Surfing North Stradbroke Island
19 December 2014 | Brisbane, Australia
Kim
We met Paul, Bernadette, and Finnley from the boat MacPelican in Columbia, and have been sailing together off and on ever since. They hail from Straddie Island in Australia. We have heard a lot about Straddie along the way and were keen to get out there and see for ourselves their island paradise. The issue being there is no great harbor where we could comfortably leave Flour Girl while we explored and surfed. Paul and Bernadette were going to be on the island for a family gathering and invited us out for a few days. They have some guest cottages that they rent out and one would be coming available on the Monday. They would call their friends Vicki and James to see if we could spend the first couple of days at their place. Uh, cool, but we don't even know these people so why would they want us as house guests? Bernadette assured me they were lovely people and why wouldn't they want us as house guests? I could think of a few reasons. David checked the weather and it was forecasted to rain all weekend. We decided to cancel, thinking it would be weird to force ourselves on people who don't know us for a rainy weekend. Bernadette would not hear of it. We had their car and she insisted we pack it, get on the ferry and get our butts over to Straddie. OK. We got it all together and headed over. I baked a flourless torte and made some vanilla bean caramel to warm our way into the hearts of our hosts. They were both a hit. Our knew best friends, Vicki and James could not have been nicer or more gracious hosts. They have 2 daughters, Rumi and River and Zack got on with them straight away. We spent 2 nights at their house including a big dinner with Paul and Bernadette. We had a great time and when it was time to leave they invited us to stay with them for the remainder of our trip. We almost took them up on it, but fish and house guests, you know. We did see them almost every day, meeting up at the beach to surf and stopping by for tea. Zack had 2 sleepovers and would have been happy to move in permanently. David and I was well, it is a great house on Deadman's Beach.
We moved over to Paul and Bernadette's place which is six minutes from the beach. On Straddie you are always close to the beach! It is a lot like St. John 10 years ago, as in less developed, but with great surf waves. We got Zack a surfboard for Christmas and I got one as well. It was hard to hide and as we were going to be on Straddie we gave it to him early. At first he was a little hesitant to get out and give it a go. River and Rumi were boogie boarding and he was happy to ride the waves on Finnley's boogie board. (we forgot to bring his). The waves are a little intimidating and it seemed like all the surfers had been shredding a long time. We spent a few days boogie boarding and loving life. We were on the beach one morning with Vicki and the girls when Zack met Zak. Zak is 10 and just moved to Straddie last spring and is a budding surfer. That was all the encouragement Zack needed. Seems it is easier to learn to surf with a buddy who is falling as often as you are. The two of them went at it all day. It was great fun watching them and it didn't take long for Zack to start catching and riding the waves. Every ride brought smiles and high fives. Zack and Zak were perfect for each other, both little blond haired blue eyed surf dudes. They could have been brothers out there surfing. We met up the next 2 days for surf fun. On day two Zack decided he liked my short board better than his big one, so we traded. It is lighter and easier to maneuver and since he is so light it was buoyant enough for him. He was popping up like it was nothing. I on the other hand am a complete tosser and was able to catch and pop up on one, single wave the entire week we were there. I was able to pop up on a few with David giving me a push start but my success was limited. David spent a considerable amount of time drinking salt water as well. He caught a few rides but Zack is definitely the surf pro in this family. We had planned to stay for 4 days but that somehow turned into 11. We were having such a great time and the people were just so welcoming and great we were finding it difficult to leave. We could live on Straddie. Zack was ready to stay forever, even if it meant he would have to go to a real school. We did have to go, so we packed it up and headed back to Brisbane. We had not planned to be gone for so long and had left our new bikes chained to the fence on the river walkway (with many other bikes.) We were disappointed to find our locking cable had been cut and David's and my bikes had been stolen, Zack's had been left which was good. I guess that's life in the big city.