Saturday 30 July 2011

The ABC Radio of a perfect wave


In each surf session there is always one wave you remember best. Early yesterday morning a light nor' wester wafted over Muizenberg and I went out early. The water was c-c-cold and during gaps between waves I squeezed my fingers in the armpits of my wetsuit to keep the circulation going. The sets were small but well-shaped. On this one wave, as I took off right, a burst of fragmented sunrays exploded through an opening in the clouds. The newly-risen sun was at eye-level, vividly picking out the shape of the smooth swell in front of me as I zig-zagged ahead of the white water curling along behind. It was a wave that kept on giving and I rode it three-quarters of the way to the shore before it finally closed out. Still earlier I'd received an email from ABC Radio, Northern Territory in Australia about a reception report I'd sent. Their stations are currently booming in here at night on short-wave 60mb and I'm hearing about things like Darwin's Ladies Day and Australia's new carbon tax, as well as old pop songs by the likes of Donovan. The QSL is from ABC Alice Springs heard on AM in Morgan Bay in 1993, using just 2kW.

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