Rip Bowls: The Victorian Experience
Rip Bowls: The Victorian Experience
Following on from Craig Brokensha's recent rip bowl article, comes this correspondence from the vertitable home of rip bowls.
It’s difficult to convince foreigners that the Mornington Peninsula has great surf. Sure, there are classic days, and also fickle world-class set-ups, but for the most part we lead with (and hang our hat on) consistency. And rip bowls.
Say what..?
Rip Bowls? That’s your highlight? You poor buggers. No Snapper? Margs? Narrabeen? Not even a Winki?
It’s an acquired taste, born out of necessity. To us, we see opportunity on otherwise over-exposed beaches.
If you haven’t visited, from Gunnamatta to Portsea is a twenty kilometre stretch. Facing direct south-west and drawing in 95% of available energy, it is head high-plus more often than not and sees dynamic tide shifts. As a result, water movement is exaggerated compared to other surf zones.
With a bit of practice (and an optimistic lens), the outward flow often turns unapproachable conditions into semi-organised chaos - AKA Rip Bowls. Ours are bigger and longer than you’re probably used to.
And it's not just the Mornington Peninsula. East of the MP, Phillip Island and Gippsland enjoy similar characteristics in the Woolamai and Kilcunda zones. While the coastline west of Cape Otway is famous for, among other things, Johanna’s small swell respite with it also facing directly into the regular swell source. Summer offshores and moderate swells are the cliché, but the reality is there are plenty of clean-enough days year round.
Pound for pound, these locations hold their own against the world's best rip bowls.
Outgoing water meets incoming swell, with Nick Deheer (at right) celebrating the result. Swellnet regulars may know Nick as Nick Bone - AKA Deheer, AKA D-Bone. Nick has posted the daily Portsea report for Swellnet for a number of years. Always onto the best banks at the southern end of the Peninsula, this is a rare photo of him outside the tube.(Josh Morgan)
But what makes Victorian rip bowls good, or even great, rather than simply annoying?
To start with, they all feature similar traits of exposure to the raw, powerful ocean. Unlike Australia's East Coast, where swells can strike the beaches obliquely, in Victoria it is almost always square on.
The bathymetry is deep and largely uninterrupted, beyond a wave zone that features shifting inshore banks and gutters. Other important details are granular - literally. Compared to NSW and Queensland, the beaches of Victoria all have a gritty mix of limestone and/or sandstone in their soil make-up meaning a heavier, less-hardpacked (and more dynamic) sand buildup.
Stability from sporadic reef structures combined with big swells means this gritty sand can be easily knocked about with bad weather or water movement patterns.
Conversely, a poor set-up can be rectified with only a few days of moderate swell and grooming.
To provide some insight into weather impacting water flow, the classic summer sea breeze from the southeast almost always swing the rips into the rights. In winter, the northwest winds usually force the rips into the lefts.
Huh..?
Picture it. The northwest wind blows almost parallel to the shoreline, and with even just a few hours of build-up it’s common for the ocean to appear to be moving from right to left. More often than not the rips broadly flow the same way as the surge sweeping along the coast. Surfing a rip bowl back into the devil wind can be a challenge…adding further complexity to what is already the proverbial shit show.
Alex Zadnik barrelled and eyeing off an oncoming bowl section. Alex works in meteorology and has a keen eye on the coast. The beauty of rip bowls is that a surfer can approach them in myriad ways. Alex is often looking for an outside takeoff/roll-in to set up a run through the inside bowl. Think cold-water, less-perfect HTs in the approach. (Josh Morgan)
Watching those in synch with a rip bowl can be one of surfing’s greatest pleasures, while being out of synch can be one of surfing's greatest frustrations. In my experience, you’re either on or you’re not. Magic moments or a complete reset are all just a few metres away, usually dictated by how deep you’ve been dragged onto the bank.
Despite the potential for a serious humbling, it's the size and quality of a rip-bowl that excites me. The deeper and wider a channel, the greater the likelihood of positive rip influence, and the chance of up-scaling. But what makes them good, or even great, rather than annoying?
Depending on the level of surfer, the fondness for the speed of water movement can fluctuate. Usually a bank with a slower moving current will be more predictable and picturesque, but also more approachable and likely more crowded.
Bigger rips can lead to bigger sections and risks as one floats around the playing field.
Misshapen whitewash outside, gurgly whitewater inside, but there's James Clarke getting barrelled through the middle ground. This shot shows the risk vs reward of a proper double-up bank: go too deep or miss the good one and you'll be constantly duckdiving, usually about to do a lap back to the beach to relaunch and try again. This particular bank was the classic 'here today, gone tomorrow' that we regularly see owing to the grainy sand build-up getting knocked around by swells. (Josh Morgan)
The ultimate iteration in my eyes is the unicorn - a bank so well structured that the flow through its end section is strong (enhancing the shallowness of the end bowl), but relatively moderate as it moves further out the back, making wave catching and positioning more predictable. Combine the right swell (5-6ft) and tide window (mid-high) and the sessions of dreams, or nightmares, can prevail.
