Kevin Bering already had two beers to get the holiday inaugurated properly.

Thamx magilla

Australia day is jan 26th, it seems to be much more low key then canada day is in canada and independce day in the U.S. Most aussies head to the beach and drink beer and bbq meat (so a normal day) Fireworks are illegal mostly everywhere here so there aren't fireworks going off in everyones backyards. The day was indeed celebrated with good surf though. I'm currently in sydney staying in bondi beach but drove down to marouba for a surf. There was no wind so it was perfectly glassy with shoulder to head high sets coming in. It was extremly crowded though since everyone has the day off. I even saw e few ppl get barreled. I got worked pretty good by a few clean up sets that were suprisingly powerful. at least twice i was held down on the sand needing to look for the light to find my way up.

I'ne been really lucky with the surf latley getting good waves all the way from noosa to sydney, was very lucky to score a few days of perfect point breaks at noosa since the points hadden't worked in a few months untill the day before i got there. Austrlia is a land of good ppl and great surf!

happy australia day

kevin bering

Wish I was there to celebrate. I commemerated the day with a meat pie and Daintree tea.

Do you listen to Xavier Rudd?- He refers to the flag you posted as the "real australian flag," and sings a lot about aboriginal causes and the environment. Amazingly talented musician, even if you aren't for his left-wing lyrics. I believe he is a keen surfer as well.

I was meaning to ask you Magilla that in an earlier post you said wet suits loose their effectiveness over time. Do you have any idea if a 5/4/3mm Rip Curl that was hardly used from 1996 would serve any use now, for let's say spring surfing on the lakes?

Thanks,

Adam

There has been a few unofficial votes/polls over the years and a large percentage of australians would like to take on the aboriginal flag as well as adopt Waltzing Matilda as the national anthem. As far as Xavier Rudd goes hes a sic surfer really old school like Rasta and Donavan rides singles fins and such. Happy Australia day and I wish I was at the Byron Bay RSL right now.

The wetsuit/drysuit repair person saud that a neoprene suit might look perfectly new but over time it in fact decreases in warmth because of general degradation. I speculate that this is caused by a slight chemical degradation in the composition of the neoprene. I don't have facts any chemical changes.

I have heard the rule of thumb is that any wetsuit has a wear life of anywheres from one to three years depending on how often it is used, how it is cared for and stored.

The X-Man! We saw him at the docks this summer, jamming with Michael Franti. The X-man is my guitar hero: left foot tapper and right handed player just like me, except he has talent! I put "12th of september" on my top 10 of all time list.


Brendan

Yes that is a sick song. "Solace", "Let me be", and basically all of his first CD are also sweet. I'm waiting for his new CD to come in from Oz, although I'm not certain I'll like it as much as his older stuff. I'm a real fan of his raw sounding early stuff.

My body glove suit came in the mail today, I paid 215.00 USD with shipping and let me tell you it is fantastic. I have 7mm Xcel mittens and 7/6mm Xcell booties, and I was swimming without a problem in the lake today. I haven't got a board yet, but bodysurfing and just being in the water at this time of year was amazing. I copped some real confused looks from onlookers though.

ya xavier rudd is great. After geoff calman came back from aus last year we went and saw him in T.O. Hes touring in aus right now and i think i'll have a chance to see him again next week! Its hard to find his cds even here in aus, i'll probally have to pick them up at his show. Ya hes definitly a sic surfer!

good on ya mate
kevin bering