Freo

First thing the next morning, I was up and moving the gear from our room in anticipation of our drive to Bunbury while Dan busied himself getting ready to head into hospital to get his new, more solid cast put on by one of Australia’s more competent medical professionals…or so we thought…

I’d managed to leave a hoodie (the only one I’d brought out to Oz) in Dunsborough, so I dropped Dan at the hospital before I shot back south, feeling like a total idiot.  By the time I got back, two hours later, Dan had just made it into radiology to get a new set of x-rays which showed his leg was healing really well and the bone had already started knitting back together.  He emerged an hour later with his new fiberglass cast, much happier to feel more stable.

With both of our spirits buoyed, we jumped back in our totally rad hard-man car, the Kia (which had picked up the most unbelievable smell of butter somewhere along the way between Dunsborough and Bunbury), and headed north for Fremantle, having heard good things about the town from the Irish and Kiwi kids Dan had met at Yallingup.

We pitched up at the Sundancer in Freo, dumped our gear and made a beeline south to checkout one of WA’s meccas for wakestyle ridin - Woodman’s point, or Woodies.  I had an epic session on the flat water, despite feeling way less than average in my kiting ability. 

The standard was phenomenal.  Unless you were throwing and landing 313s, blind judges, or KGBs, you were miles off point.  Which is exactly where I was.  I felt a lot better when it turned out that most of the people there were pros who were training for various impending world kiting tours but still felt like a total kook.  I couldn’t tell you who most of the crew were, but Paddy, Tom and Paul arrived on the scene a little later to fill in the gaps. 

The next few days were superb – cranking wind, flat water and decent nightlife – all the things Bunbury sorely lacked!  In fact, the wind was so good at Woodies, the only time I got the camera out was when we went to Beach One, just around the corner from Woodies.

Having spent a few days knocking around the city, Dan and I decided to head south again.  This time we were on our way to Rockingham to check out the other wakestyle spot we’d heard so much about – Safety Bay. 

We bid farewell to the Retardz and started towards Rockingham with no clue what to expect from the notoriously busy kitespot or the accommodation we’d booked in to.  We were just sure that it would hold another random night in another random town in WA.  But as long as it was warm and windy, we could’ve been staying Blackpool for all I cared!