Where did you surf today?
Nah Barstardos, not sure what happened there. Was marginally involved but still don't know what went down.
Twelve months I've lived on the Northern Beaches now, and in that time I've written, said and thought some nasty things about the place - soft waves, crowds and fuckwits who say 'it's God's country, mate' being the recurring themes. I try to be as philosophical as I can but the situation depresses me.
Found a bit of space away from the crowds on Saturday morning and the result was better than any philosophical remedy. A local bommie dished up a few sets big enough to think twice before stating size: Do 15 foot waves break in Sydney? A pitch black paddle out got the adrenalin flowing while I crept up on the reef from the south side, listening to it but not really knowing where it was. Thinking I was in deep water a cleanup set provided bearings.
Twas a bit disconcerting flying solo; paddled for plenty but hit the anchors before committing. Was a bit undergunned too. In time three fellas made the paddle and the company was enough to pull the confidence trick required. We had a very special session in serious waves. My time ended when a cleanup set tore my leggy plug not-so-cleanly out of my board.
Then in the arvo Manly beach put on a decent Puerto Escondido impersonation to a small crowd. Fuck, how many surfcams service Manly? And how many assorted reports and forecasts tell crew what the surf is going to be like? Yet on a Saturday arvo, during a well-publicised swell event, it was fair-dinkum smoking and not five fellas were on the bank. Ridiculous...
Ended up reefing my shoulder while trying an unorthodox exit from a meaty backhand barrel. Thinking the swell was dropping and being injured I made promises to my girl, 'yeah, we'll spend all tomorrow together as a family', then saw the surf this morning and backed straight out of them. Codeine did the rest. Had a great surf but come-a-gutser on a nice right and snapped my board. Didn't get much sympathy at home.
Beaten and injured I called it quits for the weekend giving myself over to some QT. She decided that we'd go for a walk down the beach and that's where she blew it. Took one look at the arvo pulse and there was no way on God's great Earth I was missing that session. I really did feel bad about the situation so I made lots of promises for next weekend then fucked off home and grabbed a gun.
Grabbed a few smokers but the highlight, for want of a better word, was unwittingly falling into frame during a rescue of sorts. Something happened at Manly, still don't know what, but choppers were hovering overhead and shitloads of people had gathered on the shore. At about the same time my leggy plug pulled out of my board (again!) and left me swimming, which took fucken ages in the currents. Board got washed in near N Steyne clubhouse with people gathering around it, then the heli came in close to see what was up.
I was fucken tired and just wanted to cruise backstroke yet figured a few more minutes of oxygen deprivation was better than the indignity of an unnecessary public rescue. I put my head down and stroked hard till they bailed. Hit the beach absolutely buggered.
Now I'm checking the long-range charts hoping nothing significant is showing for next weekend.
Well now that things have settled down, there seems to be no better time to sit back and catch up with the recent happenings.
The autumn just past seemed pretty special with plenty of swell and not much down time. Winter started well but lulled out for a week or so but since then it's been non stop with swell after swell hitting the southern NSW coast.
I've been getting my fill locally before or after work during the week depending on which shift I'm on, but the excellent weekend swells have allowed me to venture to one of my favourite stretches of coast, exploring to my hearts content.
In between scoping crazy slabs and offshore bombies I have scored numerous uncrowded sessions at places that will remain unnamed.
Going back 3 weeks ago when we were in the middle of an 8 day run of southerly swell that hardly dipped below 6ft I had the pleasure of surfing this setup with only a handfull of lucky punters. Sure, up the road the local reef was firing with perfect 4-5ft righthand pits but I'm still easing my knee back into the heavier stuff so this was perfect for that with a solid and clean 4-6ft of swell.
I also surfed this forgiving rock shelf the evening before but the swell was overpowering it a but. Still if you picked off a good one there were some big long walls to get stuck into ranging between 4-6ft.
