Road trip!!!!!!!!!! Whenever a surfer hears that it’s all bets off as to how long before we are back at work????

My mate Bill asked if I wanted to go away to Seal Rocks for the weekend and see what happens if there is any surf? The only catch was Bill was taking his girlfriend so I said ok I will take my girlfriend so they have each other to talk to when we are in the surf.

All good so we set off a little late on Friday night. The old highway in those days and I am talking early 70’s, was a two-lane winding dark forbidding road, nothing like today, so four hours later we reached Seal Rocks after negotiating the dirt road in. It was pitch black and with the headlights on high beam we could tell there was no swell hitting the rocks. After a discussion we decided even though it was late we would drive the track to Treachery at night so we could be there first thing in the morning. Well, the track was a challenge during the day but at night it was just punishment. We were in Bill’s Holden panel van, so we got bogged in sand so many times we gave up counting but after what seemed like 10 hours, we arrived in the clearing that passed as a camping area.

No time for tents or camping outside so we all slept in the back of the van, Bill & Narelle heads to the from and Kerri and I heads toward the tailgate, which we left open as it was mid-summer and still as hot as it gets.

As you can imagine it was cramped but we were so tired we went straight to sleep, I have no idea how long we were asleep, but I woke to Kerri screaming and the tailgate slamming shut, all hell broke loose with Kerri saying someone had breathed in her face and snorted??? Bill and I jumped out thinking we were about to fight off some weirdo sticking his head in the van.

Well, NO, it was not a someone but a something!  We were confronted by Wild Horses!! The area was known for the wild horses turning up in the camping area as the grass was short and had new shoots they liked, and one of them had stuck his head into the van and must have snorted in Kerri’s face and when she screamed it reared up hitting the tailgate and knocking it down?

There was lot of laughter, and we all went to sleep, it wasn’t until the next morning we walked over the dunes to see 3’ to 4’ barrels off a left and right wedge

In the middle of the beach, as glassy as it can get and there were hoots and hollers as we got the boardies on and had it to ourselves for 2 days!

We stayed for a week and only ever saw two other guys the day we left! These are the trips that us older surfers still dream about, and it is a shame the popularity of surfing means these are things of the past, but if you sit down with any of us older surfers these stories are real, and we were so lucky we grew up during the early years. I have only recently stopped surfing as my body is on its last days, but it has been 60 years of following a lifestyle I loved, and my entire life was lived around surfing. I just hope you all have what you consider a surfer’s life, as it’s been a wild ride!! Aloha Rob