Australia - the land of marsupials, meat pies and vegemite, rugby, beautiful women, unending wave potential, and a 1991 Mazda Euro-style van that will forever be ingrained in our memories. The van and its luggage, which consisted of 5 Pismo dirtballs, a large variety of camera gear and an even larger assortment of boogie gear, clocked in 2000 miles on the East Coast of Australia which we called home for a month.

Our trip started in Cronulla, home of Shark Island, Suck Rock, and local Stuart Heldon who introduced us to the area after a rather errr... quick 14 hour flight from LAX. After a few days of jet lag, buzz on, and small surf, Stuart hauled us down to Wollongong in mum's van where we stayed at the infamous Little Austi house. Our hosts here reminded us of ourselves years earlier: young and amped beyond belief. The swell was up and the waves were cracking for the next few days and we were able to sample a variety of reefs and beachies with pros like the Player brothers and Aussie champ Shawn Cooper making a killing.

After the waves subsided Stu's friend Lachlin was able to hook us up with the van aka the Millennium Falcon for about $800 USD and after a few van projects we were off. With no swell we headed back to Cronulla from which we did our mandatory tourist rundown of Sydney and the National Park while wearing out our welcome at two local clubs with Marty and Tom of the Austi house meeting up with us for some of the fun. Brett earned the nickname Stinky Pinky and puked numerous times, Murdock blew $300 and pooped in a train station, and Louie won the belt at the pool table and found delight in the U.S. outlawed drink Absence while Cuddles and myself looked on in awe.

Already a little low on cash and tired of the city we made a quick decision to bolt back down south about 4 hours to the Ulladulla area. For the next ten days we stayed in one of Australia's best inventions - the vanpark. With our home base in Merry Beach this part of our trip was dominated by boxed wine, fishing, taming local wildlife, going rounds in the kitchen, and searching for surf - to no avail. With stories of south coast perfection we stayed put with our fingers crossed and our cheap wine flowing, taking out our frustration on a left we dubbed Bilbo Baggins Wedge which provided some small but fun nuggets for the dkers. After a final predicted swell fizzled out we were over it and packed our bags to join up with the No Friends tour that had already begun up the coast. Although we had been barred on any real surf down south we still had good times at the Marlin Hotel in Ulladulla, hiking up Pigeon House Mountain, going to the premiere for the Aussie flick Rejected, and getting completely swiveled at our van park with the local kangaroos and possums.

The final part of our adventure would not only be a test of our group chemistry but also of our van as we would travel hundreds of miles through unknown territory in the ailing Falcon. From Ulladulla we went straight to Port Macquarie which usually takes about seven hours. But factor in a couple food and bathroom stops, a capacity-filled van waning on horsepower and two cases of boxed wine and you have yourself a ten-hour marathon ride. A near crash, an egg fight, and a couple cans of spray paint later we found ourselves in the hometown of reigning GOB champ Damian King and the inventor of the ARS and Australia's biggest advocate of the curling iron Eppo. The next couple days we got some fun Salt Creek style Lighthouse Beach and partied with the NF boys where Louie, James and I got into a little scuffle after Louie and I were mistaken for Todd de Graaf and one of his buddies who had literally lit some chicks ass on fire. The next four days are kind of a blur as we continued up the coast with the No Friends posse making stops in Coffs Harbor, Byron Bay, and the Gold Coast.

James had another big night in Coffs scoring some Canuck at a club and Roldan went huge on the Goldie waking up on some farm 30 minutes inland after getting kicked out of a casino in the wee hours of the morning. Needless to say the Gold Coast was fun but once again we were barred for waves and we were eerily becoming accustomed to our routine of buzz on. After a little regrouping and a tip from Matt Lackey we headed south to a left-hand wedge swell magnet. For the next couple days we scored overhead wedgers with only a few others and got some of the best waves of the trip with the likes of Winston McCall and a few other local pros while once again staying at the local van park and keeping relatively mellow. At the wedge Cudworth boosted a couple solid inverts, Murdock got a couple sick barrels and Brett and Louie did their typical destruction on what the left had to offer.

Our final destination before departing was back to Port Macquarie for the Dropknee Sessions contest where we stumbled upon another van park with this one being quite baller. With the contest on tap Louie and Brett took backstage as James, a revamped Cudworth and myself went out into the night to find some local "Justs" floating around. The contest held some fun waves but they seemed to evade Louie and Brett who lost out in the early rounds to regular footers who milked the more consistent rights. After a considerable scare in the early rounds when a Kiwi contestant nearly drowned the contest ran rather smoothly with Mason Rose taking the win over a very impressive Dave Ballard.

We had a final night of buzz on in Port before departing home with Murdock and Cudworth scrapping up local canaries and the rest of us club hopping with all the shaka pros in town. After a final Lighthouse session we trekked the final 300 kilometers back to Sydney in the darkness of night. Our van now sounded more like a lawnmower and we sweated it out over a couple hills clocking in at 20 mph on the freeway and making it back to Sydney safely.

After a final flight out of Sydney our trip had finally come to a close after a month of chaos all over the East Coast. The waves, people, nightlife and landscape will never be forgotten during our tour down under and a return trip is a must. Special thanks go out to Stuart Heldon, the Little Austi boys, Randall and Ralph who gave us rides to and from the airport, and anybody else who hooked us up on our stay. Also, good luck to the charger Caitlin who we stayed with in Wollongong as she recovers from a recent back injury while surfing.