Soundwaves!

Finally, I'm back on line. From out of the scattered clouds of seediness and braincell destruction, To the beautiful reality that is our crazy family. Well, Where do I start? The boys and I stayed up way too late on Thursday night playing our guitars, so therefore missed the cranking waves on Friday morning but we'd had some good waves during the week so compared to our hangover, the surf meant very little.

here we go

       Friday arvy arrives and were all set for our big road trip to hardcore rock heaven. By the time we were on the freeway near Brisbane, The stereo was blaring and we were all screaming our lungs out to Frogstomp, The first Silverchair record. Poor Shannon had to drive so he was the only one who didn't realize how good we sounded! Eventually we arrived at Rosco's, (A big shout out to ya Rosco!! For putting up with us hooligans for 2 days, And for saving my hair from Davey, thanks dude I owe you one!) there was 2 empty cartons, a full one, also a litre of vodka. None of them made it through the night. At some point the boys found out I was a beer bong virgin so of course they knocked one up and by sat. night it had became everyone's enemy.

Stonesour

        The big day came, we were all up early amping. A couple other mates had joined us in our preparations, needless to see we were fairly charged by the time we got to the gig. Ready to rock!! We walked in to Monster Magnet going nuts on the main stage. The boys then went off to see Pennywise but I decided to hang around for Stonesour. Their performance was off the F@#$ing hook, my throat is still sore. Although I didn't go to watch slayer, Stonesour made all of the rest of the bands seemed a little boring. If you don't know who Stonesour are, go get one of their cd's. It was pretty cool to see Slash, Primus, and as much as I hate to say it, 30 seconds from mars. I really don't know how all the bands played in the searing heat? Mate, We were just sitting there swimming in our own excretions but these blokes were up there dressed in black leathers and jeans going nuts!! yeeeew!!

luke skywalker and the troopers

under the influence of stonesour

     

 Sunday was pretty much a lay day as we grovelled back down the highway to reality. Monday was the exact opposite. Super dad/husband had found his cape and went to town on the house, cleaning, vaccuming, washing. Even had my first attempt at slow cooked casserole, Which I must say was a hit! Ari and I then drove into the airport to pick up Jess and Isla, Who had a great time in Perth except for the heat wave they endured whilst they were there.

.

best friends

       So after all that the Craig clan is back together healthy and happy. There's a new south swell on the way too so I can give the super cape back to Jess, and go get shacked!!
  On a different note Woolgoolga Boardriders Club held their first comp on Sunday, and even though the Vice president was a no show, from all reports, it was a great day. Check www.stsurfimages.com for all the great shots from the day.

The last day of sanity

yeeeew!

beach graffiti

style master

5 of the boys all caught up for a surf today, Which is pretty rare these days, now were all old farts. The banks are wicked at our little secret spot, And there wasn't anyone else around to bother us. Just us taking the pick of the 3-4 ft waves that came our way. Needless to say we all had a ball!! I even managed to score a couple of kegs. After the surf me and Ari went for a swim at red rock, had a great time out there aswell. Sorry guna have to cut this blog short, the boys have come over for a little jam session. All in all  pretty stoked, day 4 of  Jess not being here and everything is going sweet. Going to soundwaves tomoz so will have a lot of good stories on mon. yew!

The last left!

This shop lady wanted $16 for 1 banana

Enough to get you going

The mad scientist

Swimming lessons on the agenda today, And ari got sum cool new goggles. As always swimming lessons were awesome!! Ari's teacher Di is incredible, somehow she manages to get all the kids to listen to her ?
 After the pool we hit main beach park, That was cool until ari got weirded out by some little punk, but by then I had seen too much of the swell rolling into main beach so it was time to go anyway. We went cruising up the street and then Ari tripped over, having a bit of a buster. I had to carry her screaming to the car. On the way home I realized that we'd run out of apple black-current icy poles so I had no choice, but to take her to nans.(so I could go surfing)

not high enough dad

That's better

           Unlike yesterday, I had a fair bit of expectation in the waves. We went to the same spot that had produced Toddy's big keg yesty arv. The swell wasn't as big but there were still sum nuggets. My last wave I got was freaky. At first I didn't think I was going to make it to the right take off spot, then, suddenly I was free falling into the pit. As I looked up I copped the curtain in the face and when my eyes cleared, I could see that I was deep inside this pit and for a split second I thought I was gone. But luckily enough I'd carried enough speed through the foam ball to make it out. Yeeeew stoked!!  One wave I will remember for ever.

you never know if you never go

Ari's cool  robots

All indications were telling me not to go surfing this arvy. The wind was howling and the brigade (thats what jess calls me and the boys) said it was onshore, they even drove to Cresent Head looking for a wave. But, nevertheless, Toddy Tango and I went for a sus anyway. I wasn't sure what this certain spot was going to be like so I tried to pump it up a bit for Toddy. All the age old stereotypical calls were made e.g  I surfed it the other day......., f@#$ you should see this bank!, biggest kegs, Probably the best I"ve seen it, blah blah blah. As we pull up, we're not really talking about surf, but we see this amazing wave up the beach. It was crazy, the right was barreling off like Jbay, and the left was kegging too. After a quick "wtf you doing in Cresent?" Phone call to the boys, we ran back to the car and quickly got out there. If you happen to go to Tango juice bar, ask Toddy about his keg he got, it was the biggest, heaviest thing, I'd ever seen him pull into. He got spat out with his hands in the air and he sounded like a chipmunk. Big high five to Toddy, great tube ride!

