Passengers:
Wayne Krelle, Andrew Krelle, Liam Krelle, James Sullman, Dave Cater, Lee Keats, Greg Morgan, Michael Grace
Late March and the Roaring 40 swells began warming up for the winter charge. The Barrenjoey steamed through a Black hole of weather on its voyage to the islands as the young punters slept restlessly amongst their sea dreams of mindless barrels.
We had a hot crew of young guys from the Northern Beaches of Sydney. And the Brothers Krelle set the pace with 'chop hops', airs, and some serious carving over shallow reefs. Keates was back in the islands sporting a new tattoo of the 'islands' on his arm. This bloke loves this place and it certainly shows in his surfing. Both he and Andrew had accompanied me on an epic wave fest in 1996 and have been chasing those dream sessions ever since returning year after year on various vessels that now ply these waters. Welcome back. They had brought their mates and Wayne as the chaperon. But Wayno was too busy surfing to worry about the bloody grommets.
The swells just never had the grunt to go over the 6ft range. Many sessions under that. March really is a good time for uncrowded 2-6 ft waves here. Beautiful weather for the majority. One Badai (black Sumatran tropical squall from hell) had us hiding for an arvo.
The boys nailed the fish, drank us dry and ate the cupboards bare. You just can't seem to fill the grommets up!
Andrew, Liam, Dave, and James hung aboard for another 5 days and got that tube fest day! Unfortunately, Liam also got smacked by his board and received 6 stitches. Not the best way to end the trip·but you gotta take the good with the bad and all in all the guys surfed a many, many, many waves.