Before Dolphins - Boating Bureaucracy and Footy

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Last I left off I think I was just coming back from a relaxing couple days on Rottnest Island. The next week was relatively mundane compared to my usual travels. As part of my requirements for my position in Shark Bay I had to take the Restricted Coxswain (pronounced cox-in) course for Western Australia. They don't like my Canadian boating certifications here apparently.

Whitney (other research assistant from San Diego) and I spent the whole week in the classroom proving our first aid pre-requisites, filling out paperwork, tying knots, learning (or re-learning) the boating rules, and filling out more paperwork. Did I mention the paperwork? At least the teacher was entertaining, as most longtime captains are. Not a bad course but some of the days went long. The things I do to study dolphins...woe is me. The most useful part of the course was the practical assessment a.k.a. boat driving 101 with a captain giving you tips and directions. Just to confuse matters the "international" buoy meanings are different between North America and the rest of the world. The old adage of "red right return" doesn't work here. If you follow that you end up on the rocks. Glad they've figured out a universal system. How hard could that be?

At nights we usually studied over a beer by the Fremantle fishing harbour at a brewery called Little Creatures. Beer tastes better when you drink it where it's made. I went there on Canada Day and there were two people with full maple leafs on their faces...Gotta celebrate where you can. Other than that I took it pretty easy, watched some World Cup, and got to spend over a week in one place (haven't done that since Prince Rupert 2 months ago). I even got a little routine going and started to meet the "hostel locals". Hostels bring all kinds...I'll leave it at that.

On Saturday, I headed into Perth (half hour by train) and picked up a ticket to the local "footy" game. I think I may have made a error in a previous post calling something else footy. Footy or football is actually AFL or Aussie Rules Football and it's by far the biggest sport in Western Australia. Perth area has two teams: Fremantle Dockers and West Coast Eagles who share a stadium. They compete against teams from all over Australia, but most of the teams are in the Melbourne region. This game was between Fremantle and Port Adelaide. I will say before getting into my journal that I did learn the rules before attending from Wikipedia so as not to be totally in the dark while watching. I was by myself because Whitney wasn't as interested in the sport as I was, but I was with 32,000 other purple-clad screaming Dockers fans. I spent a little more ($55) to get a great pitch-side seat just to one side of centre.

Finally attending a real Aussie sporting event - Aussie Rules Football between the Fremantle Dockers and the Port Adelaide Power. At first what seemed like an odd mix of rugby, football, & soccer is beginning to get a bit clearer. It's not really like any other sport though. The basic purpose is to score you must kick it through certain posts. Through the outer posts or hit the inner post is worth 1, called a behind. Through the inner posts is a goal worth 6 points. The ball is similar to a small rugby ball.

To move forward you can run, kick, or punch the ball from your hand. You cannot be tackled or you lose possession. If you catch a kick, the other team must let you be, so you can kick it or keep going. If you catch it within the 50 m oval you get a kick at the posts to score. A catch is called a mark. If the ball goes out of bounds a ref turns around backwards (facing the crowd) and hucks it over his head as high as possible back into play.

I think those are most of the rules...either way I've never seen so much purple in my life. Whoever decided on purple, green, and red for team colours had an interesting fashion sense. I had to get myself a purple Dockers scarf. Gotta make your allegiances known.

Halftime: Dockers 55 Power 45

(break)

Somewhat lopsided match. Great international sporting experience nonetheless. Go Dockers!!

FINAL: Fremantle Dockers 115 Port Adelaide Power 58

Make sense? It took me awhile too, but I think I understand it mostly. My description does not do the game justice. When I'm able (the computers here are a bit wonky) I'll add pictures and it may clear things up a bit, although I doubt it. You really have to see it to understand. The game definitely has grown on me. I haven't digested it enough to know where it ranks among sporting events I've attended. It's up there.

Sunday was spent wandering around King's Park again, sitting in trees, and attempting to get Whitney's computer fixed. Unfortunately, that could take a few days, but we likely weren't leaving for Shark Bay until Friday at the earliest anyway. Our supervisor just got into Australia on the 4th and we only have vague instructions about how we are supposed to get up there. Considering we have some time before then, Whitney and I are likely going to rent a camper van tomorrow (cheaper than renting a car because car rental companies seem to think that under 25 with a clean driving record is a hazard that requires extra fees...mini rant complete). We're going to try to see some national parks southeast of Perth and get out of the city (because we won't have enough of that in Shark Bay). Can't stay in one spot for too long just yet. We'll see where we get to...

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