Mango Sorbet

No surf pic today so I give you this howler from last April

       In the hours leading up to my surf I had a lot of fun at home hanging with my little princess Ari. Ari continues to amaze me every day, I reckon she is probably smarter than me as well. Her little brain is going 100 miles an hour, all the time wanting to know about things and how they work. Today she learnt that Kermit the Frog makes dad sleepy.     
         

D.D.C

this left was the best i saw this morning

look at that slide

 the dragon

loving it!

  your the best dad

yeah!

what I said before

you d man dad!!

must of been sugar free ice cream?

These pictures tell a great story of our great day!

Sharp Surfing!

wa bound

The little pocket rocket, Jayke Sharp, From Sandy, Smashed his way to 4th place in the Burleigh Breaka pro today. The contest is a 4 star WQS!! In Laymans tems, This means that he Kicked ass. The other 3 finalist's are among the top ten surfers in the world at the moment, and to finish the final only needing an 8pt ride to win, Well this is nothing short of spectacular!! Go son. Before all the surfing action, I had to take Jess and Isla to the airport for their big voyage across the country. The departure lounge was tear free to my surprise.(as soon as they got on the plane I'm sure the tissues came out) I think my strength rubs off on the girls too, Ha;) Na I am missing them  pretty bad, As is ari, She told me" her heartbeat was broken coz she misses mum so much". Cute. As we were both feeling a little lost without Jess and Isla, we decided to go for a swim at backy, which was insane!! The water was warm as a bath, and Ari and I even managed to get a few waves together on the lid. After the beach came fresh cooked prawn sangas at nans. U beauty. When we got home, Ari invited me to a magical tea party on the rug. The tea party didn't really last long, The host was stuffing about making some sort of pie so I started playing the xylophone. I now know that a xylophone has NO place at a magical tea party.

I apologize for my bad spelin,grama and punk2ashn. My proof reader is away on holidays      

surfed and sorted

this was me last fri

this is me next sat

What a great day!! yeeeew! Sure the sun wasn't out all day and the swell was a little smaller than yesterday, but things just seemed to roll on and get better and better. Things were pretty normal this morning, a little bit of stress putting the finishing touches on the house for the 'would be buyers', apart from that, things were steady as she goes. We decided to head to nans for a cuppa. I wasn't too concerned with going for a surf coz I thought it would be crap. How wrong I was, me and lisa went to check it and it was sick, perfect little waves peeling not too far from shore. We both surfed for 2hrs, having a blast. I gave lisa a 5'9 single fin to ride (thanks Flano) and she absolutely loved it! After the surf I came home to watch good mate Jayke sharp in the WQS comp at Burleigh heads. Jayke carved his way to the semi finals!! which will be surfed at some stage on Sunday, the way he is surfing, I'm tipping he can go all the way to the top of the podium. Fingers crossed. Whilst that was happening Jess successfully packed her bags for Perth  and the kids had their arvy Nana nap so apart from our shithouse internet connection, life was bliss. As mentioned in the photo above, me and a few of the boys are heading to the Soundwave festival next weekend, so I spent the rest of the Arvy putting the finishing touches on our plans. Everything went great! We had to track down 3 more tickets and we scored them easy, so stoked! I reckon with the line up of bands playing at Soundwave, it is possibly going to be the best festival ever!. With bands like iron maiden, queens of the stone age, slayer, slash, pennywise, sevendust, stone sour and rob zombie just to name a few, who could argue? So next Saturday when your at home watching getaway, think of me and the boys going mad destroying our necks!! yiha.
Thanks to St Surf Images for the great pic!   www.stsurfimages.com

Sadie and her man

Isla self administering

Nice sunrise today

Oh the joys of renting! Roll up Roll up, any busy body who wants to have a squizz through our home, come round tmoz we have an open house!!
   So we spent all day cleaning, mowing etc, which isnt too bad if your a cleaner or lawnmower guy, but for me that sux. At the end of the day though the house is in tip top shape. Once again I fazed the early surf because of the tide, but the wind came up a lot stronger from the east today so my surf was a little choppy, but still great fun. My two little darlings are ok considering their state from yesterday, isla's temp hasn't gone too high thanks to the medication, and ari's fat lip is down to about Angelina Jolie size. My big darling is preparing for a holiday to perth next week so she is very excited. Jess is taking isla with her so me and ari are left to fend for ourselves, I know don't panic, we will be fine, nan's available mon- wed to look after ari while I surf, then pop can take over thurs/fri. Na just jokes, I'm really lookn forward to spending a bit of one on one time with ari, we will have a ball. Although being the big girl that I am, I'm not looking forward to being in the big scary house on my own. Maybe we might both stay at nans this week?

