Greetings from Canguu, Bali

I am sitting in a little thatched roof hut writing this to you and the rain is so heavy that there is a constant drip of rain on my shoulder. Should I be worried? I'll just move a little to the left... Thats better. The modern asian experience huh?

Husband and I went surfing at Canguu twice today. The first time I was a little worried - but managed to act cool under pressure and pulled off a few impressive moves in front of an international crowd...

Actually it was just Husband and I and a pommie guy who was down the way a bit. But the point is - I did it! I surfed Canguu. This afternoon was bigger - 6 to 8 foot and I had a go at a gentler break but spent most of the time testing out the strength of my leg rope as I dived for cover under a couple of large sets. After that I hit the beach for a Bintang and watched Husband surf (the good wifey that I am).

Let me just say at this point that the beaches here at Canguu do not compare with what we have at home for beauty and clean water and white sand. The thing is though, there are fantastic waves everywhere you look! And big! And watching these guys surf is a spectacle in itself. You know how good Champagnekate surfs a right hander off the Rock? Well, these guys are almost that good!!

The food is fantastic and the smell is wafting over to me right now, so I will go eat some yummy indo tucker and get back to you another time.

Hope the surf is good with you.
SM
PS - Cant seem to upload photos... will work on it later.
Later: Nuh. It aint gonna do it. You will just have to imagine.

Surfermums get together

Crowdy Gap was picture perfect this morning - smooth, warm ocean, perfect little left and rights and no-one around for miles. Husband and I outlasted the kids - I love it when the kids are waiting patiently on the beach for the parents to have their fun and get out of the surf! You know all is right with the world when this happens. I hope there were lots of surfermums carving 'em up at Diamond this morning..?

Friday night was a blast! The company was fab but I gotta say I loved my champagne, 1/2 pizza, 1/2 tiramisu and coffee! Girl food huh? And very Italian I think. Twas great to see all nine surfermums there in one spot. That doesn't happen very often these days. And we wish Laura and her mum all the best over the next little while. Mums are very important. More than words can say.

Did you know there is a ripple of disquiet begining over the naming of the MOB. An underground rebel group wants to ditch the Mum title and replace it with Babes...or was it Boobs? Fair enough I say. I'm not in charge of the MOB, I only like to write about them.

I like the fact that we had our kids and then decided it wasn't enough to be minding them on the beach. We wanted a piece of the action! And in true Mum spirit we headed out and did it the mum way. Not with egos or testosterone - but with each other, a healthy sense of humour and absolutely no care for hair or makeup! I kinda think its the mum bit that makes our group special. And think of all the school holidays when we have been out surfing with our tribe. Theres been times when there has been 20 of us from ages 8 to... well, we won't mention. Now, that is childminding! Our kids will remember surfing with their mums. How good is that? My surferboy loves it!

After all these years (it has been years you know girls!) I think we surf pretty good, we have fun with it, and we never ever take it too seriously. Its just play. MOBS/BOBS whatever!

:) SM

PS. We need some new surfing pictures here. Anyone?

It's a Date!!

MOB Dinner Date

Friday 1st April

At the Bella

7pm

Let Carla or Kate know asap!!!

Surfermums take charge

Righto you lot!

By now you should have recieved your invitation to make your mark on the Surfermum blog - so let the world know what your Surfermum brain is thinking, upload photos at will (anything incriminating and you will be struck off, y'hear!), and get interactive!

Its easy. Just be polite, DONT YELL! (unless you mean to) and first names only, ok? Should be fun huh? Come on...who's going to be first? Sign in with your email address and then go to Posting and make a New Post (I think. Ring or email me with probs)

Waiting...
SM

Champs Again!

We did it again! Alan and the mighty Red Head Roar managed to sneak over the line millimetres ahead of the Odd Bods in the annual Community Dragon Boat event final to take victory for the second time running! We overcame a panicked start to find our usual faultless rhythm and seemed to come from behind to charge at the finish line. It came down to the wire in the end - what with the chop on the water, and the wind in our ears, it was hard to tell who won for a while! (How bout those clichés heh? I think I got them all in.)

