MONTHLY MEETS
SKA Club Meet - July 2010
The July Club Meet was well attended with twelve members turning up. Unfortunately the surf was not cooperating and after driving to all likely locations from Cliffs to Parsons Beach, some of the group stayed at Waitpinga, while the rest surfed Cliffs.
Those that surfed Waitpinga got some small hollow waves. Unfortunately a few too many closeouts came through making it tough to get out at times.
Simon had some good rides on a right hand bank but unfortunately a few stand-ups spoiled his waves by dropping in on him. Max got his share of waves making the walk down the beach worth while. Paul and myself surfed the left hand bank which also had a right hander, that broke super fast over the sandbar, and the very occasional closeout (or straight handers as Paul calls them). Paul got a few hollow rights that kept him hooting making the rest of us jealous. I had one late take-off that got me airborne, but still managed to make the wave. That one wave made the session worth while for me.
Unfortunately I haven't caught up with those that surfed the Cliffs, but hopefully they will send in a report to add to this site.
It was also great to see the new members joining in. Welcome to the club Sandy, David and Martin.
Click on the link below to view some photos taken by new member Martin and our regular photog Lynda.
SKA Club Meet - February 2010
Our first club surf for 2010 was celebrated with our biggest yet turnout of 12 members and two potential new members. We met at our usual starting point, the Seaford car park to watch an outgoing tide and absolutely flat and glasslike seas. Based on surf reports, the decision was made to head for Waitpinga Beach. By the time we all arrived, walked East down the beach and paddled out into the ‘huge’ 1-2ft surf, there was Freddie, Stylemaster, Fangio, Pine Box, Mick, Roadrunner, Craig, Dan, Cade, Mark, Kim, Simon and two newies, Sandy and David in the water.
The rip was turbulent and the water was full (and I mean FULL) of salmon, with the glassy faces of waves alive with hundreds of fish. There was also a large number of small brown jellyfish everywhere, which made for some interesting paddling, if, like me you went out in boardies. Luckily, the fish did not attract any larger fish to the area, which allowed us to concentrate on the ‘epic’ surf conditions. We had broken into two groups, and four surfing our inconsistent peak did get a fair few small fun waves. The rip made for tough paddling at times, and dragged most of us west along the beach. It was at this time, when many of us were in a bigger group, that ‘Stylemaster’ Pete took of late on a nice little righthander. Cade and I watched with big smiles on our faces as he tucked into a lovely little tube ride, and came spurting out with a big grin from ear to ear. It was rare event in pretty crappy surf, but capped of a fun morning for all of us.
Most of us finished the morning with baked items at the Victor Harbor bakery, but this was marred by their lack of Iced Coffee in the fridges.
It was, all things considered, a good little surf with great company; what more can you ask for?
Craig
SKA REPORT 2008
G’day Members
Goodbye 2008 – Bring on 09.
Ol Mate Huey doesn’t care about world finances or taxes or work or bills. He keeps on pumping the swells towards the coast and for some of us who have been in the right spot at the right time – good luck to ya. It only takes one good wave to make your day and that’s what SKA is here for – to help make that happen.
Thanks to all members for supporting the club this last year and continuing to breathe life into this vessel of surfing and mateship. As the club nears its 10th Anniversary some words must be said on behalf of all members to the outgoing committee.
Our sincere thanks to Phil Arthur as an inaugural founding member and the club’s President since inception. Phil’s positive approach and his commitment to surfing and the club has been an inspiration. We wish Phil all the best in his preparation for the SA leg of the Kneeboarding Pro Am and SKA looks forward to helping out any way we can. Let’s hope Ol Hey does the same. Rumour has it he’s spread himself to thin and can’t make the state rounds. So....if anyone’s keen to have a crack at the title, get out there.
To Dave and Karen Manly we also say a Big Thank You for your hard work in the Treasury Department for all these years. The walking work of art that is Mr Manly has been spotted stroking his new Beast and he may have more time now to get wet and work on those pumping rhymes!
To Pete “Stylemaster” Granton as outgoing Vice President many thanks for the awesome trips you’ve organised over the years. These surfing safaris are the core activities of the club and will always be remembered for some great waves and fun times.