It only took 2 weeks before I was given the opportunity to head back to my favourite haunts but this time with a stronger and larger mix of SE and E/SE groundswell. Saturday was a little too large and overpowering at 8-10ft, but nearly every reef where I was situated was handling it if you had the nads.
I surfed a few novelty spots, but Sunday the 24th feel into the more manageable 4-6ft range with less than 10 out at this mysto reef break, fading to only me and 2 other bodyboarders into the middle of the day.
After exiting the water one unlucky punter paddled out only to snap his board in the first 5 minutes. Luckily he had bought a second board in the car with him as a back up, and was back out there within 15.
On the way home I aimed to reach an ol' faithfull for the late session, and she didn't disappoint with oily 4-6ft waves slabbing on the outside of the point and offering 100-150m rides down the inside.
Since then I've made the most of a fun southerly pulse Thursday afternoon close to home, with the tail end of the swell still offering some great little peelers into this evening.
So with a week of tiny to flat waves coming up, I'm already starting to feel the symptoms of withdrawal.. it's so hard to be left with nothing at all when we've been receiving such quality swells. I guess we're still doing better than some of the southern states though..
Here's hoping it's not too long until the next decent swell!
Not much in the surf department today but a bloody excellent sunset in Sydney..
Redhead, Newcastle.
Had a surf at the closest point and then a surf at the closest reef to my house.
Went to bed last night thinking the westerly would be powering at first light. Ticked off the somewhat limited options available in a 20 knot nor-wester before slumbering off.
Woke around 6 and checked Swellnet's wind obs: Bellambi 7 knts NW. WTF? Scroll back, it'd been that way since midnight. The directional spectra is focused and red - the swell is here. I was out the door in two minutes and pulling into the carpark two minutes after that.
Paddled out without checking, there was no way it'd be anything less than good. Ran down the point as a set stacked itself on the furthest ledge and five waves spun down the point. The sun was a smudge on the horizon but two people were ahead of me on the rocks.
I promised my partner it'd be a short surf so I could help her with the kids. So while the crowd was few I paddled for everything and jagged a few bombs. Had a nice barrell pinch and a few that ran; the direction was just about primo for the angle of the shelf. 45 mins in and the nor-wester began puffing. I called it quits and caught one to the sheds. On the point crew were chatting and taking time to get changed not knowing the time they had left was best measured in minutes.
Bolted home and fed the kids brekkie. Then dropped my eldest at day care and checked a few of the nearby reefs. The wind had kicked in with gusto. It was white squals out to sea and flying wheelie bins on land. That oughta be a notch on the Beaufort Scale: "Wind strong enough to knock over wheelie bins". The two reefs I had in mind were borderline unsurfable, the swell hitting both perfectly, maybe 6' with a few bigger ones, but the offshore was punishing them.
Opted for a reef near home that broke closer to shore. The wind still had the jowls quivering, must've been 25knts plus by then, but it didn't have enough water to create excessive chop. Off to my right, the point I surfed earlier was unsurfable - too exposed. Sets broke but rather than a mere rooster tail the air filled with a continuous horizontal stream of spray, it looked more like smoke than water.
Every drop at the reef was blind but the faces were smooth; steep on the ledge, tapered as they ran off the rockshelf onto the sand before they hit the shorey. The wave count wasn't particularly high, I don't think anyone's was, but they were all noteworthy.
As I write this the trees out the window are bending so much the dull undersides of the leaves are visible changing the colour of the foliage, while every few minutes a dull roar emanates from the tall stand of eucalypts to the south of my house.
Had a shocker. I'd rather not speak about it. Got some pics though (small mercies, eh?).
I waited for the wind to ease off and the tide to turn, so the peak of the swell was past but I managed half a dozen meaty ones at the point. Got caught inside in about the worst possible spot chasing the first wave of a set (no we never learn) so I got to practise my deep duck dive with arms and legs locked around the board which is always fun, you know the one where up, down, north and south all become sort of confused and you have to rely on buoyancy to figure which way actually is up. Not many out for the first hour then all the usual crew turned up. Some serious barrels still happening as the tide fills in over the ledge.
blindboy wrote:I waited for the wind to ease off...
