Beat Up from the Feet Up

Purchased my first Australian surfboard, a 9’1’’ performer style board with a somewhat pointed nose, square tail, sharp rails, and a long fin with thrusters. It was shaped by Noosa Heads Surf Company. It’s light blue with a turquoise deck and black pin stripping. Not the exact color and shape that I was looking for, but it will work well for these Sunshine Coast waves. I would really like to go back to California and surf my new board shaped by Andrew and his dad, (I still have yet to see what it looks like) but that will have to wait until this December when I hope to visit. The waves here are definitely better than Monterey though, and I have surfed my brains out over the past couple of days, which I hope to keep up for the next week.

Went on a hike around the headland of Noosa, part of a small national park. The path curved along the cliffs from Main Beach (a popular name here in Australia) to Sunshine Beach. I chose to go barefoot, not the best choice. It was very reminiscent of Straddie: same vegetation, same geology, same wildlife. We spotted several Laughing Kookaburras, a group of Manta Rays, a large pod of Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins, Pied Cormorants, Green Sea Turtles and stupid people jumping off cliff faces into a surging ocean (which of course was me in Straddie). Also just like Straddie, the sharks are around in strong numbers; but according to the locals they are well fed and pose little threat. Kevin and I stopped into a paddle board shop in town, and after chatting with the store clerk he eventually showed us photos of a huge shoal of maybe 20 Tiger Sharks munching on a massive school of bait fish just up the beach from where we had been surfing. I’m sure he was just trying to scare the tourists…but he failed. I’ve already come to terms with the shark factor in Oz. One thing we spotted on this hike that we didn’t see in Straddie was a snake. Not sure what type it was, but it was big with stripes.

There are far more naked people here than from out prior view atop Mt. Olympus. We discovered a clothing optional beach along our journey, offering excellent views of wrinkles in every form. I thought about joining in but I opted to keep my boardys on, didn’t want to make Kevin feel uncomfortable. Not sure how these types of beaches get established, but they seem to have no trouble finding patrons. Perhaps deep down everyone wishes it was socially acceptable to be naked in public, so long as they have a towel to protect against the sand.

Tonight is beer pong night, a game I avoided in college because I thought it was ridiculous. Turns out it would have been a good way to socialize with people, so I’ll give it a shot tonight. Hostels really shouldn’t promote drinking, so instead we will be playing with water. I haven’t been drinking enough water lately so this should be good for me.