Outside these highlight moments, a rip bowl can often provide the go-to for your after work or short-window surfs. A place of salvation in times of need.
Sometimes 'here today and gone tomorrow', other times enduring with year-round reliability. Coastline shape and features can dictate the regularity of such a set-up, and if consistent enough they can even be a staple, complete with surf-spot identification - ie. North Narrabeen Alley, Addicts at Gunnamatta, or Yallingup’s Rabbit Hill.
Dan 'Banger' Burke barrelled, though a wave in front betrays an upcoming double up - and perhaps another barrel! The sheer variety of sections makes rip bowl sessions lively and entertaining. Those who can read the wave a few plays ahead always get the best of it. (Josh Morgan)
Talking famous locations, it’s been a long time since Victoria hosted elite-level events outside the Bells area. The annual Phillip Island QS sees Woolamai rip-bank action for the current up and coming crop. Notable mentions must also go to moments in recent history including Craig Anderson besting Julian Wilson in some classic bowls at Gunna in a Pro Junior circa 2010, Shaun Cansdell dominating a previous running of the same event, Trent Munro nailing AI at a relocated Rip Curl Pro (Woolamai), and Parko vs AI at Johanna in one of many Otways relocations before they stopped going mobile.
Globally we watch with anticipation for oversized Haliewa or Hossegor when they rotate through tour schedules.
The second secret I’ll share about Victorian rip bowls - which can also be applied to France - is the often-heard carpark comment that, “if you’re watching good waves, you’ve already missed it.” True in most cases due to the dynamic fluctuations a bank will experience as it moves through swell heights and tides.
Magic windows can close pretty quickly in Vicco’s rip bowls, but they do exist...I promise.
// LACHY MCDONALD
Comments
Nice read mate.
“if you’re watching good waves, you’ve already missed it.”
So true.
I believe ya Lachy....
Awesome to see a write up on this coastline here. It's a very well described piece.
The rips bowls do get very good, but properly surfing them, and this coastline in general, is very difficult. It requires a lot of experience and fitness. The experienced locals have got it pretty dialled, but for the average punter it's a lot of humble pie.
Ok not sure what went on there. I guess I took too long to type (:
Yes well described article on tricky waves with tidal anomalies etc. Only the other day downloading this to my boy, short window surfs require a hyper focus on positioning, knowing that there are going to be diamonds and visualizing being on the sick ones. No yap Yap mate
Factoring in the consistency of above-average waves (I’m not saying it’s always pumping) and limited crowd factor, one of the best stretches of beach in the country for the average competent surfer.
Thanks Lachy, enjoyed that.
nice read i can relate to. I surfed arguably the best bank ever to form at gunna .autumn2002 , the week after my daughter was born ! a super perfect left the sand was built up and extended to the second carpark with a huge channel nearly taking up the whole beach and a big right closeout to the right . i remember rocking up and the tide was super low and and still pulling out like a torrent .the sets were a solid 6 foot maybe bigger and sucking dry top to bottom and frieghtraining along the bank out the back for 150 meters then hit the channel and proceded into the craziest ripbowl some waves seemed to be not moving just working like a machine as soon as the tide swithed a few of us had a crack including Richi Porter, who got some sick ones, and turned into a magic session with the tide filling in slowed the conveyer just enough to be able to get in position and not be swept out to sea upped the swell a notch and formed one of the best waves ive had the pleasure of surfing.that swell lasted 3 days from memory then gone ha ha i remember when i came in and was watching an inexperienced surfer got stuck in the rip which was powering out to thee right and running down toward pumping station. by the time he entered the water it would have only been a minute and he was suckrd out the back and couldnt paddle against the rip ,we all watched him vanish behind the headland way out to sea in 8 foot of swell . those rips are gnarly
We used to get really good banks at Woolamai before the dune revegetation
Dune Revegetation - the enemy of any good beach break !
Great read. Cheers!
That Parko V A.I at Johanna was the quintessential vicco rip bank conditions.
Driving down from QLD on the Newell at 18 ,Gunnamatta was my first taste of cold water and Southern Ocean power in my 2 ml springsuit
Nice one Lachy, good read.
There was another pro junior event from memory where woolamai was small and average banks and they moved it down the road to the mainland and Parko won and it was actually pretty pumping.
Pays to look around.
good to see Dan Burke as and example of local surfers who rip in these conditions . Its johnny on the spot who gets the rewards .
That opening satellite image makes a Perth closeout surfer weep.
It's awesome eh?
Current google maps images of Kilcunda and Woolamai show same.
So different to here.
The satellite pic is Woolamai (from Google Earth).
