Rainbow Beach

YOU GOTTA LOVE SLEEPY BEACH TOWNS.  I find myself in Rainbow Beach, Queensland, Australia.  Population is around 1000 people and around 18 surfboards.  I am stranded due to the disaster flooding to the north and south of me so I couldn't continue north with the Austrian girls Steph & Stef (sailing the Whitsunday Islands), can't go south to (Byron Bay), so I have become a part of Rainbow Beach.  I don't even know how long I have been here or what days I was on Fraser Island.  I don't know when I am leaving.  My days look like this:  wake up, go surfing, have lunch, go surfing, start drinking beer and write, dinner, more writing or live music (Nathan Kaye - more on him later), and then sleep.  Repeat for about a week.  The hostel is empty.  I am the only one in my 7 bed dorm room (which is great as I am still on a famile so no charge for accommodation).

I FEEL TERRIBLE FOR THE FLOOD VICTIMS IN QUEENSLAND AND MY HEART GOES OUT TO EVERYONE AFFECTED.  I glanced at the news the other night and saw Brisbane and just shook my head and walked away.  So not cool.  I feel blessed to be in a safe area.
 I can tell the peak of it is over as my feet don't get wet when I walk to my room in sandals anymore.  It is getting nicer and nicer here.  But then you think the worst has passed and then you get told by reception that a cyclone might be headed to towards Cairns (far from me).  I am looking for my window to get to Byron Bay and I can feel it will be any day now.  Two Greyhound buses ACTUALLY came into Rainbow Beach.  For awhile people were worried that alcohol and gasoline was going to run out in this town and the look on the face of the local that told me this was VERY CONCERNING.  Reminds me of the cyclone handbook I had to read for my job training at the Hilton in Cairns where #2 responsibility for me was to MAKE SURE THE BAR IS FULLY STOCKED.  Queenslanders love their piss.

I WAS TAUGHT HOW TO SURF BY A LEATHERY TAN MAN NAMED GAS.  Once I realized I could be in Rainbow Beach for a week, I called right away to the only surf shop in town and signed up for a morning lesson.  It was stormy that day but we went out anyway.  I was the only one in the surf lesson group.  We were the only ones in the ocean.  When I say sleepy beach town I mean sleepy beach town.  I put smiles on Gas's face because within an hour I was paddling my own waves.  He said I was the fastest learner he had ever instructed in 25 years.  I don't know about that but I am proud to say we started the lesson around 10am and at 10:42 Gas took a picture of my paddling and riding my first wave.  Mind you we are not on huge waves but enough to leave a mark (as I feel my left temple right now the small scratch bruise from the board hitting me in the head this morning).  By the way, Gas, a f'ing cool ass dude with over 30 years of surfing experience, has a tattoo on his back of two cobra snakes twisted up and fighting each other.  Gas.  Gas and I have become friends as he leaves a surf board out around back of the shop for me to use whenever I want and in turn I found him 6 girls to drive to Noosa (so they could catch the Greyhound to Brisbane) for $80 a head.  The hostel was charging $100 a head.  Keep in mind it is only like around an hour to get to Noosa.  $100!  People are dying in floods and you are charging backpackers $100 to go an hour down the beach?  But, it does take a lot of 4WD and time and gas, etc.  Good ol' Queensland always trying to make a buck and capitalize on unfortunate turn of events.

NATHAN KAYE IS AN INCREDIBLY TALENTED MUSICIAN from Byron Bay, Australia.  Very independent with a couple of albums and some t-shirts for sale, he is stuck in Rainbow beach like everyone else and I am about to see him for the 4th time in a week.  He is called a music festival in a human's body (or something like that).  Album can be bought here:  Lucky Man  He didge-boxes (beat boxing in a didgeridoo), plays the slide and normal guitar, sings, beatboxes, and also has foot pedals for bass and snare.  Last night I was allowed to play the bongos with him which felt great to play drums (been since April I think with my cousin and Justin in Echo Park, CA, drinking Charles Shaw all day on the front porch :)) again and with such an amazing musician.  He is the best beat boxer I have ever seen in my life (Bob Jones in Redmond is right their at second).  On the first night at the end of his show he had people yell out 3 random songs for him to make a beat box medley of.  They were Kings of Leon Hearts on Fire, Thriller, and Ice Ice Baby.  HE MURDERED IT.  Absolutely nailed it.  Singing and doing the beats and walking around the crowd.  It was unbelievably awesome.  Funny how getting stuck somewhere on this world will allow you to meet and find some of the most amazing people on the planet.  I told Nathan that when he goes to Los Angeles in February that I will find him a house to play a private show at (thinking Jen's in Hollywood or Greenman's in Long Beach).  He was so thankful.  He said "see that is one of the things I love about Americans, they tell you they will make it happen, and they will actually make it happen...an Aussie will tell you 'oh yeah mate will sortya out righto mate' and they end up getting pissed drunk and it never happens."