BANG

poor ari

me and toddy had this secret bank to ourselves

Woke up today with great anticipation of sum sick waves, but as usual, I clocked up more km's than tube time. The high tide wasn't producing much, so I thought I'd be a good dad/husband and get the chores done first and wait for the low tide.We had to go to the hospital to book in for our last ultra sound (i think), then do a few things in town, all the while I was itching to get out in the water. Finally I got out there and it was unreal! The water was like a bath and a few kegs went down. After the 4hr session I was on top of the world, but oh how fast those children can change that! Everything was sweet, Jess went for a swim, I was fixing my car, Isla was asleep and Ari was playing happily in my car. Then Ari opens up the door and bang, falls face first onto the concrete, busting her lip and grazing her elbow. I rush over to her, by this time she managed to rub the blood all over her face so I was freaking!! I carried her inside screaming, then right on cue, Isla starts screaming upstairs. F#*$!! So I had no choice but to bust out the cape and swing into gear, there was only one thing I could do...... reach for the apple blackcurrant icy pole. Yep super dad saves the day again. So after all the excitement I cracked a beer and let them run wild till Jess got home. Everything was again sweet, I started to clean up and Jess was taking the ferals upstairs for a shower then bang, Isla's temperature spiked and she started convulsing. This was so frightening! lucky Super mum was home and put her under the cold shower, I just freaked! After a long cool shower the nurofen finally kicked in, Isla's temp returned to normal and she began to terrorize the household like she always does. Bloody kids! So now as I type this post, both kids are asleep, I've got a full belly of nachos and my beautiful wife is keeping the lounge warm for me and everything for now, is sweet again.................. until the next bang. 

2 little Ducks

mullaway early

First of all, sorry to the neighbors, but sometimes kids get sick and are screaming all night. Yep poor little baby isla wasn't a happy girl last night, couldn't sleep, we're not sure exactly whats going on with her? She hasn't been her self the last few days but last night and today she was pretty crook. Hopefully it's just one of those things that disappears as fast as it came. You sure do take health for granted! Anyway, I still got up for the early, Mullaway looked super fun but I just wasn't keen, There were a few grommies out getn their froth on before school which was good to see, so I let em have it all to themselves. We took the girls to swimming lessons, which in hindsight probably wasn't a good idea for isla, She didnt last long before flippin out. On the other hand ari was brilliant! even the teacher was stoked with her progress. I did the rounds the sarvy to check a few banks and am pretty pumped for the early! looks like barrels 2moz, Yeeeeew.    

Me Surf

st surf image hot shot

morning glass

Pretty cruzy round the Craig household today, heard a few reports that the surf was bad so wasn't too keen on venturing outside. St images got a shot of me on the 'me surf' website, it made this weeks top 10 so pretty stoked on that! Full credit to Tom from St images, he is the one swimming up and down the beach trying to get in the right spot, it's a lot easier on my board. There was a bit of a current too that day and the waves were a bit all over the place so we were lucky to get that one hook up. St surf images also updated their hot shots galleries and I was lucky enough to get a few shots in there as well, check em out, there's also a lot of killer shots of some other shredders too, Lee Winkler and Jayke Sharp, just to name a couple. On the home front, the tin lids are sweet, but Jess has been in bed sick most of the day, bit of morning sickness that hopefully goes away soon. I went for a late paddle out emerald but that's all I'll mention on that, shocker! The next few days surf is looking the goods so should have some new shots up soon   .http://www.mesurf.com.au/  http://www.stsurfimages.com/ 

Marg......The rains are 'ere.

Ari rain dreaming

Muffin Mix

Waking up to the sound of rain today, love it. When there's rain, there's usually swell, fingers crossed for tomoz. Jess went to yoga while I stayed home like a good husband and looked after the ferals. I then had to go to coffs for work so I checked a few spots for waves, it was pretty ugly but there are still some banks around to keep ya excited. I spent most of the afternoon trying to make this blog more appealing but I think I'm guna have to call in some expert help coz all I seemed to do was get a sore butt from the chair and sore ears from the mrs for being on the computer all day. The young'ins were great today, ari was kept occupied with shrek and a few books, and as usual little fatty was happy so long as she had some food in her mouth. Jess also treated us with some great banana and blueberry muffins, yumo, and to top it all off the second installment of the underbelly movies is on tonight. Yiha. As my good mate cisco would say " living the dream". 

Sunday Sunday

yeeeew! what a day! we all spent the morning at red rock.Its such a great place for the kids to play/swim, even to catch a few waves. As for the surfing, I am feeling a little bit surfed out, I had 3 pretty sik sessions on Friday and am feeling it so laying in the warm rock pools at redy was great. Come home and chip sangas on the menu for lunch, then big steak and salad for tea, gotta love summer time. The only bad thing was that Isla took another tumble, standing up on the chair and it fell over. She headbutted the glass door now she got a fat lip (not as fat as mine) to go with the big graze on her forehead, from doing the same thing yesterday, but being the terror she is, this wont hold her back!