CHARTER ELEVEN // 19 AUGUST - 30 AUGUST // 2006

Passengers: 
Dale Rhodes, Sam Rhodes, Rodney Salisbury, Jason Salisbury, Chris Salisbury, Perth Standlick, Baden Cram, Dylan Cram, Richard Cram

After some impressive backward somersaults off the lizard lounge in an idyllic tropical setting, the BJ father and son trip was away.

Kritter was all over the waves from the very beginning and scored the first decent mentawai tatoo that stayed with him all trip. Dale was getting some good waves between photo sessions and even managed to squeeze in a bit of "fishing for the future". Sam was bustin his fins out all over the place and Rod was refining some very smooth lines of his own. Perth got a "documented" seven second barrel that a lot of surfers may never get in a lifetime of surfing and Jason was in the barrel, in the air, in the lip and just generally all over it. Richard, after surfing all around the world, got possibly two of his best barrels ever, one by his eldest Baden and the other by Dylan. A fathers elation at his sons looking straight out of the barrel at him, had him stoked for days. He even got a couple of gems of his own.

All in all, a great trip. The groms ruled every wave they surfed, and the dads were as stoked for the young guys as they were for themselves.

CHARTER TEN // 5 AUGUST - 17 AUGUST // 2006

Passengers: 
John Sorley, Glenn Pickard, Glenn Dare, Craig Wearne, Garry Ross, Greg Barron, Peter Donohue, Scott Clemesha, Neil Scott, George Black.

Well, they say that caring is sharing, and these Maroubra lads obviously cared about each other. Although there were no skirts amongst this lot, a mysterious dress, but definitely no skirts.

Rossy, although being the oldest, was most likely to be labeled as the grommet of the trip, couldn't keep him out of the water. George loved the place and Helmet had to be the first at everything, including landing a beautiful 6kg Spaniard. Eddie only had to snarl at the waves and they would let him do whatever he wanted to them. Sticks was able to bend and stretch into whatever shape was required for the best ride and Pipes got a white knuckle version he was happy to see the end of.

Bluey, Pickles and Scary, who made up the walking wounded, got some great waves. In true Aussie fashion they weren't left on the battlefield and lived to surf another day. These boys could easily have been mistaken for grommets until on the way home with full sails set they knew all the words to some very old songs. But, wow, could they sing?!

Great trip, with great blokes, with a little cross dressing thrown in for free..

Nutty

CHARTER NINE // 22 JULY - 2 AUGUST // 2006

Passengers: 
Phillip Coote, Cameron Sharpe, Randall Sharpe, Glen Beaumont, Matthew Haggerty, Trent Brailey, Philip MacKenzie, Joel Brown, Lloyd Bishop, Shaun Dickson.

They bloody did it again! No-one had counted their chickens before they hatched, but when the hens came home to roost··I was supposed to be up there checking on Nutty - to see if he was doing a good job so to speak. Also, couldn't stand the fact that Filthy, Cammo, Booga, Coon and the boys would be surfing the biggest swell of the year without me. Briefly, this is what happened.

11 boats turned up to surf Rifles. Lucky to have been 11 guys out that arvo. It was heavy. Fanning and his mates were charging hard. The reef sorted them out. Cammo, was charging harder; pulled into one and was lucky to float away with some heavy lacerations and a broken nose. We all got out shaking and stoked as the sun set. The next day we towed and had a ball in the heavy rights on offer. Shaun (aka Tow Guy) put us all in the right spot. Then showed us how to do it on his 5'7" tow board by carving roundhouse cutties and freefalling through the tube in 8-10'waves. Bowey, Filthy, Nutty, Cammo and myself all had one of the sessions of our lives. (see "To Tow" - Link at the bottom of this page, and also on the Stories and Photos main page)

The fish were not there this trip, well, we were too busy surfing. Haggs was surfing true to form on the many lefts on offer, carving the back out of everything. Lloydy powered into everything and it was only feet lacerations that had him benched for a while. Macca and Booger were both skating on thin ice, calling the kettle black, and laughing hardest, or was that last. Joel just kept stoking on life itself and pitying the bloke that died yesterday. There were so many other waves, oh, and Nutty was doing an excellent job!