I WAS SO THANKFUL TO BE ABLE TO WATCH THE BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP at a reasonable hour (11:30am) with my own TV and sound.  The only hotel in town has a bar and had ESPN and after talking to the general manager the day before, I was allowed to have my little 'area' to drink beer and watch the Ducks go for gold.  A man came up to me in the first quarter who had one of those neck hole thingies that he has to cover so he can talk like a robot (smoker gone bad) and asked a question.  He asked me why there were more black players on the teams of the football game than white players?  Ryan's response:  "because THOSE players are fast as shit," it doesn't matter what color they are.  Whoever is the fastest, most agile, quick, etc plays I told him.  I then kind of briefly told him that the muscle twitch fibers in the African rooted Americans are tighter and denser than Anglo Saxon European rooted Americans (read something on this a long time ago) due to their geographical and genealogical evolution.  Similar to Asians being short due to their diets?  Anyway, interesting question at an interesting time on this globe.  Then, 3rd quarter, another Australian older man came up to me (breathed normally) and asked how they shoot the laser beam across the field to show the yellow line (for the first down).  "Is there a guy that has to stand/kneel down to shoot the laser beam across the grass?" he says to me.  LOL, oh you Baby Boomers need to get out more!  I explained to him that that it was first down marker and was done by ESPN with computers and superimposed onto the television screen.  He asks again "so that and then there is one guy still down there to tell them where to put the line?"  "No, that is the chain crew, the laser is just done by ESPN" I say to him.  The conversation was like throwing a ball against a brick wall.  I don't know if he ever understood my explanation.  Good ol' Rainbow Beach, Australia.

I BECAME A PART OF RAINBOW BEACH IN THE ?? AMOUNT OF DAYS I WAS THERE (over 2 weeks).  I became on a first name basis with everyone in town; the barmen at the Rainbow Beach Hotel Pub, the PeterPans travel agents (who allowed me to use the internet free whenever I wanted), the waitresses at Arco where I would bring my own beer and do my writing and photography, and the staff at Dingos, the backpacker resort I stayed at.  On the last weekend I did photography for Kate (4 years in Rainbow working at Peterpans Adventure Travel), for her going away party.  The thankfulness in her eyes was so sincere when I told her I would do it she put her hands to her heart and couldn't believe I offered.  It felt great to shoot an event and the pictures came out great of her and her friends.  Couple of days later at around noon (decided to get up early that day) I got a massive pounding dat da da dat dat knock on my door (room 8).  It was Gas.  He said "Ryan, I am going to get a beer and fill the esky (cooler), the surfboards are loaded in the 4x4, we are going to Double Island Point (in Endless Summer 2) mate, all you need is board shorts, your rashie (tight shirt you wear while surfing to prevent board rash), and your camera, 5 minutes be out front).  I was out front in 4.  Double Island Point was unbelievable.  Something out of a novel.  Took around 45 minutes on 4x4 only tracks to get to and you open up into this secluded bay with a lagoon and two huge heads jetting out on each side over the ocean.  This spot was surfed in Endless Summer 2.  We had some beers and made some veggie wraps and surfed some sets.  It was epic proportions.  On the way home we went to Freshwater lake and washed off.  No one their and the mirror of the lake rippled by our slow entrance as we dove down and took pictures and video with our waterproof cameras.  I was so thankful he came and got me.  I bought all the Inner Circle Rum and Cokes that night.  The final night in Rainbow I had a Kangaroo BBQ with Gas at the Surf Shack and drank more Inner Circle Rum and just TALKED; religion, spirituality, forgiving criminals who hurt you or your family, women, Queensland vs. New South Wales.  At the end of the night he gave me a book called "The Disappearance of the Universe."  He said he has been waiting to give it away ($40 dollar book) to someone but no one ever 'got it' and "after knowing you for two weeks and talking tonight, I know that this needs to go with you."  My gift to him is to teach him how to do a blog and google adsense program so that he can write off his expenses on his upcoming travels.  I know that I will see him again somewhere on this globe.  Can't tell you where or when, but I know I will.  Great human being Gas is.  Oh yeah, we fed his pet python 'Marylin' a guinea pig, a rat, and two mice on the last night two.  She was hungry apparently.  Getting stuck in Rainbow Beach was a blessing disguise.  Great adventure.  RCM