The last week or so has been ridiculously busy, the surf average at best and the Barbarians at their worst.

But it has been a good week too.

Yesterday the delightful Jamie Watson from Pineapple Love interviewed me for her blog, on the back of her seeing Musica Surfica at the San Francisco Ocean Film Festival.

It was fun to do and gave me an opportunity to say thanks again to the people that made the highly unlikely thing that was Musica Surfica possible.

Then this morning I received an email from Rachel Caplan for the Festival saying:

"It is my pleasure to inform you that MUSICA SURFICA won the Adventure Award at last weekend's San Francisco Ocean Film Festival.

The film had a wonderful reception from a sold-out house and was a clear festival favorite. There was much applause from the audience throughout, especially after each of the musical pieces.

The Adventure Award is giving each year "for the best-told adventures in, on, or around the Sea". The screening committee gave this award to MUSICA SURFICA to honor the film's many achievements - the direction, cinematography, editing, score (of course!) and script are all superb."

So that bucked me up a bit too...well.. a lot... and almost cured my tension headache.

Almost.

Back to work.

Pics are courtesy of Jamie and show the crowd at the the Festival, and Richard taking off at the beginning of the film.

I haven't said much about Musica Surfica for what must be.. well...minutes, but if you are in San Francisco this weekend then you will, if you're up for it, be able to see our flick on the Big Screen at the San Francisco Ocean Film Festival.

We're in the Official Selection, which is a blast as this festival is not only about surfing. Engaging in all manner of things aquatic, our presence in it, in some pretty special company, is a privilege. To add to our exposure on the west coast, last week Surfer Magazine's Brad Melekian wrote a great review for the San Diego Union Tribune which you can read here.

At the end of the article you'll discover a link to an Australian Chamber Orchestra performance due to go off in La Jolla in April, so those of you down/up there can wander along and see just what all the fuss is about. I reckon if you managed to wander up to Richard after the show and said... mate, you up for a splash??... he'll probably take you up on it.

Pics today... the poster for the San Francisco Ocean Film Festival, and a shot from way back when it all began, day one at Martha Lavinia Beach, with Jon Frank on camera, Craig Johnson, our laugh a minute sound guy, Derek in front of the microphone, and Sage Joske looking on. That's the back of me too, standing in a hole.

Well... I think I was.

There are weeks and there are weeks.

For south eastern Australia what has been going on with the fires in our state has up to today overshadowed all thought of waves I've missed, or caught, or seen.

Not that I've managed much. Last weekend, to escape the hottest on record heat (47C), and while half the state burned, I headed to the coast with the Devil and tried to get a splash. Arrived at Bells, and seeing the wind direction, headed to Southside, which is, you guessed it, on the south side of the Bells headland.

A packed carpark revealed a wedding of all things about to go off, or get blown or burned off. It all felt like Armageddon up there, and a couple of hours up the road it really was the end of the world.

As Tom and I hot footed it down to the beach we passed a Scottish Piper, kilt, sporran and beet root face, trying to muster up enough wind to get the pipes a piping, though he looked as if he was about to do a good rendition of 'I'm a Little Teapot' instead of Amazing Grace. Out in the water the screaming offshore blew us off more waves than we caught, but it was cooler, and then much cooler as a force 9 gale otherwise known as the Cool Change, gave some relief where we were, but as it moved inland all it did was provide a wind change that fanned the inferno and killed a few more people.

Sunday, surf rubbish, all feeling flat as what had happened began to sink in, we popped into the skate park for the kids to have a muck around, some of it on a mountain board on the hill nearby, and then a quick splash for the kids in tiny waves at Lorne, Rod's son Benji taking his fins off and spinning, my Tom practiced his take offs.

Then home.

The fires a week later are still burning, and Melbourne is shrouded in smoke.

The pics: Tom and Benji, ...and Tom from my iPhone on the mountain board, looking a bit like one of those wide angle from the water to the shore shots, except the wave is missing.