Mantas

Bob Hawke. Australia's third longest serving Prime Minister. Quote: His academic achievements were complemented by setting a new world speed record for beer drinking: a yard glass (approximately 3 imperial pints or 1.7 litres) in eleven seconds. In his memoirs, Hawke suggested that this single feat may have contributed to his political success more than any other, by endearing him to a voting population with a strong beer culture.

This kid could well be Australia's next prime minister.

Most of all the club fields are up Christchurch way. There's loads around Arthur's Pass. Mount Hutt is about 1 1/2 hours from Christchurch. It's OK. I guess. Similar to other large commercial fields in NZ and Oz. Porter heights is the closest to Christchurch, only 1 hour.

Originally Posted By: Tubby Beaver What's the deal with the "Club slopes" in NZ? Do you have to pay a membership to ride? Nope. All are welcome, even hairy arsed Scots . Facilities are usually fairly primitive, rope tows ect. and the roads to the fields are diabolical. That's why they are cheap. The 'clubs' usually have limited funds. I like them though. It's a great atmosphere. It's a far cry from the commercial cash crab in Oz.

What's in Suliwesi mate? Did you know my wife lived there for a year in Ujung Pandang?

Originally Posted By: spook yes, but so is padang. And so is Medan, Sibolga, Banda lumpung, Bogor..... We actually had a good time once in Jakarta when we stayed with a cashed up business dude. After a bacon and eggs breakfast, he lent us his car and driver for the day. Bloody oath it's cold. Your gunna die when you get home.

That lovely Jakarta air should fix you up. We overnighted there on the way over. Apart from a few new buildings that have popped up, little has changed in the 10 years since I was there last. Still a grimy, smog ridden, third world sh@#hole.

Like I said before. Snow skiing in Australia is NOT a community service. It's an industry, a business and all businesses are there for one thing. To make money. They will charge the maximum price for their services that they can and if people still pay it (it gets booked out every year no matter how shite the snow is), then there's nothing you can do about it. I'm over winging about it. Pay or don't pay. Go or don't go. Choices and options. Yes it's a rip off, but so are a lot of other things in life.

He's a beaver and lives in the swamps of Alabama.

Originally Posted By: Tubby Beaver you still get diving in the Prem league and Champions League. Mantas, no fans actually want to see diving or play-acting, its the poofy players with long hair that like to do that Like these poofters you mean?

I lost hope years ago that a newer/shorter/longer/ fatter/ quad/ twin...would do anything for my surfing. I usually buy second hand ones now.

Originally Posted By: scouser Watching the World Cup is not a good way to get into it! Standard has been low. Enough to put me off! You want to watch some quality team football. One of the big league games, or a good Champions League game. I can appreciate the skills in the game but I like a more physical form of sport. If you took out the all the dives and faked injurys I'd give it more respect.

Yep, that's the one.

The point got crowded at times but usually about 10-20 guys out. It's a long wave though so they are spread out a bit. On some of the bigger days the crowd dropped to about 5 guys. Only 2 at one point. CB I was introduced to the reef on my second wave. A bit of bark off, nothing serious. Lots of guys walking around with coral cuts all over them. Comes with the teritory when surfing reef breaks. Here's some more surf photos. The point on a bigger day. The beachie This is the right 90 mins. up the coast. We had a good surf there though it's not a class

Originally Posted By: RobBright Don't say that Mantas! Sorry lads, I just can't get into football. Believe me I've tried.

Thank god it's all over!

I was wondering where you would show up Spook. Where are you now? Actually I can't take the credit for that shot. Our little Indo guide Nana took the photo, as well as a few others. He was pretty good with a camera. I reckon I was about the 100th surfer to toss him a camera and say "snap a few if you like" It's actually a beach break and it was pretty damn good. Every wave was a barrel, not all makable of course. Oh- We stayed at Ombak Indah, Nev Hinz's camp. He has a great set up there. PM me if your thinkng of going though.

Originally Posted By: panhead_pete Was just getting little red X's where the pics were so thought I might find the pics on photobucket by searching "Mantas". Sure hope this is your pic mate. Yep, that my photo mate. I'm actually in it. Under the water.

50 or 60k is not unusual here these days.

why do fins need to be so sharp? I always file mine to a safe blunt edge.

Originally Posted By: panhead_pete not all investments get into the black though. Tell me about it. I'm still paying off my wife's uni degree 15 years later. That's largely by choice though, as it is a government subsidized loan and therefore we give it the lowest priority. I work with highly educated people all the time, some of them brilliant and amaze me with their intelligence, some of them are complete morons that have difficulty getting the simplest of tasks done. They hypothesize, analyze, philosophize and every other 'ize' you could think of, when all the job requires is

Originally Posted By: Go Native Bolivia is a very cool place. Great mountains, Lake Titicaca, La Paz, the Amazon and the cheapest and purest cocaine I have ever had. Many sleepless nights and good memories! GN Did you do any trekking while you were there? My wife and I did a 4 day trek from La Cumbre pass outside of La Paz (5000m) down the back side of the Andes to a village called Coroico. It followed an old Inca trail. From there we went down river into the Amazon. Pink dolphins, capybaras, and piranhas. Amazing couple of weeks.

Well lets face it. Getting into university isn't exactly a choice. You need to have a high level of intelligence just to gain entry in the first place (the definition of intelligence is open to interpretation here) I'm all in favour of knowledge for knowledge's sake. Ignorance is a dangerous thing, but when the vast majority of the populations uneducated tax payers are funding a large portion of your tertiary education then I think job specific courses are the only fair thing. If you want to pursue knowledge just for knowledge sake, then it's really just a hobby and should be done with your

Cleavage.

Originally Posted By: Indo Cool pics. Looks like a hard paddle out on a big day! Is there are channel on that left? That was the problem Indo. Catching and riding the waves wasn't too much of a challenge, even at 6-8 foot, but paddling back out was really hard work. The wide ones were at least 2 foot bigger than the ones that ran down the reef. Seriously, I got some of the worst floggings of my life out there on the big days. My 9 foot legroe is now 13 foot long! We ended up riding the wide ones instead. Mitch, what's a gropo?