brah i'm so over writing my papers im just gonna come here and write my blog posts to procrastinate haha.  sooo i've been down on the gold coast the last couple days.  surf's been mediocre, but still fun.  i surfed dbah the first two days, then snapper yesterday and today.  today was by far the worst day ever, it was way blown out by 15-20mph onshores.  dbah was pretty fun, but not as hollow as i had hoped it was gonna be.  i think all the swell lately has been windswell so theres not a whole lot of power behind it.  yesterday at snapper was by far the best session i had out here, it was super slabby and pretty heavy considering it was only about a foot or two hawaiian style.  it was breaking right by the rocks so there was a ton of backwash which made the barrel riding really hard, you'd pull in and get exploded inside the barrel right when you thought you were gonna make it out.  i managed to fight my way though a couple of drainers but for the most part got exploded.  whenever you fell it'd be really scary since it was breaking so close to the rocks, you'd think you were gonna crash right into the rocks.  taking off was pretty sketch too, you had to thread the needle between the wave and the point, otherwise you'd end up on the rocks.  there was a uncle shredding on a longboard that was just killing it, every time he took off i thought he was gonna end up on the rocks but somehow he managed to pump around the section and make it all the way down the line.  uncle status.  there was also a whole pod of whales breaching and cruisin about 200-300 yards off shore, they were there all day yesterday and today.  i tried to get some pics but my phone doesn't have good zoom and it was hard to time it right.  i also met this dude named chance from kauai, he was pretty cool.  he said he was originally in indo, but ran out of money and had to get a work visa to save up some money before he can go anywhere.  a bunch of guys from the backpackers we were staying at were doing the same thing, travel til you run outta cash, then work and save up, then go travelling again.  there were canadians, brits, danish dudes, swedes, and some fobby lookin asians all there.  had a couple drinks with them before we went out for the night, their drinking games are the scariest things ever.  basically, if you lose you chug a mug of goon...which is absolutely terrible.  surfers paradise is a pretty sick place to go out, but all of the clubs were charging some crazy covers and so we were kinda over it.  it was packed last night, thirsty thursdays i guess.  anyways i guess i should try and be productive again, i'll leave you guys with some pics now.  i'll upload them to fb when i get the time...prolly not til i get back to townsville since i'll be kinda busy til then.  as braddah kimz would say...outrageous.  shakas \m/ or \111/ camoflauge shaka.  if you don't know what i'm talking about...check out this youtube vid, courtesy of stebballs yee

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mevj79Rik6s&list=FLkwb-3C5dosqn1ZhkbiyCIg&feature=mh_lolz

dbah!!

right after a surf contest

walking into NSW?? craycray

border btwn NSW and QLD

why is it mick fanning's ripcurl???

outrigger in coolangata?? what?

rainbow bay!  so crowded

more rainbow bay

no rainbows in rainbow bay...

peeling rights...wish i had a longboard

coolangata w/ kirra in the back

SNAPPER ROCKS!!!  kinda small but still heavy

anomaly boards made it to snapper rocks, all the way from makakilo! cheee

take off zone...super sketch

time to thread the point!  better draw a high line

backwash zones

don't fall otherwise you'll get slammed into that point of rock...almost landed on it when i busted a roll.  barely saw it out of the corner of my eyes when i was upside down and had to bail my board halfway thru the roll

"surfers code" hahaha brah jus tress!!  snake um!

snapper!  home of the quickie pro

golden arches...idc if you're called macka's or mickey d's, you'll always be the best post-sesh munchies, especially if ice cream cones are 30 cents!!

sooo yesterday i finally went out for the first time to experience the nightlife in brisbane after a full day of workin on my papers.  holy!!  sickest club i've ever been in.  there was like 3 bars on each floor...ONE OF THEM WAS MADE OUT OF ICE WHAT THE HECK!!  it was also an asian club thing so it was full of asians...it felt so good to not be the minority anymore hahahaha.  anyways that was a pretty fun night, we ended up staying out until past 4 and didn't get to bed til close to 5.  plans for today are to work some more on the paper, then meet up with becca and maybe do some more sightseeing around the city, then go crash at jon's dad's place.  tomorrow morning we're catchin a train down to surfers paradise and checkin into the backpackers there.  time to start busting out the shredstick!!  until then here's some pics i snapped of downtown, it was super stormy lookin yesterday compared to how sunny it was the day before.  chutes!

kangazones at the bus stop??

ho da adorbs

super sick little building thing

so cloudy!!!

weird little ball thingy...it lit up from the inside when it got dark!!

public library zones...hands down nicest library i've ever seen in my life.  this place was super high tech and brand new

book return zones at the library.  kinda cool

they had the whole book return thing behind glass so you could see it!

the only casino in town...pretty nice inside

can't really tell from the pic, but the whole bar was frozen.  with jon cruisin in the background

sooo yesterday i decided to go on a solo adventure down to the gold coast and try get some surfing in.  it took 2 trains, a bus, and about 2.5 hours to finally get there, but i made it.  round trip only cost about 20 bucks or so, which isn't too bad.  the student discount makes the tickets about half off, which is nice, since i only had 20 bucks in my wallet.  sketch!!  anyways on the train ride down i somehow struck up a conversation with this maori dude from NZ which was pretty cool.  he was legit maori, he went to a maori immersion school where they only spoke maori until high school, so that was kinda craycray.  we ended up talking about all the local foods in NZ and HI, which are actually kinda similar.  made me super ono for some poke bowls and squid luau, can't wait til i get some of that.  two months!  anyways, once i got to the gold coast, i took the bus to coolangata, where snapper and kirra and dbah and all those famous breaks are.  i had heard that they just opened up a bodyboard shop there, so i stopped by to grab some wax and figure out where was the best breaks.  they were nice enough to let me leave my bags at the store while i went for a surf, since i didn't wanna leave um on the beach with all the other touri.  i ran about 1000m down the road to dbah, since snapper wasnt breaking at all.  kinda cool, cuz to get to dbah you cross the border btwn QLD and NSW, which is only marked by a sign that says "border between QLD and NSW here."  dbah wasnt much better, it was only about 1ft hawaiian style and super crumbly.  kinda reminded me of donkeydongs, only a lot less powerful.  surfed for about an hour or so, found a couple clean faces to work with, and one nice launch section.  thought i was only gonna be able to get a roll off but somehow turned it into a flip.  after my surf i ran back, grabbed my stuff, and picked up a pizza to grind on the beach.  after that it was time to head back into town, so i hopped on the bus and headed back into town.  the last train was full of drunk aussies back from the rugby league game that they just won, so it was all rowdy.  anyways i better get back to writing my papers.  here's some pics i snapped, mostly on the go.  i couldn't take too many since i left my phone in the shop while i was surfing, but i'll be back and i promise to take more pics next time.  chutes!

the train

nice little train station

the shop!!

this place was filled with boards...and tourists buying little sponges for their kids

coolangata!

another little panorama...neither shot was too great haha

peeling little ankle snapper

map of the beaches

sunset...snapped from the bus as we were driving along

dumb lightpost.  so babylon