My last California sunset.


This is a pic of my last California sunset.
The time had come for me to leave SoCal and head back to Sydney.


Farewell ol' glory
thanks for having me
I loved the people, I loved the waves.


And so began the process of packing up and shipping the collection to its new (old) home.


First we had to take them all down from the racks, take out the fins, wrap them and try not to loose the screws.


Jake 'helped' me with the packing foam


My first mistake was to try to box them individually. The shipping company charges by the square foot and I was going to end up shipping a lot of air.


wrapping and packing


wrapping and packing


wrapping and packing


wrapping and packing


I tried many techniques but I fond the insulation foam tubes and cling wrap worked well.



noses, tails and rails


Then I got it together and packed 4 boards in a box, bound and wrapped together


I ended up with 10 four board boxes!


and I realized there would be a lot less damage if they were shipped on their sides in stead of getting the fins and noses crushed.



packing up the racks


pulling down the boards


time to say good bye to the Californian bungalow


and pack up the truck


careful boys


in they go


there no question that there are many folk and  things I miss from Cali, 
such as a hot fresh in'n'out burger.


but a burger and fries is really only a substitute for a meat pie with peas and gravy.


I'll miss trestles with Jordy and Bretty, which was firing the week I left



although I did get one good session in before I left



I'll miss right wing red necks


fresh donuts after a surf


and El Caminos, 
which of course is really a ute, a car truck, Australia's only gift to the motoring world


 a good burrito 


and Blue Bird, my 1973 Chevy pick up




but it was good to get home, back to the south coast and back amongst the trees


I opened up the shed and after three years and some heavy bush fire conditions all the boards were OK


the day I got off the plane was wet and stormy, so I headed straight down to the point


which hadn't changed a bit


on my first surf I cut my foot on a barnacle jumping off the rocks and got 4 sea urchin spines in the other foot coming in


all the boards all arrived in one piece,
and I realized it was good to be home.


3 comments:

  1. WOW !! great story, sorry it has come to an end for now in the States.. Have a good one bra, Bob from Texas

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  2. Must have been a sad day leaving California Damion. You certainly dug that weird and gorgeous animus. It was a great window opened for us over past few years. Hope you and family are settling back OK into the slow dull swing of Sydney after all the action OS...

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  3. Wherever the hell home is...it's got better waves than California. (But In N' Out Burger beats the hell outta that green thing.)

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