When Surf Trips Go Wrong 15 February 2016 – Posted in: Surf Trip, Surfing

It was an exciting start to the week when my buddy Andy called me at 1030 last night tell me his quad bike had broken down on a surf trip and was stuck on the beach and could i help him tow it out?! He was returning home from a local surfing spot earlier that night when the engine started making some strange noises and then shat itself. We decided to recover the quad bike with the trailer and my four-wheel-drive Nissan, but we had to wait till morning and the right window in the tide to get into spot and grab his quad. We dumped heaps of air out of the tyres on the truck, stuck it in four-wheel-drive and smashed it onto the beach with more enthusiasm than Steve Irwin (before the whole stingray thing). So far so good, truck seem to be pulling the trailer alright but we still had to get the quad bike on and get back up to the high tide mark and beat the tide! Crossing over from the low part of the beach to the high part of the beach is always a worry, as it feels like friggin quicksand when you’re driving over the verge (not that i have ever been drowning is quicksand mind you, has anyone?) . We managed to make it up onto the harder sand after zipping along down near the low tide mark, got the quad bike loaded and then jumped back in to try and make it home. The weight difference was substantial but having let the tires down to about 20 psi and having a 3.2L turbo charged engine, we manage to pull 500kg’s of extra load along the beach no problem. Looking for a place to go off the beach, we did plenty of scoping and managed to nail it, and we got the truck and the quad bike and us safely back home. My buddies quad bike is still in the questionable state that it might be completely farked, or best case scenario at least a several hundred dollar reaming from the mechanic!

With the power of hind sight, Andy may have cooked the engine on the quad due to not letting air out of the tyres and the weather out being hotter than a sauna, still it might have just been its time. Quads generally go ok on the sand running full pressure in their tyres, but as soon as you throw another two people on, that really starts to work the engine of the machine and its best to deflate the tyres. Deflate to 2/3’s pressure, or if you still pushing shite up hill, go to half, or 1/3 if you more boggy than a septic tank…

The two golden rules of driving almost anything on the beach:
– always let air out of ya tyres
– stay above the high tide mark unless you are extremely confident or have access to a recovery vehicle.
These two tips allowed me to navigate 2/3 of the Aussie coastline without seriously getting into trouble. A bit of speed can also be useful as you can float over soft spots where you would get bogged going slower, but you have to watch out for holes and rocks!

Although I drive into surf spots sometimes, I often walk to appreciate the location, get some exercise, build the anticipation as i watch the sets roll while my buddies are catching amazing waves, and I let the frothing and stoke commence!

Good luck with the quad Andy and thanks for the bottle of whiskey – you didn’t need to do that!