Jeez, it's still howling down here. The worst of it appears done yet we're still getting gusts over 30kts.
Still some brisk offshores here at the moment Stu but very surfable. It was strong until about noon then backed off significantly with some long spells between the gusts.
Holy shit , what a day . Watched a kiddies corner point for a couple of hours tearing my hair out as the crowd grew into the millions and the wind tore it to shreds. Had a cuppa and drove a few kms up the beach and surfed 5-6' smokers to myself. Don't usually enjoy surfing this spot solo at all due to fear of large , hungry fish but today I had no choice and ended up having the hell time. No barrels, just beautiful long walls.
After a few weeks of injury induced non -surfing it was like a fog of discontentment lifted off me.
Blue sky , unreal waves , a couple of beers and relaaaxxxx.
"I promised my partner it'd be a short surf so I could help her with the kids. "
Ha HA, that old chestnut,
In UNZUD we have a beer company that does slogans on Billboards that finish in "yeah right"
The above line of yours stu would be a ripper.
Here is an example of a billboard from TUI beer
Another day of epic waves on the northern beaches!
blindboy wrote:Another day of epic waves on the northern beaches!
South Curly was as good as it can get around lunch.
4 hours in the water - no crowd, only came in because I couldnt out paddle the recent arrivals with such tired arms.
thermalben wrote:Had a shocker. I'd rather not speak about it. Got some pics though (small mercies, eh?).
It wasnt you that I collided with at Long Reef was it? If so, you'll feel better knowing that I got the worlds biggest finchop in my board, and its in for repairs. All on the 1st wave of the day.
If not where the hell did that guy come from, I certainly didnt see anyone else paddling for it.
Yeh climber, a pity the bank collapsed this afternoon and left nothing but a deep hole.
Shithouse here
Any waves to be had in victoria today
Looks OK on the Torquay surfcam but winds have just gone W/SW at Aireys Inlet (and are strong S/SW at Cape Otway) so this window of opportunity won't last long.
I had an amazing day surfing with my friend. Today it was good; I was little less scared as I have just started learning it.
Went for a strike mission to surf a left that doent really handle over 3/4feet and slept there thursday night, me in my mates car, my mate under a tree in the cold.
It wa too big but such a nice setup and a few nice little one bowling away like aussie pipe in between sets, good to see uncrowded aussie pipe like setups do exist.
Went past north point and only a couple of small ones on the inside ledge it looked like..three nameless good rights near there had potential but shifty and getting cleaned up a bit. not many tubing.
Then boom some peaks come in on one reef closer to us and it hollows out for four or fives seconds. solid 6 foot and around 8 feet wide.Then nothing but closeouts or cleanups.
Another day of checking lots of spots and wishing i paddled out at two of them. Back home in time for 3pm appointment.
Fun curlers today on a shallow sandbank. Its actually the first time i surfed that beach. Its rumored to be average most of the time and today was almost average and inconsistent, but then the odd makeable drainer set that jacked up a lot in size just as you scoop into it.
Pretty fun sesh then some learners on sups and two girls longboarders decided to hang around on the inside getting in the way so i came in.
nice size swell, clean waves and no work today....but, damn...it's closing out everywhere i went.
Oh yeah, this is a surfing forum isn't it, good work thanks for the reminder:-)
Meh, surfing is so passe shaun. A man ahead of the curve like your good self should know that.
lom wrote:A Realsurf staple-( sorry Priddes for the plagarism)
No surf today but off to Vicco tomorrow for the weekend so heres hoping!
Down the coast:-P
I think Jordy might win this year because I did a superman over a manta ray this morning.
At a beach with a great bank all week............
Today a fucking boardriders comp on FFS., haha it was shit tho;)
I feel sorry for the blokes that surf a spot all the time then come the WSL ie Margs etc.
What are the laws here........?
Rules..?
Laws....?
