We just arrived back from a couple of action packed days down the coast that was provided as a thanks for the effort from one of our clients, we were staying in a unit just off Tallebudgera beach. We packed in a stack of stuff over the couple of days including a walk across the state forest to Burleigh heads to take a look, and a trip up to Southport to visit a book outlet that specializes in school curriculum texts and associated materials. The walk to Burleigh was awesome and I would recommend it to anyone who finds themselves in that area of the world. We walked around the hill this time and stopped a couple of times to watch the surfers catching a few waves. We snooped around the shops at Burleigh to see if anything had changed much since last time we were there, and were pleased to find that it hadn’t. We grabbed a green smoothie and some fruit from the little fruit shop and ate it in the park before heading back to the unit. We also had dinner at Trio Romano one evening and once again if you are into Italian food and are in the area, then you can’t go past Trio Romano with its small cosy premises and friendly family run atmosphere, don’t forget to take a bottle of red.

Tiff cooking up a storm in the little kitchen

The great little fruit shop at Burleigh.

We started most mornings with a surf and then the kids got to do their Chinese and home schooling study, it’s great now that kids do home schooling they never miss out on their lessons no matter where they are, I am not so sure Paige and Byron felt the same way about having to do their studies while they were looking out the window at the glorious surf and pristine beach.

Paige with her most excellent foam board after another awesome surf session.

Paige and Byron looking impressed at doing home schooling whilst on holidays at the beach.

Now Tallebudgera beach and I have some interesting history, ordinarily we troupe down to Mermaid beach every weekend to do our surfing but every now and again for various reasons we end up down at Tallebudgera. Usually Tallebudgera beach operates a bit like a washing machine and I have only managed to get out behind the breakers there a handful of times. It was however the first beach where I managed to ride a green wave with my mini mal after a couple of years practicing in the white wash, so I guess the jubilation of that ride and the beach where it occurred will hold a fond place in my memory. Mum and Dad gave me a surf board for Christmas around 10 years ago it is a yellow 6’8” short board, I first tried to surf with it not long afterwards without much success. This trip I decided to take the short board down and have another crack, I usually do this at least once per year and usually get spectacularly pumbled for the effort. Paige and I had gone down to have an afternoon surf, we were riding some of the white wash and I was having a bit of a play on my short board. Eventually I managed to paddle out the back with it and was chilling out there, when a bloke who had been standing on the beach watching me struggle with my board in the white wash paddled out to me. The bloke declared that my board was of an old design and that they didn’t make them like that anymore, he went on to say that it would be extremely difficult for a beginner to intermediate surfer to ride my board, he suggested that I get one of the new DHL boards instead. I agreed with the bloke as my board doesn’t have a great deal of buoyancy and is a little difficult to get around on, having said that it is the easiest board in the world to duck dive on you only have to point the nose at the bottom and that is where the rest of the board and rider will go, so in that respect it operates a bit like a submarine/house brick. Never the less I was happy to have made it out the back having been thwarted the day before and was chilling watching some of the best waves I have seen in a long time go past, and thinking why didn’t I bring my Mini mal down with me so I could have caught a few of them. Then one cracking wave came along and I thought to hell with it lets see if I can’t catch it, unbelievably the little yellow board launched perfectly on to the wave with minimal effort I was able to pop up and with a bit of speed the board was smooth and stable. Now I’ll be the first to admit there were no back flips or cut backs but I pulled off at least one bottom and one top turn and had a fairly enjoyable ride.  Hell I even paddled out the back and tried for another one just to see if it wasn’t just one of those lucky breaks but no I was able to get onto the wave with minimal effort and carved a graceful arc down the front of it, so there you have it, it only took me ten years but I eventually managed to stand up on my short board, right now for that back flip and cut back.