The 4am alarm started my half asleep pack, gathering all the things and chucking them into the back of Boony’s car to head north for the weekend for Ox’s 21st. Playing tag up the highway with Junes and Pies, and Ox and Lil Scotty, we reached Heatherbrae and the sky turned from the sun rising with a blue backdrop to the sun being blocked by the thick smoke from the surrounding bush fires. Hammering up the Pacific Highway we saw smoke on both sides of the road. Speeding down the opposite direction were the Rural Fire Brigade, assumedly rushing to put out the fire.

A howling easterly, zero surf and an overcast sky with patches of rain greeted us as we pulled into Smiths Lake. We checked the surf several times hoping it would change, that same hope when you continuously check the fridge and pantry just in case something appealing magically appears that might tickle your fancy. As the arvo approached we sank a few beverages and waited for Mark and Dozza to come up after work.

Saturday was completely different to Friday. It was a pearla ! Suns out, buns out and short arms on, we paddled out South Booms and got some good little 2ft waves. B&E rolls for breaky and then we packed up Boony’s ute with necessary supplies such as surfboards and beers. Drove up to Sandbar, let the air out of the tyre’s and drove up the beach to our own surf break. The reason we decided that we should surf there is because we got bogged; the classic ‘yeaaahhhhh mate that’ll do’.

My crook shoulder meant I couldn’t surf that arvo (hurt it doing a backflip off my board in the morning surf) so I had no choice but to sit on the sand and take in the rays sipping from chilled bottles whilst watching the boys catch waves. It was horrible.

Back at the house we continued to sink beers, have afternoon naps and wait for the courtesy bus to pick us up and shuttle us to The Recky. Had a feed there and came home to realise that nobody had seen the house keys since that morning and so we were locked out. Couple of the boys lifted up Ox and he crawled through a tiny little bathroom window and let us in. Would have been surprised if we made it through the weekend without that happening.

Another cracker of a day today however unfortunately due to other commitments such as a hell load of uni work to finish, we headed home from heaven around lunchtime.

Ox thanks for organising the weekend and having all the boys together to get out of Sydney; it was much needed by all. Hope you had a ripper dude