What about the big wave tour welly, some contests have a waiting period of 4 months, so EVERY!! year the tour will come by and pick off the best swell of the year.
had two quality surfs at Meanos, Flinders on the 1st of May haven't been able to surf since then bummed out a bit as we have had roaring swell last few weeks.
My local Point Break on the Sunshine Coast today... 1.5ft sets, light offshore wind and not many out. Going back after some lunch :)
Local river bar. Oily glassy, head high, bit of punch, super fast rights. Quick lunchtime strike, only surfed for an hour. Finally boardies, bath warm water.
Felt a bit vulnerable, only me out and yesterday 2 x 4 metre sharks spotted close to shore in Ibaraki. Southern beaches closed.
Yesterday I surfed Cronulla Point. Dropped the kids off at their grandparents and bolted down to surf the old local. It'd been a while and there was enough swell to kick it over, so I did the usual bustle through South Cronulla, bouncing up and down in the seat trying to catch a glimpse between the Norfolk pines, then hassling for a park. Found one toward Shelly Beach, changed quickly and bolted back toward the point. There was only three people out - beauty! Jumped off the end and realised they were wearing coloured rashies - fuck!
Caught an insider and went up and spoke to the crew in the tent, some of whom I hadn't seen for many years. A catch up was great but there were important matters to attend to. "Can I catch a few through the comp?" I asked gently.
"Go for it. But you know the rules."
I was on the ledge with one guy I didn't recognise when the first set came through. He gave it a good look but figured it was gonna closeout so pulled back. With him opting out I quickly turned and went, and it held up beautifully just as I figured it would. There's much to be said about knowing a surfspot intimately. I couldn't even tell you why that wave wasn't going to closeout, there were no obviously discernible markers, but 10,000 hours of surfing a spot grants an understanding that can't be quantified.
It was far from classic Cronulla Point, wind was on it, tide was rising, but fuck it made my heart sing to be back on familiar territory. Caught about ten waves, said thanks to the CPB crew, picked up my boys, then drove home drunk on goodwill.
This morning I surfed Sandon Point. Was the first to get off the rocks and jagged a couple of waves before the crowd hit. Conditions were great but the waves were suprisingly complex. The outside had a few weird sections, too often the energy was focussing on the ledge at the expense of down the line wall, yet if you could get a good read on a set wave it'd line up wonderfully.
Been here a few years now and still haven't got my head wrapped around Sandon even though in many aspects it's a superior wave to Cronulla. I haven't forged a connection with it either. I speak to many of the locals and they, of course, love the wave. Some of them surf it incredibly well, sensing the coming sections in a way I can't yet see.
While paddling out a fella who I regularly see out there, early-50s, grey hair, goofyfooter, stroked into one and stalled at just the right time. The result was a beautifully set up barrel and an angled section to berm off. He knew exactly how that wave was going to unfold and he surfed it about as well as it could be surfed. Old mate flicked off near me smiling serenely.
Great yarn champ;)
Great tale Stunet.
Thanks for that.
zenagain wrote:Local river bar. Oily glassy, head high, bit of punch, super fast rights. Quick lunchtime strike, only surfed for an hour. Finally boardies, bath warm water.
Felt a bit vulnerable, only me out and yesterday 2 x 4 metre sharks spotted close to shore in Ibaraki. Southern beaches closed.
Do you get whites there Zen?
Goofy, I don't know. I hope not. This guy I know said they were 'Shirotora' which literally means 'white tiger'. Never heard of a white tiger shark. The news said they were sand sharks but they only grow to 3 metres. The two that have been stalking the coast are estimated to be 4 metres. But since then, there's been 16 more spottings in two days but maybe that's because they've ramped up the air surveillance.
Had the same today, left way out the back of another river mouth alone and heaps of seagulls going for the bait fish. Big swell, lots of boills and rips and I just really felt uneasy again. All this attention to sharks now is starting to fuck with my mind. However, second surf this arvo with 7 others and it didn't concern me. Only when I'm alone it seems.
Anyway, try to find the jap news vid, some of our more astute shark spotters may like to take a guess at what they are.
