For the few of you who haven’t spotted me doing the usual Millers dawn patrol this year, yes I am alive and well and still surfing.

Since February, I have traded the quiet, and..... believe it or not, “uncrowded" beaches of Port Elizabeth, for the chaos "always a 100 or more guys in the water” beaches of Sydney, Australia (Bondi to be precise).

My decision to move to Australia was based on a number of reasons really. I don't want to go into too much detail but my girlfriend is Australian..... and so I took the opportunity to live and experience something different, with the attitude that if I didn't like it home was only a plane ticket away. Luckily for me Alanna (my girlfriend) loves South Africa and doesn't mind moving back should I decide this place isn’t for me.

You would not believe how crowded and competitive this place is, especially Bondi beach. Every time I paddle out (not very often ), I can just envisage John Scheepers cursing at everyone as he does when Pipe has more than 10 guys in the line up hahaha!

I do only surf Bondi as an absolute last resort, luckily there are hundreds of other less crowded but still crowded (you know what I mean) spots around.  During the week I normally surf the "infamous" Maroubra, as it is relatively close to Bondi. On weekends I prefer to head up to Sydney’s amazing Northern Beaches (Avalon, Deewhy, Narabeen etc) where you are pretty much guaranteed to get decent waves and friendly crowds.

Aside from surfing Sydney and surrounds, I was lucky enough to spend 1 month surfing Angourie Point. If you haven’t heard of this break I suggest you google it and book a ticket over. Angourie point is essentially a headland that runs out to sea, so depending on the wind and swell direction you can surf the right or left side of the headland, both being point breaks.

Even though the waves here may be more consistent, for me nothing beats waking up and heading to Millers for a pre work surf. I miss the familiar faces in the water, seeing the dolphins head up towards Coega and the cormorant that is in the Millers line up everyday rain or shine without fail.

Millers is an amazing wave, enjoy every wave you get, because you never know when I’ll be back dropping in on you!

Cheers,

Mark

marklogan@mweb.co.za