April 25th 2005 - I drove up the coast for the Anzac day long weekend, meeting
up with a friend from Melbourne at Cresent Head, near Kempsey... around 400kms
north of Sydney. We stayed in the local caravan park, which is the only way
to do Cresent... my site was 20 metres from the surf and 200 metres from the pub...
life doesn't get any easier than that!
My friend Boe travelled up from Melbourne
with his family and a Caravan... a long trip to do with a van... so he was owed
a bit of payback for his effort. I'd taken the easy way up, stopping at Hawks
Nest near Port Stephens for lunch and a quick surf... but it had been a fairly
hard four days at work that week (kind of), so I felt I deserved a bit of Cresent
magic as well.
As we sat near the shore that night, sipping on our VB's
and listening to the waves sweeping by, we knew we would have to get up early
the next day to avoid the crowds. Cresent Head is famous for its long broad rides..
when its working rides of a hundred metres or more are not uncommon. On good days
the break can get very crowded, and by the sound of things the next day was going
to be very good. We quickly finished our beers and made plans to wake up an hour
before sunrise.
Cresent
Early Morning Sets
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We woke up the next morning at around 5:30am as planned
and were not disappointed by the waves. Cresent was working well, with 4 to 6
ft sets making rides possible from the jump in rock all the way to the river and
even the beach.. hundreds of metres away. Unfortuneately every one else had
the same idea as Boe and me and the break was choca before the sun even came up.
It was a good session though, with plenty of waves to be had for everyone.
I
took the picture above on the following morning.. the swell had dropped off a
bit, but so had the crowds.. most of them leaving early to avoid the long weekend
return traffic.... too bad really, as the swell picked up again later that morning
on the low tide.
Boe
Kraitzer cutting a classic Cresent wave
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On
the second day I took my underwater housing out for its second try... this time
with better results. I now realise I need a bigger zoom lense, but apart from
that I am happy with the way its going. This shoot was also difficult as I was
shooting into the sun, but in the end this just added to the overall effect....
Cresent
Moonrise/Sunset
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First day at Cresent we surfed in two sessions for close to five hours... by
the end of which we were really ready to hit the local pub for a steak and beer
or ten. While Boe and family were getting ready I walked over to the rocky bay
next to the main Cresent beach took the picture above.. it was around 6pm.. the
sun had just gone down and the moon had started to rise, one day off full.
The
next day we were in no real rush to jump into the ocean before sunrise for some
reason.. though I still woke up early enough to get the picture below. After a
decent interval to allow the air to warm and our blood alcohol levels to drop
we hit the waves again. All was going well, I took some good photos in the
surf then took the camera back to the car so I could get a few waves myself. I
made the mear fatal mistake of trying to enter off the rocks mid beach instead
of the normal spot near the top, which resulted in me getting washed up onto rocks
covered in sharp oyster shells, slashing my knee opened. It didnt stop me catching
my waves, but after a bit I started to feel a bit woosy so decided I should get
out and try to stop the bleeding.... anyway, it all worked out ok, and I've got
a cool scar to show off now...
