This page last Modified: Tuesday, 01-Jun-2004 17:19:36 BST
OK, I finally succumbed to the urge for self glorification :-( My name is Stephen Whelan, I was born in Geelong, Victoria, Australia in 1961. Read on if you care!
28th March 1995. Photo taken by my wife Ann on her compact camera. You might be able to just make me out in the pocket of this wave. It's about 4' on the face, and I'm riding my 7'2" Gash and wearing my Gath - why?? I saw my mate John Kraft out there and was just about to run and get my 6'2" Roar when I realised he was only just making the drops on these waves - and he was riding his 7'6"!! The waves were hitting the shelf so abruptly it was very difficult to catch and take off - but what a buzz. You can't see from this scan that the wave continues to hit the shelf and in fact it's just about to go stupid on the shallow section of the shelf about ten metres in front of me. This session there was just myself, John and D-Boy Darren Hill. A few days later John and I got it again a bit bigger and a lot more consistent. John's last wave was memorable - I was already standing on shore when he caught an excellent wave, and about where I am in the above photo the whole section in front of him started to shutdown. "No way will he make it" I thought, but John pulled in and set himself up perfectly, he was flying through the barrell and it looked like the shallow section had been bypassed by virtue of the wave breaking further out. I was hooting with excitment as John looked like he was going to come from way back in the tube and exit - but then the wave hit the shelf proper, the shallow section went completely stupid and John got thrashed. Whilst underwater his board whacked him in the chin (where the 'ol Gath doesn't cover) and gave him something extra to remember the wave by - a nice cut. Hope you got a bit of stoke from this story! This wave is great. I could tell you exactly where it is but then I'd have to kill you :-)
Err, when I listed them I realised only one wasn't a secret, so there didn't seem to be much point in listing the one well known spot - Winkipop in case you couldn't sleep :-)
This is where I used to live, Apollo Bay, which is down the Great Ocean Road on Victoria's West Coast. I learnt to surf in the sheltered bay in the picture - the close-out King!! I've also lived in Geelong, Melbourne (in fact spent the last few years in Melbourne), and now live in Waterbeach (No I didn't make up that name!) just outside Cambridge, U.K.
, when I was at home in Aus I was a member of Surfrider Foundation Australia.Omissions, corrections and/or additions to items published/released before 01/01/2008? Please email me - it would help if you made SURFING the first word on your subject line.
Please note that these lists will not include any items published/released after 01/01/2008 until further notice.
The reason is that I simply don't have the time to keep maintaining these web pages for the foreseeable future.