CHARTER EIGHT // 7 JULY - 19 JULY // 2006

Passengers: 
Oliver Cousins, Sean Dean, Louis English, Mitchell English, Richard Fisk, Drew Metcalfe, Nick Robertson, Tom Schut, Patrick Hughes

Lefts turned into rights as the prevailing Southerlies did a 180 degree turn. Not even Tommy, the lone goofyfooter was complaining. Ben mumbled something about modern day glass jobs after breaking his board on the first day at the 8ft lefts landing on their heads. Still, it felt better than the sea-sickness that was swishing throughout the boat on the first night.

The Bynda Laut came into her own on this trip. She sped ahead of the Barrenjoey so the crew could get their fix time and again. By the time the Old Girl turned up, the lads were ready to eat and rest. They sneaked Maccas and some elusive barrels of KFC till they had their fill. And there were other nameless rights in while the rest of the fleet played.

Young, Louis, at 15, was stoked beyond belief, surfing all the name spots, then discovering is very own secret spot. "Loius Ledge". Mitch just nodded approvingly then paddled inside, smiling styling on his single-fin. Paddy was quick to claim his spot, "Paddyshack". First to catch a wave gets naming rights. Then there was "Pommieland" after the Dad and son surfed it by themselves. Olly charged, hit the reef, and charged some more. Sean found lost grommethood days. And Richard snapped 5 trillion photos then nailed a few himself. Nick kept working, no matter what; on his cutbacks, on his ads, catching fish·Drew plain and simply surfed himself out. Not to mention the abundance of fish. We lost count.

We lost all sense of time, direction and for a while there, reality.

Captain John

CHARTER SEVEN // 24 JUNE - 5 JULY // 2006

Passengers: 
Adam Webber, Mat Webber, Patrick Statham, Shaun McKay, Luke Stevens, Brett McKay, Trever Arthur, Max Siddle.

The boys started getting prepared for their journey with a couple of massive leaps from the top mast on a private, secluded island and then we were off. First day Trevor came out guns a blazing and dominated the lineup. It didn't take Pat long to catch up and soon enough he was tearing it up. Matt caught a few and then proceeded to land the biggest barracuda ever seen - the thing bit a hole straight through our trusty "red and white". Luke had an altercation with his board that left him with three strands of silk, or, was there a mysterious fourth?!?

A couple of days off and then he quickly made up for lost time. Shaun was throwing spray everywhere he went and Max, with his patented "moon turn", was catching wave after wave. Adam "the barrel master" was getting well and truly amongst it in and out of the water with some great waves and a few nice fish. Brett had a few shoulder issues after an epic session, but after finding a spare in the first aid kit, he was straight back into it also, even managing to find time to add to the ever mounting Spaniard tally.

As the BJ set sail for home with all her colours flying there was one last hoorah from another big bara. Happy surfin, happy fishin and happy drinkin with the last bintang going down at the end of the last night. Great trip fellas.

Captain Nutt

CHARTER SIX // 10 JUNE - 21 JUNE // 2006

Passengers: 
Nathan Houghtan, Nathan Collins, Brendan Hyde, Adam Cambourne, Robert Coote, David Kent, Benjamin Davis, Luke Allen

"The boys said they wanted to charge, and charge they did. Thrown straight into heaving right handers, everyone was into it.

Rob was the first one up, face covered in warpaint, not sure why though, he spent so long behind the curtain he was never going to get sunburnt anyway. Dave was ripping it up from the start and then decided to throw a 21st aboard the BJ. This got Brenno going with his "death cups" while Moose was still looking for a home. He eventually found a spare bunk in Nats "Bung SMS" cafe but they both still found plenty of time to get tubed between calls. Benny caught a big barracuda that everyone wanted to hold, but after seeing her smile, no-one wanted to kiss. After a smoking barrel Luke decided that it was a wave to remember and destroyed his board with his own body, and not to be outdone Cap took off on a monster and came back with two boards instead of one.

CHARTER FIVE // 27 MAY - 7 JUNE // 2006

Passengers: 
Joel Hibbins, Daryl Palmer, Gregory Mossop, Warwick Mossop, David Stonehouse, Gavin Mossop, Matthew Caldecott, Matthew Sedgley, Maurizio Delvecchio.

Well, what can I say??? What an awesome surf trip. Once again started out small and fun to accustom the boys to their new environment· a couple of minor scrapes and the fellas were into it with our first really consistent swell of the season.

