APRIL FOOLS

 

Bells! Wooo! I love this event, cold weather, cold water, Easter eggs and Hells Bells getting a blaring over the Bose system during early mornings at the event! Epic! I arrived here Friday April 30 and have had a few fun surfs at the Bells bowl over the weekend. April 1st was a good day, I got Steds a great April fools. We’re sharing a house that he had booked but I arrived on Friday and he wasn’t arriving til Sunday (April 1).

 

Ah, just outside Geelong aint so bad, Steds.

So … I told him as he was en route Melbourne that our house had been Double-booked and we had to move into a new place. Which wasn’t too much grief for him as he wasn’t here yet.

But as he got off the plane in Melbourne he turned his phone on to see a few horrifying messages!I told him where we were moved was the dirtiest, dingiest, grubbiest little shack ever!

I told him it couldn’t even accommodate all of us, and it was somewhere out near Geelong! (about an hour from Bells). He obviously freaked out and had everyone he knew in the area hunting another house for us.

HAAARRR HAAArR! He called me with the least happy voice I’ve ever heard from him and said “What should we do?’ and I said ‘Do you know today date? Because I’m pretty sure it’s April 1st! Ha, April Fools mate! Our house is sweet!’ … got him good huh!

That’s about it for now.

Taj

YAMBA TO YALS - STARRING STEDS, SNAKE & SLATS

 

Well, here we are, with one event down and 9 to go …

I’m sitting here in Yallingup, WA slowly packing my bags and boards before flying out to Bells. I just got some sick-looking sticks sent to me so I’m gripping and stickering them up hoping one is magic and will help me ring that precious bell. They look so good I’m spending about an hour on each with sticker placement. You gotta have a bangin’ sticker layout, its crucial, ha.

Well, since the Gold Coast event I’ve spent time in QLD, Sydney and here in Yallingup and all those places have had pretty good surf. I drove to Sydney after Quik Pro and scored really fun waves around Yamba with Mick F, Shaun Cans and Dylan Longbottom.

This is around Yamba, surfing with Mick F. Check the feature on the homepage! | credit - Shieldsy

Once in Sydney, had a few more fun little waves at Bondi and Tamarama. But the big event was on the weekend. I dressed up with my girlfriend and mates and headed to the Northern Beaches for Luke Stedman and Malia Jones’ wedding. It was an epic night with entertaining speeches, good food and drinks and an amazing song performed by the Goons of Doom written for Luke and Malia. Goodtimes! Two days later I headed West and scored a solid swell with Snake. Kelly was also on the West Side sniffing around, so after a little team meeting we decided to let him come surf with us.

The Goons.

We threw the ski in and took turns whipping into a few beach-break slabs at one of our favourite spots. Snake and I were good hosts to Kelly, maybe a little too good, ha. Anyway I’m now booking flights, rental car and accomo for Bells. See ya there!

tb

EVEN MORE GOOD TIMES, IT JUST NEVER ENDS!

Well, January is always a pretty action-packed and entertaining month for me. I’m sure its much the same for all the boys during their break too. I have had some good times thats for sure.I’ve had three mates come over from Sydney to live-it-up here in the West. It’s been a blur of good times including; New Years Eve, hanging on the beach, surfing, BBQing, drinking, poker, and hanging with girls! All the good stuff that summer is about!

Snake and I just bought a new Yamaha Jet ski and the thing is amazing! We’ve logged quite a few hours already this summer whipping into little waves and just fooling around.

A wine tour that I did with friends was also a huge highlight of my summer. We all dressed up like idiots and toured the famous Margaret River wine region. So much fun sampling all the wine and pretending we were wine connoisseurs - ha! Luckily, one of the ladies drove because things got pretty wild after five wineries, yeew!

We also went to a huge concert called Southbound, which was in a town close to me called Busselton. Crazy. 20 000 people and a bangin’ line up that included; The Presets, Scribe, Basement Jaxx, Hilltop Hoods, Modest Mouse and Wolfmother! So yeah, even more good times! It just never ends!

Wolfmother.

… Although it did have to come to an end for me. First comp, the Quik Pro starts Feb 27 and that comes around real fricken’ fast! So… I set myself the date of Jan 15 to stop the partying, etc, and put the blinkers on!

I took on a person to do personal training, nutrition and physio. He’ll be cracking the whip until the Gold Coast event, its tough to skip all the festivities but it has to be done. I had a sick time, but now my mind is on getting fit and surfing my best.

On Jan 19-21, I hosted my kids’ surfing comp here in Yallingup. Its called “Taj’s Small Fries” and its the 2nd year we’ve run the event with Billabong and it was a riot!

Matt Banting took out the main event at Small Fries. | Credit: Hilts

I think I had just as much fun as the 120 groms that competed, it was unreal!A highlight was watching young local Margaret River grom Creed McTaggart absolutely destroy the under 14s. He scored four waves over nine points, one being a 9.8!

Everyone was ripping, girls and boys. We had prefect surf and the event ran like a dream. So stoked watching all those little grubs thresh around in their over-sized singlets

Well thats almost a wrap for my January. I’m currently training, eating good food and surfing my arse off in preparation for the Goldy. Ok, hope to see you there.

I hope everyone was living it up over the holiday season! Goodtimes.

Booom!

Taj