Day 05

Burgerworld suited Brendan style of surfing pretty good. It also makes for some really cool backdrops when shooting from the boat.

Randy (still probably feeling the effects of last night) on the wave of the day in the morning session.

Carrick cleaning the Skip Jacks I caught

These two birds were singing the whole time I shot photos from the beach at Burgers.

Our deckhand, Bear, ripping.

This was the where I was shoot most of the photos that day.

Frank the Tank was surfing great

And Carrick even came out later to surf off the hangover.

Late afternoon light coming through the palms in the village.

As I got up on Day 5, I was thinking it would be similar to yesterday. Surf the slab wave in the morning, Burgers the rest of the day. Since Bear was still on his island and Carrick was hung over from a night out (more on that later...) we asked Jeb to drive us over to Slabatha to have a look. He's not as good as Bear with driving the boat, and didn't feel comfortable getting in nice and close to have a look. It was probably just as good the day before, but we couldn't see it. Everyone opted for a surf at Burgers including myself.
I had surfed the night before with Nick, Frank and John while Randy, Carrick and a captain of another nearby boat went fishing. We all had a great session surfing but started to worry a bit about how we were going to get back to the boat as it was starting to get dark. Nick and I were the last ones left in the lineup and it was near dark. I think we (or at least I was) starting to feel like shark bait. But the boat came over to get us right at dusk. It turns out they were a little late because they were busy reeling in a 75lb GT. It was a giant fish that laid in the bottom of the boat. I think everyone had the same reaction the first time they saw it - "oh shit!"
Randy and Carrick went over for a few drinks with the other boat captain and had a few drinks, and kept drinking with our crew when they got back aboard the Navi. Brendan, Harley and Andrew didn't need much convincing to stay up with them. I had already gone to bed but I heard they were a bit roudy. Andrew boxed the captain (at his request) and Harley went wakesurfing behind the back of the speedboat (keep in mind there was no moon and no light).
The next day Burgers was really doing it's thing. The waves came in and wrapped around the point and hugged the reef. The waves were a little steeper that day and I ate it pretty good on the first one I took off on and almost washed over the reef. Luckily for me the wave isn't very powerful and the bottom was soft and I didn't deal with the reef. We surfed for a while then went back to the boat to find our cook and captain still sleeping. Everyone took a little break for lunch then went back out. It was at this point I had the best commute to work I'll ever have. They dropped me off at the sandy beach I checked out the day before. When I got all my gear on land and they started pulling away, I noticed a man walking out of the jungle. I instantly got a little nervous as I wasn't really sure what to expect and I didn't know if I'd be able to get anyone's attention if I needed help. It turns out he had a guitar and was walking down the beach singing. He had to walk right past each other and he turned around and started walking with me and kept singing. After about two minutes of this he turned to me, says "see you later" and walked back into his village.
To get up to the point where I'd be shooting I walked up the beach for a while, but the reef and jungle met up and didn't leave me with much of a path. I wasn't sure if there were snakes and any kind of bugs I should be watching for, so I just charged through and found a great little spot to set up my tripod and camera in the shade. It was the most beautiful place I think I'll ever see. The birds were chiping and singing and the light was great for photos all afternoon. The guys surfed for nearly four hours and we managed a lot of great photos and some video too.
I'm kind of kicking myself for not taking more pictures of the island as I walked up to take photos beacause the sunlight was so bright it made the entire island look like something you only see on postcards - but even better. We pulled anchor that night and steamed south - or north I'm still kind of confused about the directions there.