Surfing Waves

hey all. Im doing ny final year in Uni, and looking at doing some sort of travel sled for my final year project as ive had trouble in the past fitting all my gear into my car and getting my gear from the car to the water without damageing it. So what im after are horror stories about packing up your gear and traveling to your favourite spot e.g having to leave boards/kites/sails/speedos behind, having boards fall of the rack on the motorway, driving for 8hours and realising you forgot your wetsuit but its double overhead and the lineups empty, people driving over your favourite board etc etc

basicly i want to know all the shitty things that have happened to you while taking part in your favourite watersport, whether its surfing, kitesurfing, windsurfing, bodyboarding, sailing. swiming, diving or something you and your buddies made up in the pub, whatever.

Appreciate the help
Stephen Gargan

i shipped a board from america back to ireland once. Unzipped the bag. Nose was cracked off and severaly fresh hefty dings. I just know the baggage handler nobends were just tossing it about.

took a trip all the way to blacks beach walked down the steep winding road only to find out i had no wetsuit packed. (anybody whose been to blacks knows when your down its comitted loooong way back up)

Stung in my face by a brown jellyfish - hurt like a muvva - worried as hell actually.
My fault, I wiped out into it !

I couldn't leave the water because I was using it keep the stinging sensation at bay.

I asked another surfer if my eye or face was bleeding - he said no so I stayed in, and besides, the surf was pumping and glassy.

The pain went after an hour or so and the swelling after a week – top surf that day too !

my car had issues, my friend flaked on taking me to surf, the surf was epic, I decided to drive my crappy car anyway cuz it was pumping so hard.

I was at the coast, the final leg of my journey, I heard i thump and the ass end of the car slammed down to the pavement. My passenger rear wheel had just come loose from the car, the car is dragging toward the cliff and the wheel is bouncing down PCH passing me. I wrestled the car safely to the side of the road, and watched my wheel go over the edge and into the pacific.
Now I am stuck on the side, 3 wheels, a surfboard, and a car that will soon be towed if left. This was b4 cell phones, so I hitched a ride to the surf spot I was headed to, and called on the pay phone for a tow truck.
I stood on the bluff and waited for the tow I watched perfect 4-6 foot glassy epic conditions. I began to cry.

I did climb down and rescue my wheel as the tide was going out. I will never forgive that friend for flaking on me that day.

Gave my mate all the money to hire a couple of cars for a two week trip in Costa Rica, turned up late at night in San Jose (Costa Rica), no hire cars, got on the phone, turned out the dick had booked it for San Jose (somewhere in the USA). Couldn't get the money back and ended up a couple of thousand $$ out of pocket between us.

Which kind of sucked.

Two weeks ago I was riding by bike down the trail by "Lower Trestles" when my front wheel dug into some powder and I took a spill. Bruised or cracked my rib, raspberry up my arm and knee. (my rib still hurts like hell when I sneeze)

Then still dazed while suiting up to go out, I hit my shorts on the rocks to shake off the dirt, but forgot my key was in the pocket. You know the new kind with the alarm buttons etc..? It came out in 5 pieces. Thankfully my friends son (with good eyes) was able to re-assemble it.

Surfing disaster? Went for a trip with DBBB down the south coast of NSW, and my car broke down at least 6 times on the way to the campsite... in the end I left it parked in a side street for 2 days while we went surfing, then I got it towed to the local mechanic where it stayed for a week... I then had to get another mate to drive me down the following weekend (about 2.5hrs each way) to pick it up. Worst thing was we only got a little bit of surfing in - mostly due to the stuffing about with my faulty car!

general water disaster?
on a 16ft skiff in the middle of winter, we took it for a test sail, and managed to break the spinnaker pole, the mast, the centreboard and ripped the mainsail in three places - and get washed out to sea, before getting towed back in by the waterpolice... that sucked... plus we were all hypothermic after spending 3 hours in cold water and strong winds...

well, Im nursing a cracked rib from a "surf trip" to wales... surf was poor wind was high, I had come a long way so went in when i shouldn't have, nearly got dragged onto the sea wall then the wind picked up my board as it rolled over a wave and tossed it into my head, finally i got knocked off my board anf then upon turing found my board been swept at me in a random direction right at me by a rough left hand wave. it smacked me right in the upper ribs and knocked all the wind out of me leaving me to hobble back to the car with the gale still threataning to rip the board out of my hands.........and the kicker.....the surf at home was great all that weekend after a couple of rubbish weeks and when i got home i still couldn't have any of it!!


on a more funny note, me and my lass parked up and got ready this weekend, left the car in a car park and made a long treck across the beach to the spot that had the least dumpy waves.. she got there and i started laughing at her, she still had her prescription sun glasses on her head...long walk of shame!!!