Photos by Seamus Byrne and Eze Zaccardi
After a full day of driving and a few pit stops along the way we arrived at our first destination – Keel Surf & Supply. There were beers flowing – thanks to our good friends at Stone and Wood – and a crate of burritos complimentary of Guzman y Gomez. Chonno, Wispy, Dave and I got chatting board design with the excited gathering that came along and we finished off the night with a very active and insightful Q&A.
The next morning we arrived at Bondi, the same time as a nasty Southerly buster. It looked dire and we naturally had some doubts on how our demo session would go down. But no! Our-twelve demo boards we carted down from the factory were constantly in the water for hours, with many stoked surfers comparing boards and chatting design. Got to love surfers enthusiasm for a fresh board.
After breakfast at Deus with the mighty Dare Jennings, lunch at North Bondi Fish - the prawn sambos are the best in the land, we descended on Sunburnt Mess. Beers by Kona Brewing Co and some lively tunes by The Ramsgates set the mood right and another hot design session with a very cool audience went down. Thanks to all those that came along.
A mad dash got us to Newey on Saturday morning for the Sanbah Demo Day, with all the major shortboard and fin companies supplying equipment for the hundreds of eager test pilots to ride across the street at a nice couple of peaks at Bar Beach. About 500 boards to test out. Amongst a sea of white boards with black trim Simon Anderson’s carried very tasteful colour art - like his original Thruster days - and our McTavish’s carried tints, cutlaps, and glass-on fins. A pretty incredible day of exchange of design and stoke. Keep it up Sanbah!
Six hours and hundreds of miles of nice freeway through the incredible countryside of eucalyptus and tea-tree, mountains and valley plains, with a thumping stereo the four of us did a real old fashioned rocking road trip home.
What a fun trip!
- Bob
