Mind you, there were a couple of days where the surfing was more terrifying than exhilarating. The exhilaration, and certainly the adrenalin rush, came with surviving the session. The waves were six to eight foot plus, extremely powerful and some right on the very limits of what my surfboard can handle. Getting caught inside where these monsters were breaking was not a pleasant experience. Lots of breath holding, painful pummelling and basically fighting for survival at times. Yallingup on one of these days provided me with my second surfing injury of this holiday. I had one of the biggest waves of the day break right on top of me so even holding onto my board and diving as deep as I could go I was still pushed to the bottom, churned up on the reef, held under for what felt like minutes (it was probably only 15 to 20 seconds) and then had the board ripped from my arms despite hanging onto it as hard as I could. On finally surfacing and grabbing my board, I discovered that I’d pulled muscles in my neck and shoulder, then had just enough time to grab another lungful of air when the second biggest wave of the day bore down on me and I had to go through the same frightening process all over again. I hate to think what would have happened had there been a third wave in that set. Thankfully, the neck and shoulder was sore enough to keep me out of the water for a couple of days because the surf on those following days was even more enormous. It was good to have an excuse to resort to and to not have to admit to being frightened. Being pants soilingly scared doesn’t quite fit into my teenage surfing fantasy.
In the two weeks that we stayed at Yallingup there was not a single day that was flat. There were certainly days where it wasn’t surfable but there was always a wave. The best indication of what the surf over here is like is in the way the locals talk about wave size. Whenever I describe surf and wave sizes, its always in terms of feet. Over here, the discussion is always in metres and two metres for the locals is considered small. My last surf at Yallingup, and the one that was probably the most fun, was in conditions that having slipped into WA mode I considered small. On reflection though, the waves were still 4’ to 6’ and therefore larger than what I’d usually be surfing back home and what I would normally only encounter once a year if I’m lucky.
The presence of sharks has been the other big issue out in the surf over here, especially since the two recent fatalities. Like wave size, sharks and their size are usually measured in feet back home whereas over here it’s always in metres and no-one has ever seen a small one. Discussion of sharks rarely takes place amongst surfers out in the water but since the two recent fatalities I’ve heard them talked about a lot. It’s not just me they’ve got spooked it seems. On top of the two fatalities at beaches very close to where I’ve been surfing, a beach just down from Yallingup was closed due to a Great White sighting, a Great White was reportedly attacking small boats at Albany and I possibly had my own encounter with something nasty on the day I was cleaned up out in the surf at Yallingup. I spotted two very large shadows in the face of a large wave I was paddling towards to get over the top of. They could have been dolphins because they were definitely around. On that particular day though, no dolphins were jumping or surfing the waves as they usually do and I didn’t see any come up for air nearby, which again you usually do if they are that close to you. Needless to say I warned the guy I was out with and the two of us got out of the water pretty quickly. The bloke I’d been surfing with then told me how he’d been at Bunker Bay in the water with the young guy on the day that he was taken by a white pointer. It was a very sobering chat.