Only link I could find in English. And it's Ibaraki as in ink not Eyebaraki:)
Cheers for the link Zen
They look like juvenile whites to me, but im no expert and its kinda hard to tell off that footage.
I surfed by myself for about halfa today before others came out. The water was fairly clear and there were large thick clumps of weed floating around under the surface, must admit I looked twice at some of them. I know the feeling your talking about, it makes you feel alive that's for sure..
Just goes to show Zen all the little ones are coming closer, 'to have a look'....?
Never knew it was that warm up those ways...!
Boardies. Unreal, that's from one extreme to the other eh...!
Some of the biggest GWS ever caught have been in Japanese, Chinese and Taiwan waters.
Only for a month Welly but I love it. And only 4 months till it starts snowing. Yew!!
Radical temperature extremes Zen.
Surfing with a fella from Okinawa yesterday, you ever been down that way mate ?
Tell me about it Blowy, a month ago I was in a 4/3 and a month before that booties and gloves.
No, but am planning to. A friend told me of an island called Ishigakijima (or something like that) where the waves are all-time and the water is like surfing in an aquarium.
From a 4/3 to boardies in 4 weeks ?
That's ridiculous.
The bloke I was surfing with said there was some nice waves there , mostly typhoon dependant though.
He had an American accent, Septic soldier old man, Japanese mother. Raised on a military base. Good surfer, great life story.
The people you meet in the surf ......
Sharks- Any recent attacks Zen?
zenagain wrote:Only for a month Welly but I love it. And only 4 months till it starts snowing. Yew!!
Yeah I bet you would especially after all the rubber worn and knowing back in those old days, hence here back in ya home land eh;)
Off next week to NZ, helo in for 5 days, 6 riders, a warm hut, a cook and unlimited runs not disclosing where...Absolutely amped to the eye balls;)
Yeeewwwww........
in my head..
Playa Maderas, Nicaragua, okay conditions, but can't beat the water temp.
Ah yes, the frother, they are everywhere it seems. Admit I rarely lose it in the surf, allow for beginners or excited groms snaking or dropping in, especially when it's small. Let 'em have a go, we've had a good run etc etc but the snake, that's a different story. Not partial to them or the blatant drop-in. I'll say something, not aggressive and more like "didn't you see me?" or "looked awesome watching you from inside the barrel, wish I had my Go Pro!" that always pisses them off but leaves them wondering at least.
But it happens, there is always a tipping point when one does a Popeye "That's all I can stands ... I can't stands no more" and we lash out, verbally at least.
Now, in my humble experience, it's is the boof-head that will go on with it and pick a fight, not the experienced or trained fighter who tend to have more sense, therefore if push comes to shove and the frother bails you up, don't be overly worried, keep your guard up, chin down, as they throw piss weak haymaker after haymaker, they don't hurt if they get through, but be patient then boom, the close-in uppercut or elbow to the nose usually does the trick with minimal damage or better still, the good old side headlock and restrain them.
Anyway, let's hope it doesn't come to a punch up. Waste of time and energy.
Had a blinder yesterday arvo. In coming high tide 2ft to 3ft wedging right shorey near the rocks at the Alley North Cronulla. Small bank, few groms and a boog. Glassy with touch offshore, actually got a barrel too. Been yonks since had a proper barrel, some pits yes, but barrels where you're looking out ... no. Rare for a Sunday arvo ...
stunet wrote:He snaked me blatantly on one wave so I flicked off and he immediately flicked off behind me leaving the rest of the wave go unridden. Gave me the death stares on the paddle back out. Then he dropped in on me once. I wore it and paddled back out. Then he dropped in on me a second time and I snapped.
I rode behind him and flicked off when he flicked off. I asked him what was up and got in his face a bit. Call it standing up for yourself or blowing air on hot coals - at the time both were correct.
A Realsurf staple-( sorry Priddes for the plagarism)
No surf today but off to Vicco tomorrow for the weekend so heres hoping!