I bought this 6'8 x 18 14 x 2 1/2 Steel Stringer Rick Jacko Alloy Joy after about 9 months out of the water due to a knee injury. I was so depressed & sick of hearing how good the surf was that day that I had gone bush working in an abattoir slaughtering sheep,drinking a lot of alcohol & trying to learn the guitar which was about the only thing that almost kept me going completely insane since surfing had been my life up until then. I wasn't sure I would ever get back in the water, every time I did I'd do a floater & ahhh my knee would give out sideways. I'd be limping up the beach in agony every time I thought I was good to go.
Time out well away from the ocean had been the answer & since I'd given away all of my personal possessions except a car, clothes & guitar I just needed a board. And I thought I'm not returning to Perth to live, I'm now ready to get back in the water, I'm going somewhere with waves. I caught up with family, picked up the Alloy Joy & moved to Tunbridge st Margaret River. Awesome location, waves, Settlers Tavern had awesome bands on Thursday nights, bands you heard on JJJ in the 90's would play there coz it was the cool thing to do & was a really up close & personal experience. Real golden age.
First place I surfed on the board was pee break & I surfed absolute sh1t. I was with some Japanese friends & they were stoked one of their Japanese pro surfers was there. He failed to impress me, but I way more failed to impress myself. I was hellla rusty...but after some time I started to get my sh1t together. Being really careful not to go for the big freefall floaters coz up until this day my knee will threaten to give out to the side if too much pressure is put on it. I've kinda learn to react instantaneously when the feeling hits. I will crouch/bail to absorb the pressure.
But anyway, over time I wasn't such a kook. I surfed the right off Marg's mainbreak a lot & you get these kinda ridges on the shoulder as the wave dredged off the reef. The right up until 2.5 overhead will kinda threaten to shutdown or break faster than it does & the face dissolves into these ridges in the wave & I'd love timing my cut back utilizing those ridges.
The place I lived was kinda communal, people called it the blue house & a lot of people have lived there over the years. I hope Mike W is still well & having a good life with his relatively new wife from his home country that he married lol jeez 12 years ago (time flies). It was such a cool place to be back then I rarely watched tv for 3 years that I was there. We had our own crew to go surfing & party with. Lots of wine, guitar &...stuff...
Time went quick but one winter I'd had enough. Got kinda depressing in winter. Not so much going on band wise, your rugged up & wishing the swell would drop down to a less life threatening size or something haha. Mate & I decided to go visit his home town of Apollo Bay.
Popped up to Perth to say goodbye to friends/family & then spent a week in Albany saying goodbye to peeps there & surfing. Scored some bloody good waves too, there & a few places before we hit the Nullabor...now I hope there is Null Bore by this stage of my blahing, I'm sure I've lost Scotty already. Maybe I should insert Kong into each paragraph or something haha. But nah no opportunity to namedrop any pro's into this part of the story coz nothing really significant happened other that seeing them rip. Occy & Dave McCaulay were regaular fixtures round the cape to cape back then, Dave still is of course. I could describe them tearing into waves. Like the day Dave asked if I was alright after losing my board 1/2 a K out to sea & I said yeah & then came about as close to death as I ever have. Or I could describe Occy's cutback into barrels over the surgeon's table. But I'm not going to, not today anyway.
The trip across Oz was amazing & I will do it again someday. At least from Adelaide to Melbourne. There are countless waves along that stretch, real jaw dropping stuff. It took us 4 months to get to Apollo Bay & I stayed there for about 18 months I guess. Had my 2nd best barrel of my life at Johanna & countless other great lonely waves, I surfed on my own most of the time round there over the winter. Everyone else was watching football or playing it lol
The Alloy Joy survived poundings on either side of Cape Otway. I almost bought 40 acres above wild dog creek for fark all, but got home sick when my gran died & moved back to Perth & lived in the hills while I went to Uni, met my wife, moved to the mid west, had good highly secret WA waves there for 8 years & bought my first new board in like 12 years. Still surfed the Alloy Joy as a goto board & last surfed it at Balangan in 2008. What I would give to have more pics & some video of the waves I had on that board. I really try & take a lot more pics & video these days & of course its so much easier $ wise without having to purchase film & pay to have it processed. But anyway if you made it this far I'm surprised lol cheers
I'd barely had a board for more than a year before breaking it. But this Alloy Joy survivedthe most powerful waves in the SW for years & along the great Ocean Road.
Backdoors (Cactus 1996)
Backdoors (less offshore)
Somewhere East of Cactus
Simondo
> 9 months ago, 25 Apr 2016
