Nela session

Friday
Up at 6am and video the walk from my room to the swimming hole/pool. See video: youtu.be/lM0qC--rKGo
Car comes at 8am and drives me to Nela.

The surface is smooth. I start with the right hander and quickly find it is a bit tame.I move to wide on the left and work out how to not hurt myself on this challenging back hand ride. Catch a couple and have some clearance sets come through that make me realise how easy it was at Nave to get away from the clean-up sets.
Come in and then go out again with the Nikon Coolpix to try to film some of this surf. Photos from the shore are too far away. The wind had picked up a lot and spoilt the surface and the waves a lot.

On the way back in I catch one of the inside "canoe run" waves and hear a big cheer from the crowd assembled on the beach.
Afternoon at the Internet Cafe at Lata, on the only PC there, I get a virus the minute I plug in the USB drive. Take rest of the afternoon off.

Three days of pain

Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday
Tuesday's flight is postponed until Wednesday. I freak out, I don't have any more or enough $SI. The Lata South Pacific Bank (SPB) branch does not have EFTPOS, all savings and cheque accounts. ANZ have an ATM but they have turned it off! Finally, after lots of asking if people take credit cards (and give them back) I find someone to help me out.
Meanwhile the Solomon Airways agent keeps advising postponed flights, once for bad weather. It makes it hard to do anything when you have to keep in contact with the office in case a flight arrives.

On Wednesday, after noticing the map at the Luelta Conference centre I walk to a likely looking surfing spot called Nela. There I meet William Membuta.

Finally the airline says that the next flight it Saturday that means I can go surfing tomorrow, Friday. I arrange a car to take my board to Nela in the morning.

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Next: 2012/03/nela-session