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Margaret River is one of Australia premier wine producing regions.

It is also a surfers mecca - with Bells Beach and the Margaret River Confluence being the jewel in the crown.

It is the latter activity that draws us here (honest!) - Iso and I are going Surfing!

We watch windsurfers and surfers blasting up and down the swells of the surrounding beaches - it looks easy but we're not fooled... its nigh on blowing a gale when we meet teacher - its a struggle just carrying the boards to the beach through the sandstorm.

We practice a few moves on the beach and head out into the waves. Within minutes we're riding a wave in at breakneck speed (flat on our stomachs) and I'm keen to try standing up...

Its easier said than done as you have to struggle against not only gravity, but you also have to get your centre of gravity perfect to prevent the board pitching sideways, sinking the back end or, worse - ploughing the front end into the water. I do the latter (Iso meanwhile surf in on her knees) and come a cropper but, wanting to maintain my 'cool image', I hop up, and get clocked by the board which flips in the breeze before landing on my head.

No damage done (to board or bonce), but image in tatters, I relentlessly pursue that perfect wave...

It comes, its big, its strong, its moving fast - I get the balance right and push up and... ... ...BOOM! I'm in the air, the boards in the air - I've just hit the thing Bells Beach is famous for - a backwave.  Here, (every few minutes) the water retreating from the beach forms a wave almost as large as the incoming wave - the point where they meet explodes skywards. From the beach it looks like a machine gun is raking the water just in front of the beach, from within it looks like a hotpoint turbo washer on active boil wash.

Perhaps we're not destined to be surfers... Hmm... lets try the wine.

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