Of course, there must be no doubt the underlying strength of the Roar can be partly attributed to a handful of Surfermums (Cathy, Fran, Annie, and yours truly) who had masses of pent up energy from frustrating weekends without surf. ;)

And, um, those big blokes might've helped too.

Thank you to Alan and the crew for making a long day worth it in the end - I hope there won't be too many sore heads in the morning. And thankyou to all of our supporters...mostly the kids -who had a blast playing in the river for a change!

SM

Surf was rubbish anyway.

A night at Frenchy's

New year, new job, kids sport, a 4oth one week, a fiftieth the next... is everyone in the same whirlwind that I am in? I haven't stopped since that wild French Maid had us all drinking cocktails in the pool with our eyelashes and wigs still on!

And, yes, we had our clothes on too!

It was an all star cast - John and Yoko, Capt'n Jack Sparrow, Mark Antony, and that pale faced hooded guy from "The Da Vinci Code" (did no one else pick that??!) And I must mention the special guest appearance by Darth Vader, who went home a couple of kilos lighter by sweating it out in that outfit! Impressive for February. A naughty school girl jumped in the pool in her uniform along with that crazy Yoko while the two gypsies looked into their crystal ball and foresaw that their destiny lay on the lounge with a strict rotation of creamy cocktails placed in their hands. Now and then that Angel from the cream cheese add would drift down with a dreamy look in her eyes (or was that from the new man she had on her arm..?), slug a cocktail down and drift off again into the night.




Quote of the night: A bold Movie Director was introduced to a buxom Pirate Wench and noticed the beautiful tattoo on her left bosom. "Is that real?" he asked pointing at the tattoo on her breast. "Yes," she replied with a gleam in her eye and indicated to her other breast, "and this ones real too!" ;)






Check out Yoko on the left - typical of her to be slurping the dregs out of the Daiquiri bucket at the end of the night, don't you think?

Oh well, the surf is rubbish but life is good. I start late on Wednesdays so will hopefully see some of you in the water.

Most interesting cocktail? A Martian Hard-on! Green and creamy...*#@*!
SM

Surfing The Pass @ Byron Bay

What fun! What fun! Took the family surfing at Byron (twice!) while visiting friends at Mullumbimby during the week, it was fantastic! The water was turquoise and warm, I had to shed my wetsuit top and go cossies and boardies. I love it when its like that. (Still managed to look like a surfing dag with hat n' all- but it was fun!)

All the way home I was trying to work out how I can arrange a girls surfing trip up there. I'm picturing a house at Wategoes beach ($$$!) and up at dawn to be the first (only?!) surfers out there for a time. That would be awesome! It is soooo good for long boards. You gotta do it girls.

The only problem is the amount of other surfers who also think its awesome. You get the grommets who are so madly paddling in a world of their own and don't look ahead and nearly paddle into you; you get the stand up paddle boards which are as wide as a bus and their owners think they own the wave (one dickhead consistently would paddle straight toward me as if I wasnt there - I just wiggled my little finger at him and all us girls nodded in agreement). Then there are the dive boats that are constantly taking tourists out to see the under water sights at Julian Rocks. And there are also groups of out of control canoeists who think they can surf the waves into shore. Two of these happy (but lethal) killers nearly took me out and were thrown out of the boat, but popped up (damn those life jackets!) with huge grins on their faces like killing random surfers was the best fun ever!!

But, on a positive note, there were plenty of girl surfers (yay!) carving their way up and down the Bay. These women were really stylin' up, even Byron Bill noted there were some damn good surfer gals out there (Gee thanks Bill!! hee hee).

Byron Bill was bought a beaded necklace and told to mellow out man! which he did nicely. At one stage we had Byron Bill, Big Bad Ben, Magic Morgan and Snazzy Shaz under the tree at the Beach Hotel sippin on cold beers while the other gals did some quick shoppin. The kids were getting their kicks on free cans of Monster over the road in the park. After a hard morning of surfing The Pass, it don't get much better.

Ned Boy, exhausted and sun burnt, but fully self actualised from surfing with Jack and Blake at Byron Bay, said it was the best day of his life. Thats him in the picture above. Nice.

SM