THE LEFT
Posted by Parko in Freestyling,Photos
Kirra in the mirror. //Pat Stacy
I’d never surfed The Left before.
On the speedboat on the way over from Bali Andy was frothing. He’d surfed it a bunch of times and was telling me it was one of the best lefts in the world. I was hoping he wasn’t talking it up too much. After listening to him I didn’t want to get there and find it wasn’t the best left in the world.
We get there and it’s two foot and no good. Nothing. Mate, it was three foot and a fat little lefthander when we pulled up in the morning because it was high tide. It doesn’t really do much on the high tide. But as the tide starts going out it gets bigger and bigger and better and better. It’s an amazing wave, a unique wave. It’s almost like a novelty wave in a way because it’s so tidal and so much water moves up the point out there.
JS was the first one out. He paddled out at quarter past 11. I jumped in half an hour later, and we got out at six that night. Over six hours in the water. It was kind of onshore when we paddled out, then this rainsquall swept through and after that it went perfect offshore and was unbelievable.
You take off up the top and it’s this 60-second ride down to the end section. The top of the wave has a few barrels and also lets you do a few turns, but if you get too carried away up there you’re going to blow the best barrel of your life down on the inside. You just go into survival stance from the top of the point down to the barrel section, just race it, then you just lock in. I reckon one in every 50 waves will let you out down there, but it’s so perfect that it just keeps staying open. It’s pretty heavy. You get in the barrel and there’s not much margin for error because it gets really shallow down on the inside. I had to straighten out on a couple down the end because I just couldn’t keep up with it. There was a bit of dry dock reef but down there, but it’s not too bad, you know. I didn’t lose any skin.
Andy surfed the best, definitely. He got better and better and his barrel riding got more fine tuned as the day went on. He kept pushing himself harder. Andy just goes straight to another level when a wave gets like that. He rises to the occasion, especially in hollow reef waves.
We had a great window at the bottom of the tide and it just pumped. The only other left I’ve surfed like it is Speedies at G-Land, but I was really young when I surfed Speedies and didn’t have a good sense of backhand barrel riding and couldn’t really appreciate it. But after that afternoon at The Left I’ve got to say that’s the best lefthander I’ve ever surfed in my life. I love going left because I hardly ever do it, and I’ve been surfing so much at home recently that I’ve been dreaming of going left all day, surfing perfect lefthand barrels. It’s not even one of those things where you wish you could surf that wave on your forehand. That wouldn’t even make it special because it’d just be like any other day at home on the Gold Coast.
11 COMMENTS
Toryn says:
June 16, 2010 at 9:44 pmthat looks tooooo good
slow dong dickit says:
June 17, 2010 at 1:35 amThat’s MY left…now fuck off already
bob says:
June 17, 2010 at 5:53 pmDesert Point
tom says:
June 18, 2010 at 9:04 amFor sure!!! “The left” is no secret…Desert is definately the best lefthander when the right swell hits it, but the crowd is also ridiculous most of the time
Myles MIho says:
June 19, 2010 at 11:19 amWhy isn’t there any pic’s or vid’s of G-land. I mean classic G-Land where Kong’s, ?, Money Trees, Speedies, Chickens all connect.
James says:
June 19, 2010 at 12:14 pmCome on…Deserts is no secret
Occy’s Underbite says:
June 22, 2010 at 8:58 amThat’s D-Bah mate! Yoo.
MSG says:
June 22, 2010 at 2:39 pmI’ve surfed that left so many times. The biggest misconception is that it’s perfect and on all the time. It’s actually a pretty fickle wave and definitely not perfect. I’m not saying this to thin out the crowds either. For one, I doubt my words will carry weight or travel far. And most importantly, two, Desert Point is always SO crowded anyways. Even on crappy, terrible days, which it is almost 80% of the time, it’s so crowded. And it takes a good sized swell to get that place to fire. The wave sections and closes out on you way more often than staying open and perfect.
However, with all that said, when it fires, it’s definitely the best left hander on the planet. So good.
Blasphemy Rottmouth says:
July 2, 2010 at 11:13 amWear some sunscreen Bru!!!
Adrien says:
July 2, 2010 at 11:22 amIt looks like a great spot.
By the way, I don’t want to sound like a hater but you should have your writing reviewed before posting it on your blog.
Do not take it the wrong way, I am just saying that for the good of your blogs.
Peace.
Blasphemy Rottmouth says:
July 12, 2010 at 11:37 pm@6/22 – 8:58am and 7/2 – 11:13am,
Your time is short. Pick another name… or suffer the consequences.