Passengers: Mark Simposon, Samuel Lovell, Craig Barker, Steven Butcher, Christopher Russell, Seth McKinney, William Lafferty, Shane Baum
“Shit here they come again.”
We could hear John whinging before we even arrived. We’d assembled a crack team of Americans to take over the Barrenjoey for yet another Tour de Global Cop. Well, we actually had 5 Seppos, plus an American defector now residing in Puerto Rico, Mexico, as well as Seth from Oahu, Brazil. Lastly was Steven from One Tooth Island on his maiden Indonesian voyage. This was gonna be fun.
Belinda, Fynn, and Duke picked us up at the airport. B, knowing us, had the beer cooler loaded and upon depletion prior to getting to town it was surmised we were going to need to re-evaluate the beer hold on the boat. The decision was made to double the inventory.
John had warned us a week in advance: “Better sew some extra fabric into your boardshorts boys, you’re gonna need them to hold balls like grapefruits…..swell of the season on the way.” And he was right; there was plenty of swell from the get-go and it kept increasing throughout the trip. Unfortunately the pesky southerlies that had been blowing continued their streak and blew on and off throughout the charter. But there were windows. A few evening sessions at The Office that were magic. Some wonderful windswept sessions at Scarecrows where even with hard side/onshores the faces were smooth and by the time the swell had wrapped 180 degrees around the reef it was straight into the teeth and throwing out barrels. The Captain even got a head dip on the bonzer which tells you how good it really was.
We surfed a lot, bounced off the reef a lot, caught the biggest Dogtooth Tuna in BJ history, protected Belinda, Fynn and Duke from the maniacal Captain on a daily basis, and had too many laughs up on the Lizard Lounge.
Best takeaway from the trip was watching Fynn throw a fit about something or other, and realizing he’s just a smaller version of his pops. Insert John here: “I want to go back to The Office! I want to go back to The Office! I want to go back to the Office!!!!!! WWHHHHAAAAAAAAAA!”
Freakin’ kids. Thanks McGroder Family for your hospitality. See ya’s April 2014.