A clean face opens ahead of him. Tiggy’s board picks up speed, spray flies past and the whole ride fills his attention. Two women are out enjoying the same swell. Afterwards, wet-haired and laughing, they come through the shallows with boards under their arms and flippers in hand.
That burst of speed
Riding an epic wave is one of his ambitions. He loves the rush along the face, the rising lip and the moment the ride carries him further than he expected. The next set approaches while he is still feeling the last one.
His pleasure in bodyboarding runs through his travelling life. A good coast gives him a reason to unpack the board. A promising swell gives the oracle another opportunity to bring into the journey.
Company in the water
A woman starts the conversation at the beach. Her friend joins them, flippers in hand, and they talk about the waves they have just watched coming through. Tiggy is interested in both the swell and the company.
Out in the water, each is absorbed in her own ride. The laughter afterwards belongs to the shared day: sun, salt, wet hair, flushed faces and the exhilaration of coming in together. Flirtation grows alongside the fun of being there.
The Sunshine Coast years
Luke remembers bodyboarding so often that it competed successfully with his first term at the University of the Sunshine Coast. He left classes for the waves and eventually left the course. There were supermarket shifts at Buderim, months living in Maroochydore and Mooloolaba, parties, relationships and an early reputation as an easygoing beach bum.
Those memories give Tiggy’s surf stories a younger life to return to. Work finished, the board was ready and the coast offered somewhere to go. His adventures carry that appetite into new places and new company.
A swell worth remembering
Luke recalls waiting for cyclone swells around Minjerribah and riding some of his largest waves at Dickies Reef off the Moffat headland. He remembers his navy blue 42-inch Mike Stewart signature E0 board number 1111, a white Gyroll bicep leash and the intense adrenaline of those rides.
Tiggy’s epic-wave ambition grows from that feeling. The fiction follows the anticipation, the ride and the people sharing the day with him. Other coasts lie ahead in his world travels; the thrill of a good wave is already familiar.