Dreamweaver Graphics

It was that time of year again, where the littoral zone between life and death becomes elongated by another year - what a pain! But that’s what friends are for – share the pain, dilute it with lots of spirits and you might just forget about the insignificance of another year. What better way then to celebrate at Pearl Beach with a new house and some old antique friends. This time we had Elka and Di present in spirit, Jason and Ivy, Tom with Noa, Mat and Larisa with Gabriel and Raphaela, Bryan and Nola with Leo and Oliver, Will with Martha, Christoph and Liam, and Louise and Roman with Roman Junior and Chris. This was in fact our fifth house at Pearl Beach at 28 Diamond Road one street back from the beach and it turned out just perfect - thanks to Mat’s new tent and Will’s caravan we had room to spare for our large gathering. The house only had two bedrooms with a cabana at the back, but it came with a game room and a ping pong table, which was the perfect battle ground. Epics were won and lost and many a character was humbled by overwhelming odds, there will be no naming and shaming - LOL.

Our new house was called Deja-Blue and the only drawback was that a hillshoist was in line with a couple of slacklining trees so our customary balance sessions had to wait for another day. But given the perfect weather meant we were out and about most days. Friday the 30 November was arrival day and most of us turned up late afternoon but the Rosens were able to sneak in a quick climbing session at the secret local Pearl Jam Cave just above Pearl Beach. This mini crag has some excellent hard lines with a few boulder problems in-between so you can get a taste of both disciplines at the same time. Here are some to the classic we tried:

If you think the grass is always greener on the other side, remember that the water bills are much higher over there.

Saturday Saturday early morning Louise and Roman snuck out quietly for the customary beach strole only to disovered that Will had lured inoccent little Bryan down to the beach for some R&R. What a shock early in the morning when we found them chatting along in the morning sun! We just had to teach them a lesson so after a quick session of purpies, situps, crunches and a few yoga stretches thrown in by Bryan, we ensured that we would not be disturbed at our morning ritual the next day. The water felt very nice that morning.

After a lot of coffee and even more breakfast and some hard cerebral work at the cryptic crosswords and sudoku, the plan to visit the lobster cave was finalised. It was hot and the cave had its only little beach not far away so some of us
would head to the beach while the rest would check out what the gravity was like that weekend. Jason and Mark had beat us to the cave and had already started on the hard Left Hand Slab (17*) We followed closely behing with warm-ups on pinchy the lobster (19*) with its awesome pinch move, the classic slobers on Second Cave Carrot (19*) which deserves a much better name, and the uber-amazing Lobster (21***) where the twins finally managed to unlock the crux final move for us via a secret rock crystal pinch. Nicely done. Roman jumped on the roof extension

Roast Lobster (23***) but it was spoogy and he had the pleasure of a second lap for the cleaning. The twins were working the far right hand traverse line through the entire cave roof called The Red (27**) and managed to unlock the crux pinch move. We will have to come back on a colder day for the send. When temperatures soared on the way out of the cave, Jason found another gear and jumped on the classic technical slab Scallops (22**) and then we called it a day.

Back at the house it was time for another body surf sesssion, catching some shories and start prepraring for the birthday barbecue. Yet, besides the climbing, relentless ping pong battles and surf sessions, the most heroic effort of all went into the birthday cake: the oven did not want to play the game and only eternal vigilance of Nola, Mat and Louise produced the one of a kind masterpices putting Masterchef to shame. Thank you for the mother of all warm chocolate cakes. As usual the weekend ended far too quick with a yoga class, beachcombing and the inevitable farewell group photo. I am thinking of the next weekend already.......

For, after all the Murders of your Eye,  
When, after Millions slain, your self shall die;  
When those fair Suns shall sett, as sett they must,  
And all those Tresses shall be laid in Dust;
Solid rock will rain supreme.


Lobster Cave	Jason on Cave Carrots	Roman on Lobster	Chris on The Red (27**)

Mark on Pinchy	Roman S. at Pearl Jam Cave	Jason loving the slopers	Mark on Cave Carrots

Boys playing	Roman on The Red (27**)	Louise at Pearl Jam Cave	Chris on Lobster

Lives of great men all remind us
  We can make our lives sublime    
And departing leave behind us   
Footprints on the sands of time.

The Pearl Beach monster was angry that day. Following heavy rains on Wednesday with a little bit of a summer thunder storm thrown about for good measure, accompanied by record precipitation, its underbelly roared, and it unleashed some of the most outrageous sets on the shore line we have seen in a long time. Below is a collage of instances at the cusp of our event horizon, each one powerful enough to crack a bone or worse. The first day we bowed down in reverence and walked away with the mighty beast winning the day. But we were back on day two to challenge the hydra. Who is to say who won?

Foam is your friend - It's all about where your mind's at - if in doubt, paddle out.

Behold the Pearl Beach Beast showing of its pearly white teeth.

Often during swimming,
a ray of light ,
through the surf,
could suddenly reveal,
how empty air,
could hold a wall,
of drunken surf.

If you still need more photos or want to watch some of the videos then you can download all of them HERE.

Roman 31 July 2017