Watch: User-Friendly Waves And Not So User-Friendly Evenings

The waves at The Pass were awful for thrusters, exceptional for everything else. Soft, clean walls hugged Byron’s iconic stretch of sand. It was beginner and alt-board heaven.

Jack Lynch opted for the log, Duncan Mcnicol for the finless, the rest of us sipped beer and watched from the shade. It was typically busy, but far from capacity. The easterly bump in energy wasn’t forecast and it was only Thursday – not that many are running the nine-to-five around here…

Mr Lynch lucked out with a set, locked rail and walked the plank, trimming past our camp and weaving down the bay towards Clarks. After the ride, Toby Cregan, who was on lens duty, packed down his gear. It was time to retire to our accommodation. We had the clip and the pool was beckoning, not to mention we were nearly out of refreshments. It was the third and final weekend of our Summer Sessions tour and we wanted to savour every moment.

We had two more sessions shooting with Jack and Dunc. Both in the kind of quality that would excite any weekend warrior, or Sydney-based Stab employee, yet hardly raise the eyebrow of the well-travelled surfer or lensman. Regardless we dragged our boards, cameras and Summer Bright boxes onto the sand. What else were we going to do? Tallows had a good bank and it was bikini weather.

Saturday arrived, the day of the show. After a pre-gig rinse at The Wreck with Middle Kids, we fronted up to The Brewery. Wearing black was a horrible mistake. Apart from a few pockets of shade, the outside venue was in full sun. Brows dripped and t-shirts hid (and in some cases revealed) lathers of perspiration. We drank through it, huddling under the beer garden’s giant tree while the Galaxy Girls sang and swayed through their set. 

After Cub Sport and Middle Kids had played we decided to breach our temporary residential agreement and throw a house party. The bands joined, our photographers joined, so did Jack, Dunc, Matt Wilkinson and forty or so others. Only after we’d caught the attention of our neighbours and local law enforcement (or was it the exhausted alcohol supplies?), did we decide it was time to move on and continue making bad decisions elswhere. View the gallery from Saturday here.

Once again we pushed through the morning fog, packed our bags along with the little dignity we had left and rolled on to our next show. We were getting better at doing this dance. Three weeks of practice, in fact. When we arrived at the Sunshine Beach Surf Club, the line was pushing up the street. The venue hit capacity shortly after and we were forced to negotiate with angry looking men in security uniforms to get Kai Hing and his pals through the door. Locals began jumping the surrounding fences, some questionably of age. We cannot confirm nor deny that we assisted their efforts. Local outfit Doolie performed first, then Middles and Cubbies. The place erupted, iPhone screens illuminated the audience, our blood turned cold, or perhaps that was our bodies trying to tell us something. View the gallery from Sunday here.