"samoan punks" bondi beach

happy australia day! i really must look into the meaning behind Australia Day a little more, as at the moment - it means, the day off work... and to be honest, for the crowds who seem to have been drinking all day in bondi, i think it has a similar depth of meaning.

torrential rain kicked off the day, but as we were out surfing, the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful (but very hot and muggy) afternoon.

so, on australia day at bondi beach i saw:
- police horses crowned with australian wobbly flag antlers
- the bondi rescue film crew
- the bondi rescue crew filming a real live rescue as there was an emergency off the rocks, just around from the beach. sorry to say that we joined the masses to watch the rescue, but the victim had been fished out of the water by the time we arrived. it did however seem to take the emergency services over half an hour to get him to an ambulance - and there were at least twenty emergency service members involved, plus the lifeguards. M's doctoring skills weren't needed ;)
- choppers hovering suspiciously over the bay - and i'm pretty sure they were on the lookout for sharks. while we were surfing this morning i heard one of the lifeguards say to his mate that there'd been shark sightings earlier in the day... but it was one of those situations where you weren't quite sure if he was just winding his mates up or not. having said that, heavy rain brings sharks (as there's more sewage released into the sea, leading to more fish feeding on the sewage, and more sharks eating the fish...) and we've had long periods of torrential rain. the way the choppers were hovering on certain points was very suss!
- hundreds of enormous yellow havainas (flip flops/thongs) floating in the bay. this is an annual Australia Day challenge, where people floating on lilo size havainas head out into the bay to link up. it was an incredibly surreal sight! i've just heard that bondi lost their world record for the number of havainas in the bay, beaten by a Perth beach this year!

and so in spite of seeing all of these exciting things - and being very tempted to blip the bondi rescue film crew... i've blipped this surfer. i just loved the graffiti on his board and the distinct look.

Happy Australia Day and hope you Scots had a fun Burns Night! x