A trail of cars makes the one-hour drive south from Hobart, straddled high with board bags and
proudly parading Surfrider bumper stickers. Passengers face’s stare keenly out of fogged-up windows, taking in the passing scenery in the breaking daylight, rolling green hills, of farmland and logging, small towns and a seasidevillage.
It's too early on a Friday morning and we’re on our way South to Southport, ready to meet our skipper and head down the coast as part of the Surfrider Foundation National Education Conference Wilderness day, which is held annually the day before the conference.
Finally we reach Southport and unload the boards into a small dingy at the rustic jetty. Several old fishing types unload their boats and hurriedly push past, failing even an acknowledging grunt. Dingy packed we motor out to Dave’s boat, an old charter vessel from Western Australia that’s been converted to be able to fish for crays in some of Australia’s most treacherous waters.
The passing scenery changes dramatically. No more buildings, roads or even signs of human life. Vibrant blue sky over calm, ever-stretching sparkling sunlit ocean, islands dripping with white cloud, snowcapped mountains, dolphins … what a paradise!
”It’s not like this every day… “ the Whish-Wilson family kept telling us. “Huey must’ve heard on the grapevine that the Surfrider crew were coming down south.”
It was only several days earlier we had received an emails alerting us to the possibility of great weather and the opportunity for a surfing boat trip. Kristy couldn’t keep the grin off her face.
As we passed the most southern point of Australia and further down and around the south-east, that same grin returned. After passing dozens of high granite and dolerite headlands, some compellingly phallic, we reached our destination. As promised, the wind was fanning offshore and conditions perfect with cool, hood worthy water temps. There are already two other surfers in the water who have completed a 12km hike through wilderness to access this wave.
Strong, straight swell lines march out of the south west and stand up tall as they felt the pull of the mighty rock. After bending about thirty five degrees they freight down the groomed bank, their perfect shape being assisted by the stiff offshore wind.
The predominantly left handed sandbank is held in place by an imposing dolerite island stack that points directly into the oncoming swell. A fierce rip runs back out along the rock, creating a deep channel that is filled with twenty foot lengths of bull kelp.
In the background the crew can see the snow capped mountains: this is surfing in Tasmania! But it’s no cake walk, the thick ocean swells and rips make the takeoffs challenging. Once at the bottom of the wave, it doubles up and makes a run for the distant rock, throwing up several fast bowl sections in the process.
The Surfrider crew all surf till their arms can take no more. Mission accomplished, it's smiles all round on the trip back. Many take the opportunity to duck below deck and catch up on some much needed sleep, while others decide to double check what they had earlier for lunch courtesy of seasickness!
FRIDAY NIGHT
By evening we felt satisfied with our outdoor exploration and we’re ready to settle into some serious conference action for the weekend.
Back at Theatre Royal, Campbell Street Hobart, hosted by the charming Surfrider supporters, Michael and Mala, more fun was in store. Come 8.30pm, the Theatre Royal dining room had been completely transformed into an makeshift picture theatre. It was brimming with hundreds of keen Tassie surfers, from groms to oldies, all pumped to see, meet and hear the work of surfing filmmaker Tim Bonython, who had made the trip especially for Surfrider to screen his latest works.
The crowd frothed over the first-ever-viewed footage from Tim’s recent travels with Bra Boys Koby, Mark and Rich. Footage included Shippies and some other gnarly unnamed waves from around Australia. Tim narrated, talking us through the various waves and adventures. It was awesome, hoots and grins and some massive, barrelling waves.
A raging success, nearly half the punters signed up to Surfrider on the night and all proceeds directed to Surfrider Tasmania. Despite the great action and company, Gene began to feel strangely warm in the stomach. Before long his fear of a return to seasickness gave way to the fear that he had something far more sinister! Half an hour later he was bent over a giant salad bowl, heaving great power chucks that forced much of his dinner deep into his sinuses and nasal passages. Pretty rough!
SATURDAY NIGHT
Saturday night, after a day of project stirring topics and conversations at the Surfrider Foundation National Education Conference, the Surfrider crew headed out for beers at the local watering hole.
A few of the crew ducked off early … SR Margaret River’s Gene, SR Tassie’s Paul and Julia and Kristy decided to make the most of daylight savings instead. We headed out of Hobart and took a spin in Paul’s Zodiac to see the Hobart Points and the Tassie scenery tucked in and around Lauderdale, and famous Hobart Point stretch of coast. Hugging the coast, we passed Lauderdale point, Mays Point(s) and finally , Cremorne Point. Paul explained the extreme fickleness of these waves, requiring a large, straight south swells to march up the estuary and make them work. However, he also told tales of their magical quality, low tide barrels winding down the steep farmers fields, again all in view of the snow topped splendour of Mount Wellington.
