# NSW: The walk of shame



## spooled1 (Sep 16, 2005)

I like launching when there's a couple of surfers in the water because they're reliable indicators of the wave face size and distance out to the safe zone. A surfing mate tells me that some Aussie predicting fella's take the height from the back of the wave like the Hawaiian's do and I assume that's what Swelnet did coz the local forecaster measured two foot on todays graph.
There were doable gaps between sets and I was pretty confident I'd make it through because the surfers waited a while but when they got onto the waves they had full coverup barrels and a LOT of steep face to play with.

As usual, I held in the wash, waited for a break and went for it. As I passed the surfers I slowed down a tad and told them I was just heading out for a fish. In the distance I saw a building crest so I gunned it and rolled over the lip. The next wave was bigger and I stepped it up a notch to slip over the ripple. At this point I was about 40m further out to sea than the surfers and the next wave was a stonker. The crest built and I was racing toward it at top speed. By the time I was three quarters up the crest, a lip started bubbling and I knew it was do or die. I dug my paddle in to have one last crack but I had no chance. As I dived into the still unbroken face with the paddle in my hand, I saw my yak vanish into oblivion. Luckily, I was sucked into the back of the wave and spat out behind. Funnily, I made it safely beyond the backline but my Scupper Pro didn't. Damn! If only I had my yak followed me, I could have gone fishing today. It took me 10 minutes to swim back to shore and another 5 minutes to drain 100 litres of water from it. After a few more half arsed attempts, I realised I lost my nerve today and in the time I wasted I missed the premium bite time.

Here's some youtube footage of happier times:


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## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

Mate, I was with you there. Brilliant description. I could feel the excitement building.

Liked your yak cuts, too. Great stuff, Dan


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## bazzoo (Oct 17, 2006)

Dan so often when i was surfing , that would happen , i would get into no mans land and out of the blue would come the Mother of all waves and i swear i used to hear Neptune laughing his arse off as i was dispatched ungracefully towards shore, thats surfin mate :lol: :lol:


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## wopfish (Dec 4, 2006)

I feel your pain brother - I got smashed while surfing on Sunday - not that big 3 foot ( 6 foot faces ) - I got pulled back over the falls - landed with my thigh on my fin on the board - came up for air with another set bearing down - only to see a guy taking off on top of me - luckily he didnt hit me as I came up for my third breath ready to get smashed again - was quite sacred - I lost a sense of my invincability for a brief moment - got back on the horse though the next day !


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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## carnster (May 27, 2008)

We have all been there mate. At least you did not have too much of an audience. It is good to know that you are human.


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## simond11 (Aug 29, 2005)

Hey Dan
That sucks, mate. It's nature's way of bringing us back a notch when we start to feel cocky. At least you are getting out there and attempting to fish/surf/swim!
Great effort, mate.
Cheers


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## johnny (Aug 12, 2007)

great that you're in one piece..i freak out with 1 footers!


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## shiznic (May 14, 2008)

She is a harsh mistress. ;-)


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## keza (Mar 6, 2007)

Great discription Dan, I stopped breathing.

Was the video from your last trip to Sydney :lol:


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## ant (Aug 28, 2008)

Good effort mate not sure how I would go in the plastic yak now, you're an ironman for trying.

cheers
Ant


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## Breambo (Apr 19, 2006)

Ha Ha, would have been a sight to see, nice and cold too. As you know to well to access some of these spots from exposed launches even a true two foot can easily spell disaster. Next time give me yell and I can call the sets for you.
Cheers


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## ELM (Jul 14, 2008)

What, you expect me to feel sorry for you after watching that video, Two hopes!

Bummer Dan and hope the yak and gear survived as well as yourself, next time.


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## keza (Mar 6, 2007)

if you had managed to fold the yak in half for a second time, then you could change your user name to 'Origami'


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## Squidley (May 8, 2010)

Hey! Why'd you take that cool vid down? I was gonna show it to my dad.


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