Despite me loading a surfboard into the hold, in a boardbag clearly marked 'Fragile, Surfboards, Top Load Only', Qantas airlines entirely neglected to damage the board in any way. This outrageous lapse of airline protocol was made even worse by the fact that at the end of the flight, they returned to the board to me immediately and failed to lose it at any point. As you can imagine, I was very disappointed with the level of service by Qantas airlines.
If you want the the 'real' travelling surfer's experience, then I can thoroughly recommend British Airways. When flying to Sydney from London Heathrow, given a surfboard which as noted above was clearly marked as 'Fragile', they can offer the superb 'Ding Experience'.
Thank heavens I took the surftech instead of the Harmergeddon
Although finding epoxy ding repair in Wollongong NSW was a bit of a challenge.
Not pretty, but it did the job
And now Im back, I'll have a job colour matching the board for a permanent repair.
Wollongong (70km south of sydney) was very pretty...
....but very very very quiet. Too quiet. Even though the interview went pretty well, I dont think I could take the job if Im offered it. Fortunately there was some small clean surf to keep me busy.
(Thats a photo taken BY me, not OF me)
It getting dark at 5.30pm was a bit of a bugger though - flippin' winter!
But walking into 18degree water in 9degree air was interesting
Then off to cronulla (south sydney) where the surf was a bit more of a challenge...
Got the cr@p beaten out of me
Oh, and met James (Jimi) from Cronulla who showed me the sights of Cronulla and the nightlife (jailbait cleavage city!). Top man, thanks for that.
Need a bit more practise for the reefs... but thats allright as its now pretty much certain I'll be moving over to Sydney later this year