Into 2009 SKA has some new faces. Welcome to Mark Ashby, Simon Coote, Paul Francis and Vince Dwyer. It’s awesome to see more kneelos in the water.
The SKA committee also has some fresh heads in the mix. We’ve put a bit of a questionnaire together to help us focus on what the members would like. So please fill in and send back when you get a chance.
The last club meet saw a great turnout with some punchy waves at Parsons sorting most of the crew out on the shallow sandbar. Hope to see you all out there again come March.
Keep Rippin’
Dan
SKA club meet -June 2008
Small turnout due to Yorkes trip but those that stayed behind Kim, Max, Freddy, Phil and myself rocked up at Seaford .Greeted also by Dave who had a lot on and couldn’t travel with us today.
Due to small conditions Middleton way we headed straight to Parsons, an eerie feeling ensued as the car park was deserted not a good sign we thought !!!! We ummed and arrgghed had a quick check at Waite’s Pt then settled with a bank halfway down Parsons.
Freddy made a brave call and set off ahead the Prez was heard grumbling a little thinking we’d made a bad mistake- he longed for the epic barrels of the other side haha.
Anyway off we set and soon came to the bank Freddy set out quickly ,thanks mate you let us all know where not to paddle out as the rip quickly shunted him down the beach.
We had two options a left and right which we all mixed and matched switching from peak to peak .The swell was quite consistent and we all got our share of waves and a sound flogging on the inside if you rode them too far .At one stage Kim took off on a great right hander and we could hear him shrieking from out the back I thought he’d been attacked by a shark- but he was stoked with the speed he’d got as he bashed the lip and crash landed. Phil did get wave of the day smoothly moving from the left he casually snaked er sorry drifted on the inside onto the wave of the day!! As usual the camera was on the shore and it failed to capture a classic crank of the bottom into a carving signature turn, spray flying everywhere……I could have got a classic shot but had to move quickly out the way to prevent being mowed down. One point before I finish if I hear one more clown yell out shark while 50 m offshore at Parsons I’m gonna kill ya …..you know who you are!!!! Anyway Freddy’s call had proved to be pure genius and we all headed back to the bakery for much needed feed.
On the way home we had the usual yak about life, religion and the universe in general ….as always we shed some wonderful, yet disturbing insights into physiotherapy , massage, chiropractors and Freddy left us in awe as he revealed his knowledge of Barbie dolls and the upcoming latest release of the new model called Monique…….comes in a threesome with 2 other dolls who’s names are yet to be released. Phil distinctly stated he wanted nothing to do with it !! and we all swore never to discuss it again!! Thank god for SBS.
Oh well onto the next meet should be a classic as the SKA boys get the chance to show their skills on a club competition training session. Hope fully with this under our belts well next year have more members giving the state titles a shot !!!!!
SKA club meet -May 2008
Our may club meet saw a small crew of Cade, Kym, Craig, Pete, Max and Freddie surfing small but clean Waitpinga Beach. We made the call to walk east towards a right and left hander peak, much to Max’s frustration as he thought the point would be a better option. After an hour or so in the water, we’d all had a few fast but not particularly good waves. The left was fat and petered out rapidly in the rip and the right was prone to closing down.
It was a club BBQ day, but many of the guys had family commitments so the only a handful returned to Craig’s to enjoy a few relaxed ales and a beautiful afternoon on the balcony.
Next club meet is a Yorkes trip on 31 May/ 1 June.
SKA club meet -March 2008
Our March meet come around fast and the turnout wasn’t too bad. The usual suspects turned up, Pete, Kim, Cade, Dan, Dave, Paul, Geoff and me ( da prez ). We did da car shuffle and headed straight for parsons. We were happy little campers until we came over the hill and got an eyeful of how many cars were already in the carpark………… BLOODY HELL !!!!! HALF OF ADELAIDE WAS THERE !!!! But we ploughed on and made the call to go out at Wait’s Point as there were only a handful out and it was better than thrashing it out with 50 wave starved surfer’s!!