Joel was straight into it letting his smooth style flow while Moz was determined to destroy his boards, even resorting to some twinny action for good measure. Wazza was lucky to be along for the ride but was making the most of refining his backhand skills and his old man Greg, caught the fish of his life - a whopping 15kg Trevally. After producing the strangest "o-ring" anyone did see, big Daryl came out with an awesome pigdog display while Matt and Tom were clearly competing for a cover shot with tube after tube.

As the esky ran low Dave penned a remembrance song for the last beers and Gav and the captain praised the surf. The following day they were rewarded with a visit to the "deathstar" bearing celebrities, and then farewelled by an awesome storm before it started raining drambuie. As the mighty BJ set sail she left it all in her wake·..what a great "FRIKKIN" trip.

CHARTER FOUR // 14 MAY - 26 MAY // 2006

Passengers: 
Greg Anson, Peter Botterill, James Capbell, John Sanguinetti, Barry Blaikie, Paul Kay, John Radcliffe, Anthony Watkins, David Holt.

Budgie smugglers, barrels and bintangs were the order of the trip. Small surf to begin with but with Sangers graciously snapping the "dragon" as a sacrifice and some of the lads making some low tide donations we were bound to get some swell. It worked. The swell came up and what a beauty it was. JR and Pete were into it with relish, catching wave after wave. Team leader Greg copped a mighty guillotine and then showing true form paddled back out to catch the barrel of his life. Rays smooth style was shining bright and Cap was just "lit up like a candle". Plenty of fish were caught including a monster GT by James that, when the fight was over, we were not too sure who was more exhausted. Dave was fishing the future but kept a lovely blue fin that made some delicious sushimi for evening bar snacks. Plenty of stories, including a couple of late evening ones from PK that had the sea snakes heading for cover. All in all, a great trip with some great guys and some great waves.

Captain Nutt

CHARTER THREE // 28 APRIL - 12 MAY // 2006

Passengers: 
Darren Hawthorn, Mark Thomson, Mark Moffatt, Scott Watling, Braden Kane, Andrew Bond, Adam Adams, Timothy Badyk.

General One Bung Wing was raised in Taiwan by his adopted father where he learnt to surf the local river mouth amongst the flotsam from the local down pours. He had brought with him his hired guns, Atom Bomb, Gigantor, and Chainsaw all ex bouncers from Lakemba Grange. Chainsaw actually now owned a hairdressing salon on the coast where he did cream baths for the rich and famous. Livingstone turned up for his surf holiday wearing a bloody pith hat that doubled as a surf hat! He and Mof hugged like long lost brothers and embarked on a 13 day conversation about their escapades in Africa, Europe, and afield. Splendid yarns fuelled by plenty of liquid amber. Kaney, "father-to-be" make sure all the boys ate their greens and drank their Bintangs. But it was the New Zealand icon, Buzzy Thomson, with his non toxic spinning wings and weird clicking sound, similar to the bleating of a ragged sheep that bore the brunt of everyone's jokes. He took it in is stride even when he caught the longest left of his life connected to the right on the other side, did a reo and double fist pump claimed. The boys just bagged him even more. Sums the trip up really. One big bagging session, 65 cartons of Bintang. Too many fish to count. And a whole lotta a fun!

CHARTER TWO // 12 APRIL - 24 APRIL // 2006

Passengers: 
Dave Wigney, Scott Alexander, Graham Hills, Cameron Garlick, Gary Barnes, Richard Feledy, Glenn Green, Ryan Davis

"GT!" some-one yelled. The nickname stuck. To an Indonesian, Greeny and GT sound the same. After human pinballing himself at Da Thing, GT became the boat jester. His one liners had us all in stitches. His backhand bottom turns left us all thinking of TC at Inside Sunset. His catlike grace in the barrel was superb. As for the other blokes. Well Dave, Cameron and Moose we never got to know because they were in the water the whole time. The swell never got big this trip, but there was still plenty of uncrowded waves on offer. And when you score the big 3 righthanders in this area at 3-6ft·well the natural footers were not complaining. Old Grahame kept stirring his younger sibling, Scotty and mates up and showed them that old surfers can still get away without riding a Malibu. Rhino charged and after bouncing back from some weird Indonesian 24 hr bug ended up breaking his board and smashing his head on the reef and came up grinning! Dick taught Fynn how to pop his cheeks between surfs. All the boys were dads and were all great playmates for our little fella. A bloody good trip with the one mysto question. Was that really a GT that got away, or was it a Catfish? Me-owww!