: day-glo twin-fin flyers.

It was a bummer the swell dropped off for the comp; this made free-surfing and pre-heat warm ups almost impossible, unless you got out there two hours before sunrise.

Don’t get me wrong though, it was nothing short of amazing, sitting in the line-up at Snapper, going wave for wave with one of my good mates, for my first head-to-head battle on the ‘CT.

I was trying to tell myself the whole time “it’s just the same as any other heat you’ve had, just go out and surf.” But with the crowd, the hype and everything that comes with a WCT event, I found it hard to shake the nerves and focus on my surfing.

My result – a 33rd, but an invaluable learning experience that will only boost me mentally for the next event.

Bottle’s ‘CT qualification party at the Burleigh shed.

Thanks to my whole family / extended “Carrier” family, my mates and all the crew from Yamba who came up to watch and support me. It was so cool to see so many familiar faces when I ran down for my heat at D’bar … I loved it.

My two main sponsors, Oxbow and Odyssey 20/20, have given me their full support and are keen to see me do well in the upcoming events. No pressure, just dig in.

I’ve been down here at Torquay for about a week now, getting some fun waves and adapting to the water. Bells was good today with a few 4-5 footers on the bowl.

I picked up a couple of nice boards off Danny Sherwood from Aloha on the way down and they have been feeling unreal. I’m keen as to get started. Haha, bring on the comp.

Happy Easter for next weekend. Get an organic egg in ya guts. Yeew.

-Dan Ross