Pete and Cade are now in the good books with the prez cause they stayed outa the water for half an hour to get some photo’s, it’s not that they weren’t in the good books but this certainly helps with me not stabbing them in the back when they are not looking….…….., not that I would do that to you guys…..???? would I ?? As per usual we split up when we hit the water trying to score the best waves but the banks were pretty average so it wasn’t going to be anything fantastic but at least we got wet. We bumped into another super keen kneelo, Nick Ford, who was stoked to see so many kneelo’s in the water, so hopefully we will see more of him in the future. Pete and Cade paddled out just as a few of us came in so I tried to work out how to use Pete’s camera to return the favour but it all got a bit toooooo hard for me and I threw in the towel and put the dumb camera back!!!!!! What ever happened to the 35mm camera !! they were the days, just point and click aaaahhhh……!!
The day wasn’t over yet as we had the bbq at Goeff’s house to go to. We all rolled up to his house and had a great time throwing chop bones and into his garden…….. he will never know will he ??? But he cooked the bbq to perfection and didn’t burn down his house so it was an excellent arvo to finish off the day.
See ya in da green room somewhere soon
Da Prez
SKA club meet - February 3 2008
Our first club surf for 2008 started with a very big turnout at our Seaford meeting spot. By 7.10am the crew consisted of Cade, Bunny, Phil, Pete, Geoff, Craig, Max, Kym, Dave, Steve and Dennis. Dan joined us later after we had decided to head south to Middleton, although we were all tempted by the low tide 6 inch waves being ‘surfed’ by two desperados at Seaford reef. Dave did not make the trip south due to family commitments (kids and broken feet!)
After the trip south, which some of us lucky ones made in Phil’s new ‘super beast’ Triton we were confronted at Middleton with lumpy 3 foot plus slop being blown apart by a strong southeasterly wind and breaking halfway to the horizon with a washing machine full of white water to paddle through. We all tried to be positive: Max said ‘it’s a wave’, Phil responded with ‘it’s three foot out the back and the faces are clean’. Pete was more realistic when he said ‘it’s breaking a long way out’. Although there were guys out, indecision ruled while we waited for Dennis and Steve to phone in surf reports from Petrel Cove and Chiton Rocks.
Geoff wanted to go out at Middleton because of the babe getting changed to go out, but instead he went off to check out the toilets twice.
Dennis and Steve did report in, but we suspected they were heading off to the elusive and not so secret Chicanas as the winds were right and the swell could be coming through in the right direction. Turns out Max and Kym also went, leaving the rest of us to surf the Dump and an adjacent left. Bunny made the call to not go out which was probably a good call in hindsight, but he did not get to surf his new acquisition, a piece of 1970’s history. We were all impressed with his $100 Cash Converters find, a 5’6” square tail, quad fin ‘Sun Dancer’ complete with pink spray job and funky shapes all over it. Of course Phil tied to pull rank and buy it from him for less than he paid for it! Phil was also not happy to discover that Freddie was giving away lots of goodies due to a clean out, but had not given Phil anything. When Freddie gave Pete a wetsuit bag, Phil’s response was ‘What did you give me? ( ---- all !)
Our decision to surf the Dump should have been informed by our initial response on arriving ‘How come there’s so many guys out?’ Ah, but in true surfer optimism, we saw something in it and went out. It was lumpy, bumpy and made Freddie grumpy; ‘Worst surf I’ve had for along time!’ ‘Should have stayed at Middleton’
Phil’s comment on the 2-3 foot waves was ‘it was shit and I even got dropped in on, on a one foot wave; it summed it up!’ Not all was bad though, with most of us getting a few waves and some good re-entry action evident on some of Dan’s waves. Pete was the most optimistic of us all ‘yeah, good fun, warm water’ and ‘if you get out there, you’ll get waves’.
We followed up with a bakery call and learnt about a possible new initiation rite recommended by Freddie for new SKA members, even volunteering his Gath helmet for us to use.
Meanwhile, Kym had called in with report from Chicanas, and we were confident it would improve on the 1 foot plus the boys had found there. So it was back in the very comfy Triton and off to see what was on offer. We had a great drive, but the wave once again disappointed and we did not go out, but headed back home instead.
Not great surf, but as usual, a great day out with the SKA crew.
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