freshwater

Last weekend I went down to Manly and saw crowds of people hanging around so i went to see what was going on and it was the Manly Freshwater area being announced as a surfing reserve. Amongst is was 1963 world title winner Midget Farrely, womens 1964 world title winner Phyllis O'donnell and my shaper Steve O'donnell.
Photo from surf city

Yellow Eight Footer

Had a go of Steve O'Donnell's Yellow Eight Footer.




Great speed and turning ability!

Can't wait for my new one..

day tripping to visit the shaper

It’s always cool going for a trip to visit Bennett Surfboards. Part of it is the journey and the stuff you see on the way - here’s a new way travelling oldies to describe their lifestyles: “recycled teenages”. But all roads eventually lead to Brookvale and Bennett Surfboards

Talking with Steve O’Donnell you get the chance to see and think about your surfing and the boards you ride in a different way. He knows his boards and can make subtle suggestions that just tweek ideas and shapes so that they might suit the performance to the individual rider and their different styles. He rides in comps and knows all about the range of conditions you face and what can make the perfect board.

I’m currently trying out a log shaped by Steve – really smooth, very stable

Steve O'Donnell shaped Bennett Board

I've been trying out a Bennett performance longboard (thanks again Tom!) shaped by Steve O'Donnell. Not much in the way of waves on this day but i'm noticing more and more the precision that a custom shaped board makes.

State Longboard 2010

This year Mia and I had the opportunity to go up to Coffs Harbour to participate in the state titles. The surf proved to work for the whole week with only one day at Mcaulies instead of the favoured spot at Diggers Beach. It was pretty strange for the
older divisions as they had surfed
their heats and semi's in the first few
days and for the rest of the week leading into the finals they settled into a pattern of getting up, surfing, having lunch then surfing again. John Fraser said it "It felt like ground hog day". How good was Terry Byrne! making it to the finals against some of the world's best such as Harley Ingelby and Dane Pioli. Especially after snapping his board and Greg snapping one of the potential back-up boards. The finals were dominated with Central Coasters with David Witt, John Fraser, Ray Blackman, Danny Bond, Kai Ellice-Flint, Hugh and Mia Daugaard and Terry Byrne all making it. Magoo although surfed great didn't make it as no waves came through when he surfed his last round. John Fraser won the last night board raffle at the Hoey Moey. There’s a huge Hoey Moey sticker all over it! The vibe through the entire competition was fun and very supportive. The last night was also great fun with the presso and dinner held at, by now very familiar, Hoey Moey with a great game of snooker with Kai. Hugh
(photos from the NSW longboarding association’s press release)

Steve O'Donnell shaped Bennett Board

Not much in the way of waves or banks on the central coast lately
but have been trying out a sick board hand shaped by Steve O’Donnell at Bennett surfboards (thanx for the loan Tom).
So much fun riding a finely tunned and crafted surfboard. The way the board reacts and surfs is just amazing.

Noosa Festival

This year I went to the Noosa festival to compete in the u/15's. The week before the festival the swell had crept up to a solid 4-5ft. This larger than normal swell size was due to two cyclones off the coast Queensland. When it was my turn to surf my heat I was just stoked to be out there catching almost perfect 4 foot peelers all the way through main beach with only five other people out.

In my semi-finals it was low tide and barreling really heavily. It was also fairly windy and i could not hear what scores were being called out. This meant that I decided to sit out wide in the last five minutes and go for a bigger set. I caught the bomb of the set and then realised that it was about to close out, so I jumped of the back but my board didn't make it and came down in the close out and snapped. Luckily Jamie from Global Surf Industries got me a deal on a new board for the finals.


Although I snapped my board, I still made it to the finals and got the hardware. Keen for next festival