With the sun setting we park the Zodiac at Cremorne, and run up a carefully laid path through the dunes to a small coastal shack set upon the delicate sand spit. The development represents a bygone era when coastal planning and rising sea levels where unheard of. If someone proposed an idea of a development like this nowadays you would have groups like Surfrider jumping up and down in no time. But it’s a magical place, with the backyard overlooking the unique inlet and point break that could simply only be in Tasmania.
We motored home across the cool, bumpy water… witnessing the sunset over the windswept granite sandstone points of Hobart from the Zodiacwas... Intoxicatingly good. Who needs herbal tea, essential
oils and massage when you live in Tassie? Relaxed, peaceful, calm.
Home at last at we decide to splash out and try some of the local takeaway. It’s not even past 8.30 and we’re shut down, “turned off the pizza oven hours ago”!
“Typical small town service!”, laughs Paul. “...and on a Saturday night too!”
Still set on pizza, Gene and Paul treated us all to homemade style.
Just as good as the homemade pizza was another Tasmanian wilderness experience: a screening of the 2003 film Wildness.
Through the lens and lives of two of Australia’s greatest wilderness photographers and local legends, Olegas Truchanas and Peter Dombrovskis, Wildness was an awareness-raising film focusing on Tasmania’s South West region. The film follows the two photographers passion to share and conserve the southwestern Tasmanian wilderness areas.
Written and directed by Scott Millwood, the film covers the development of destructive dams through the 1950s - 1980s. It also showed the triumphs and setbacks of the community and how the support and influence of mainlanders could promote change in Tasmania.
We soak it up.
Wildness reinforced the importance and need for conservation and protection of Tasmania’s wilderness areas, and also portrayed something we’d been hearing and seeing a lot of examples of over the weekend – Tasmanians inextinguishable zeal for conservation of their natural landscape. Unfortunately we later learnt that this is offset by the die-hard attitudes of an equally determined redneck population, hell bent on harnessing Tasmania’s natural resources for their own enrichment. Surfrider’s latest battle in Tasmania has been against the might of the state’s largest private company, environmental vandals Gunn’s, who plan to build an enormous pulp mill on the states northern coast.
The film reinforced an underlying message that we kept sensing and hearing throughout the weekend - conservation and environmental initiatives take years of tireless work and commitment, sometimes, more than a lifetime or several lifetimes. However, with any luck the tireless work of Peter Whish-Wilson and the other northern Tasmanians will pay off and the pulp mill will fail to get off the ground!
Meanwhile, we keenly awaited the following mornings surf.
SUNDAY
Next thing it’s daylight and we’re in the car with wetsuits and boards (even managed to sneak in some hot water for later). The sun’s out, the light winds unusually warm. Until of course we hit the water… a race through the sand under a brilliant blue sky to see little 1-2 ft waves at Clifton, Hobart’s main beach.
There were others out, bracing the cool waters, like us, with hoods, booties, gloves, hot vest and 4/3.
From the lineup, we look down past Bruny Island, further past the last distant headland and into the great void of the Southern Ocean. This is living, braving the elements, beating the crowd, capturing the extra golden moments that come only to those brave enough to step outside of their comfort zones.
Do something special and be rewarded in the most special of ways.
Back
It's too early on a Friday morning and we’re on our way South to Southport, ready to meet our skipper and head down the coast as part of the Surfrider Foundation National Education Conference Wilderness day, which is held annually the day before the conference.
It was only several days earlier we had received an emails alerting us to the possibility of great weather and the opportunity for a surfing boat trip. Kristy couldn’t keep the grin off her face.
Back at Theatre Royal, Campbell Street Hobart, hosted by the charming Surfrider supporters, Michael and Mala, more fun was in store. Come 8.30pm, the Theatre Royal dining room had been completely transformed into an makeshift picture theatre. It was brimming with hundreds of keen Tassie surfers, from groms to oldies, all pumped to see, meet and hear the work of surfing filmmaker Tim Bonython, who had made the trip especially for Surfrider to screen his latest works. 
With the sun setting we park the Zodiac at Cremorne, and run up a carefully laid path through the dunes to a small coastal shack set upon the delicate sand spit. The development represents a bygone era when coastal planning and rising sea levels where unheard of. If someone proposed an idea of a development like this nowadays you would have groups like Surfrider jumping up and down in no time. But it’s a magical place, with the backyard overlooking the unique inlet and point break that could simply only be in Tasmania. 
Next thing it’s daylight and we’re in the car with wetsuits and boards (even managed to sneak in some hot water for later). The sun’s out, the light winds unusually warm. Until of course we hit the water… a race through the sand under a brilliant blue sky to see little 1-2 ft waves at Clifton, Hobart’s main beach. 
