Tassie Trip ‘78
It took a bit of planning but we finally put it all together for our trip to Tasmania. Ron, Mick, Kelly and I would jump in Ron’s station wagon, get the Spirit of Tasmania across Bass Strait and then depending on wind and swell conditions would head down one side of the island.
Upon arrival the wind was from the east so Trial Harbour was our main objective for surf. We arrived in Zeehan around nightfall and saw one sign saying Trial Harbour this way, but the further we went, the more desolate the terrain became and in the end, we didn’t know where the hell we were. We spotted some lights in the distance and decided we would just go there, sleep the night and work out our bearings in the morning.
Upon waking, we looked out the car window to see a 6’-7’ left-handler, peeling into a lagoon that looked like Tamarin Bay. We got out of the car and there at our feet was a 10’ white pointer with its head cut off and a big chunk taken out of its side.
We saw another set and just looked at each other then frantically began to get changed. Just then an old guy came up to us and said “what are you doing? They just caught that out there yesterday.” Ron said, “well they got it, so it’s not a problem.”
We all headed out and had a cautious time, yelling and screaming at each other as you do, calling each other a girl if they pulled back on a wave to which you were sent down to the end of the line to do a bit of shoulder hopping with Mick.
The swell jumped while we were out there, up to 8’-10’ as it does here all the time. Kelly took off on a bomb and got pitched out and slammed into a load of bull kelp. He took ages to come up and when he did his board had brown stripes across it from the kelp holding it down.
We all made it safely in and met up with the old guy once again. His name was Ernie, a local fisherman and a long time resident of Trial Harbour. His best mate was Bert (can you believe it… just like Sesame Street!).
Ernie invited us back to his place where he had a travellers book for visitors to sign. We all put our names in and then we noticed at the top was Nat Young. How good was that!
The wind turned onshore so we decided to go to Bruny Island for a few days. On the way, Ron said “why don’t we go to the casino in Hobart for a bit of fun?” But we had a problem. You had to be properly dressed with a tie and shoes to get in and we had none of that. I said, “why don’t we go to a suburban street and do a door knock appeal”. Ron and Mick on one side and Kelly and I on the other. When the opened the door, I said “excuse me, you don’t know us. We’re from Victoria and we want to go to the casino but we don’t have any good clothes. Can you help us?”
Everybody was really helpful but by the end of the street we were still short, when all of a sudden, Mick calls out to say this guy runs the Salvation Army store around the corner and he’ll take us there. We looked a bit stupid, but we got into the casino and proceeded to the gambling tables where Mick, Kelly and I all lost within 5 minutes, but lucky Ron won around $100 (which was a lot of money in those days).
The next day we headed to Bruny Island. Such a beautiful landscape with great waves and very few people. We surfed Middle Bay 2’-4’, no one else around, and we had a ball. Our aim was to surf a break in Cloudy Bay called Jaw Bones but it never eventuated.
We only stayed a few days, the wind shifted back to the east so we knew we were heading back to Trial Harbour. Now the one thing about Tasmania that I never expected was the road kill. I’ve never seen so many dead animals on the road in my life. It’s not a good idea to drive at night.
Upon arrival at Trial Harbour the swell was 5’-6’, the smallest Ernie had seen it in 10 years and it looked like we were going have a great run of swell. The next day, Bert’s son was driving into town and we needed a few supplies, so we drew straws and Mick lost. When the time came for Mick to leave he was nowhere to be found. He’d gone for a walk! Ron put his hand up thinking he would only be a couple of hours. He didn’t realise the guy was heading up north to a place called Savage River where he had other things to do.
Ron didn’t get back until late in the afternoon when it was onshore. We felt bad when we told him that the surf was perfect 4’-6’ and offshore. Needless to say, Ron was not happy with Mick.
The next day the swell jumped. It was 10+’ with 12’-14’ sets, but clean. All the guys said they weren’t going out and went for a walk around the headland to look at a huge right that was breaking. I stayed behind and thought I’d paddle out, sit at the lagoon entrance and just wait and see if I could get out.
Incredibly, a lull appeared and I paddled out quite easily. All of a sudden, the other guys could see me out there and they came running back thinking thy would have to bring back a dead body. I caught a few waves and then came in. It’s not much fun if you’ve got no one to make fun of.
We spent about 5 days there and had an absolute ball surfing and roaming the country side. The end came all too quickly, but we still had the boat ride to look forward to.
