Guaranteed tubes at seven dollars apiece ain't a bad sell.

It’s been a wild debut year for Australia’s first, and still only, public wave tank, located a mile-and-a-half walk, run or thirty-dollar cab ride from Melbourne airport.

In January, Urbnsurf was closed after freak “mud rain” left the facility with a brown tank. It was an act of God that must’ve taken the joint’s PR team by surprise given “mud-rain” is unlikely to’ve made it onto the list of potential closures. Death, turds, paralysis, board through an eyeball, lightning, hail, these you can prepare for and mount compelling responses to.

But to be shat on from outer space?

Also shitting on the pool was a Chinese-made influenza that shuttered the pool, and everything else, for two months.

Urbnsurf used the time closed to jump into a little early maintenance: peeling paint was patched, the generator got an early service etc.

In  two weeks, the place reopens.

With a few changes, most of ’em good.

Right now it’s eighty bucks to jump in a pool with eighteen other surfers hollering for each set’s twelve waves. (There’s eighteen sets an hour.)

Upon reopening, a new sesh for what can loosely be called “experts” will cost $129, twelve surfers in the water and every set a slab or  “beast mode” and its three variants. If it’s onshore, you’ll just get B4, a new version of the Beast that will stay open even if a mean ol’ southerly is tearing hell out of the place.

The other Beast modes have also been tweaked, reducing the weird chandeliering you get sometimes,

Eighteen tubs for $A129 or $US90 works out a pretty reasonable seven bucks apiece.

You wanna know if there’s an air wave yet?

Yeah, me too.

They got two.

One’s called The Ramp; the other don’t have a name but it’s supposedly “Waco-esque”.

No plans to loose it to the public sessions yet ’cause it’s so intimidating, effectively the Beast mode as a closeout.

(Book a private hour for $1500 and you can call in whatever you want.)

And the water temp?

In the guts of summer it hovered around twenty (sixty-five F); now it’s down to twelve (fifty-three F).

As a rule, it’s a buck-and-a-half under Victoria’s ocean water temps.

Brrrrrr, yeah, although you can now hire four-three and five-four Rip Curl suits.

Booties, hoods, too.

Jacuzzis remain closed until further notice.

Nobody gonna touch you in the Bu!

Long before Venice surf rat Strider Wasilewski shucked off his Dog Town beginnings and became the king of Point Dume, one of surfing’s great pioneers, Matt Kivlin, designed and built a surfer’s palace on a three-quarter-acre spread above Paradise Cove in the gated enclave Sea Lane.

Kivlin, who died in 2014, is the sorta guy whose legend would’ve been lost to history if it wasn’t for the relentless archiving of Seattle-based former-surfer Matt Warshaw.

A little detour into Kivlin’s EOS post,

Elegant regularfoot surfer and boardmaker from Santa Monica, California; often cited as California’s best wave-rider in the late 1940s and early ’50s; creator of the slouched, knees-together, neatly synchronized “Malibu” surfing style. “Many have been heavily influenced by the Kivlin technique, myself included,” Miki Dora said in 1969. “However,  none will ever be able to come close to this genius of style.”

As a boardmaker, Kivlin is best remembered as a co-creator, in the late ’40s, of the “girl boards”—pared-down all-balsa equipment made for a handful of high school girls who were taking to the water at Malibu. These easy-turning boards were then appropriated by the guys. The girl boards were the forerunner of the “Malibu chip” design. Kivlin and Quigg also developed the first narrow-based raked-back surfboard fin, a design idea that inexplicably went ignored until the mid-’60s.

Just as inexplicably, I suppose, Kivlin quit surfing just before his fortieth birthday and nine years later opened an architecture biz in Santa Monica, quickly becoming one of the country’s most sought-after architects, building over two hundred houses, almost half of ’em in Malibu.

And his old house in Sea Lane, which just came on the market for thirteen-mill, is a testament to his skills.

It’s a compelling sell.

Live the ultimate lifestyle with swimming, diving, surfing, paddleboarding, beachside board storage, and more all right there in your front yard. This amazing ocean view property features multiple structures including a four-bedroom main house designed by famed architect Matt Kivlin, a newly constructed contemporary guest house, and a separate creative media production space – all set on 3/4 of an acre of prime beachside real estate.

The main residence is light-filled and open with a bohemian vibe and easy indoor-outdoor flow leading to sun-drenched decks, a saltwater pool and spa, an outdoor gym with a sauna and ice bath, a big grassy yard and complete outdoor kitchen.

Across the Sea Lane easement with a separate private entrance sit the newly constructed Guest House and Studio. In a lush garden setting with a pond, fountain and fire pit the modern guest house is smartly equipped with a gourmet kitchen, walk-in closet, polished concrete floors, standing seam metal roof and jacuzzi. Across a big wrap around deck is the separate open studio space with glass and steel construction, polished concrete floors, sleeping loft, and Murphy bed.

The yard is alive with fruit trees, a veggie garden, ceramics shed, outdoor bathtub and ample parking for guests who are not going to want to leave. This unique property offers the best of California living, privacy, security, exclusive beach access, spacious yards, and gardens. This exceptional opportunity is ideal for creative souls, families or anyone looking for this coveted lifestyle.amenities by the ocean.

Buy, inspect further, here.