I just had some free time and I realized that I forgot to account for a pretty significant event! Two Wednesdays ago on the 8th of July there was an explosion at the labs! I was working at my desk upstairs when it happened. It was a really loud boom that actually shook the upper level. First everyone up here just froze and looked around, then about 20 seconds later the evacuation alarm went off. Everyone in the building had to evacuate across the street. It kind of reminded me of the fire drills we used to have back in middle [View Full Entry]

---

---

This past weekend we took the ferry from Queenscliff to Sorrento. This is across the big bay that Melbourne is on. Andrew, Daniel, our Auzzie friend Taz, and I took the trip on Saturday. On the way to the ferry there Taz took us on a bit of a tour through Breamlea, Barwon Heads, and Point Lonsdale. There were a lot of good beach and rocky breaks around there that we hadn’t checked out before like Bancorra, and 13th beach. I got to see a fairy penguin at Point Lonsdale… a dead one at least, but it was still cool. [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hey again, time for another blog update. Last time I made an entry it was right before we all went on a trip down the Great Ocean Road. We left early in the morning and eventually made it down to the 12 Apostles. They are rock formations that are standing tall in the middle of the ocean. There used to be 12 of them but with erosion there are only about 6 or 7 now. They looked amazing, we got to see them around sunset which made them that much more impressive. I’ll attach a picture of them to this entry. [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hey again, it has been a couple of weeks since my last post. I’ve done a lot and I figured it was about time to set up an update. First of all, the injury that I had while I was surfing in Sydney turned out to be what I suspected, a ruptured distal bicep. Two Tuesdays ago, the 17th of June, I had surgery to repair the injury. The procedure was to make about a 3 or 4 inch long “Z” shaped cut on the inside of my elbow, peel the skin back, grab the end of the tendon and then [View Full Entry]

---

---

This past weekend I spent 4 days in Wollongong visiting Justin. Justin and I have been friends since elementary school and basically learned to surf together. He has spent the past 4 months in Wollongong going to university there. We went surfing a couple times every day, and each night we just hung out with his roommates and chilled out at his place. We surfed a world class point break called Sandon Point when it was way overhead and macking. I only had my 6’0 board and needed a bit bigger board to drop into those huge ones so I only [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hey again everybody, just sitting around the house and thought I would post another update on some of the things that I have been doing. We moved into our new place last Tuesday morning! The house is amazing! It is located about a 5 minute walk from a couple of great surf breaks and about a 2 minute walk from a bus stop in a little town called Jan Juc. Jan Juc is right beside Torquay and is a lot like Oak Island where I grew up. It is a small beach town that is fairly quiet during the winter. The [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hello again, This is my first entry after arriving in Australia. I arrived in Melbourne early friday morning and have been staying in a hostel called the National Hotel in downtown Geelong since. The hostel is clean, in a good central location, run by friendly people, and is relatively cheap. We are currently been pretty busy looking for a place to stay. Andrew and I have been looking for a spot with Daniel Walker and Melissa Jennings, two friends that I have known for a couple years at NC State. In the process of looking for a place to stay we [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hey again, another update of the trip so far. The past 2 days were spent on the North Shore, We did a bunch of surfing near Rockies up there. It was consistently several feet overhead the first day, and slightly smaller the second day. We also went to Waimea Bay and did a bunch of body surfing in huge shorebreak and jumped off the cliff there. Today Andrew, Chris, and I went surfing on the south shore in Honolulu. It wasn't as big as the North Shore but I caught a couple of chest high waves. I think we are doing [View Full Entry]

---

---

Another entry for 9:20am Saturday morning. Yesterday Andrew and I went spearfishing all day on the south shore. We went to a spot called Kewalos then went to Magic Island in the afternoon. We shot a bunch of Manini and Aholehole fish, both were awesome for a lot more fishtacos for dinner. They ended up feeding about 5 people. We shot all of them freediving with polespears. While we ate the fish we shot, we partied with a bunch of the people I used to live with out here, I have some photos and will post them as soon as I [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hey again, just doing another entry for the past couple of days. Yesterday Andrew and I went spearfishing at Magic Island. We saw a lot of excellent fish and wildlife. I saw several big fish including, bonefish, ladyfish, blowfish, and others. I spent most of the first half of the time trying to find octopus to spear because I heard you can find them in the area. I couldn't find one so we just ended up spearing 4 Manini (only about 5-7 inches). We took them back and made some amazing fish tacos. Earlier today we went hiking on an amazing [View Full Entry]

---

---