Scoping out the world's best straighthander. //Frank

Just got back from chasing a swell up into The Desert. We scored. Drove up with Louie and Andy, and Occ flew in the day after we got there. It was so good to do that trip with a bunch of good mates, get away before the tour kicks off again.

I’ve been up there once before for four days with Jack shooting for Free As A Dog, stayed with George and Tracy Simpson up there. It’s not for every surfer on the planet, that trip. It’s for the surfer who wants to challenge themselves in the elements with no one around, big waves, just a few of the boys camping. I went five days without touching fresh water and just loved it. Just that style of roughing it, stinking of campfire smoke the whole time.

I love it that crew head up there for a month or six weeks and just live there between swells. I could see myself doing a month there easy. You know, you appreciate the little things when you’re up there camping. You surf two long sessions all day, and it’s not like you can go and sit down and have a pub meal and a schooner for dinner. I was that excited to sit down and have a cold beer from the esky as the sun went down because you realise how hard it is to lug everything there, bring the ice and pack the esky. You’ve got to earn everything up there. No free rides. You realise the value of things.

Eating is a huge part of life up there. I pride myself on good campfire eating and I tell you what, my campfire recipes were all time. The first night I cooked fish, steak, sausages, vegies and salad. Second night the same, then third night I did a tuna pasta with vegies and salad.

The right looked evil when we checked it. Ten foot closeouts. Andy was so keen to just throw himself into anything, and if he was going out there was no way that I wasn’t. And it was Occ’s birthday, so of course we went out and put on a show for him.

On the way home in the car just sitting in the back seat, Occ and Louie were in the front. I was just sitting there thinking as a kid how often I’d dreamed of doing a surf trip with those guys, my heroes, and here I was 10 years later sitting in the back seat with the two guys I’d watched on movies a thousand times. Like, how cool is this. We shot some epic footage on the trip, which is all going into Still Filthy. It’s kind of like the last footage they shot for it so it’s going to be a sick way to wrap it up.

The drive up there was long, but the drive home was longer. We did 12 hours in one hit. Punched it. I drove the whole way up there and drove the whole time we were up there. I did the first two hours coming back and I said, “I need out of this drivers’ seat.” I jumped in the back of Louie’s car, fell asleep, and I woke up 10 hours later outside the airport.

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