The Ninch more typically, or at least when swell is over 4', has straight line close outs out the back with inside rip bowl reforms - as per pics and description in the article. As others have said, always hard work and sometimes sketchy (I ruptured my ACL when duck diving one of those double up insiders when the lip pitched onto my calf and hyper flexed my knee). Even when good, you spend most of your time watching others luck into good waves. Just when you're ready to give up out of frustration, you find a nugget in the rough to keep you smiling and coming back for more.
Thanks that shot with houses carparks etc making my head sore ,thinking it was back the front or something !!
I'm hitting the bank 2nd from the top of image, that left looks the goods. You guys find ya own bank haha.
If you are prepared to walk a bit you can often get a bank to yourself, even on the weekend.
Interesting to still be able see the old track from Anzacs to the SLSC.
Unreal article, thanks for that! Have seen crew do the rip trip out the back - and beyond - quickly there.
the ugly gurl in the crowd that no one wanted to talk to, turns out to have the biggest heart... great read. love those waves
Cheers Lachy, being a beach break aficionado and resident of a B-grade coastline myself, I can appreciate that.
As you said, fitness is a must.
Good article. Super cold water though, usually fat(although your pics show different!) and always a bit of a drive compared to the east coast though.
If woolies used to be better, I would've liked to see it in its heyday! Not a bad beachy that one.
It's only cold by east coast standards - keeps the crowd down!
Truth in this. I think Lachy is trying to disprove Blowin and his #Vicdoesntbarrel campaign. You can go months between finding a barrelling rip bowl. In between its wind blown rip ramps with fat shoulders.
Was it also blowin that hated the arms up shoulder claim as provided by Nick Bone above?
There was a lot that got his goat- not sure that was one of them.
Ha, yep I remember that one.
What the? Why does irk someone to celebrate a unridden gem?
Best thing about this stretch of coast is that even on a crowded weekend, you get away from the main car parks and you can generally find something fairly uncrowded worth surfing.
I've never seen anything like the first barrel pic above, but have seen a few very good days down there.
My fave of the Vic open beaches is Johanna though. Been good pretty much every time i've been there and the surrounding scenery is beautiful.
For those of you who don't know Lach is a great local surfer who makes it look easy. The rip bank once you get to a certain age are hard work and require a bigger board for old farts. They are a heap of fun and can get hollow and chunky. Maybe that is why most of the old fellas have retired around to westernport!
Also the photographer Josh is a legend - nice guy, great photographer, and charges on a body board although less so these days as he to is getting longer in the tooth.
Met Josh Morgan and Luke Roberts and his brother and a bunch of others at a National State Team Bodyboard comp in 1987 at a magnificent rip bowl at Gunnamatta and his drop knee ruled. Hosted him a couple of times over in SA. Top bloke!
'Rip Bowl' would be a great name for an off-beat surfing equipment and apparel company. Chance of being sued?
Or good name for a band
are we doing it wrong here in qld? i regularly surf a swell magnet here, in east swells so they are hitting square on, and the best waves are always had away from the rip bowls. all the good surfers paddle away from them into cleaner water. the rips tend to be short lasting tho - after a few minutes they dissipate and the water goes back to clean again, while another rip will form somewhere else. its a long straight beach. is it different to vicco?
The type of rip you are describing often doesn't have anything to do with the bottom profile, just the way the swell comes in and gets knocked around. Hence they can be gone as soon as the arrive (Supertubos seems to be the classic global example of this).
These Vic rips usually follow extremely deep channels formed in the sand - I'm talking knee deep down to cant touch the bottom with arms above head within the space of 20-30m.
Yeah looks like you're talking more about flash rips which are terrible to get caught in, rather than an established channel and rip running into the bowling waves.
Speaking of Vic beachies, it's interesting that the well known beach on the Bellarine which cops a fair bit of swell (albeit not as much as MP, PI etc) doesn't really do the rip bowl thing. Rips are best avoided there unless paddling back out.
Can happen a little further down the beach, but the good waves there seem to be a result of the outer reefs and the disruption they cause to the incoming swell.
It's a Bombora Controlled Beachbreak.
Its character is defined by the sea mounts offshore not the bathymetry inshore.
There was one that was very reliable, although never epic, on the high tide at 2/3ft for at least a year until last winter's swells gave it the arse. Could thank La Nina for the longevity of that one.
Big subject but little time.
QLD has much more longitudinal sand movement than Vicco - or indeed anywhere else in Oz. The beaches are best understood as continual conveyors of sediment from south to north, and this manifests in many different ways.
When big swells hit QLD, the storm bar builds as one long transverse sand bank detached from the beach. And even when the storm bar breaks down the prevailing bank is still largely a barrier running parallel to the beach.
As others mentioned, rips breach this bank not via deep channels but flash rips that operate semi-chaotically - there one moment, gone the next once the balance is restored.
Vicco has very little longitudinal sand movement, and the sand banks are almost always welded to the beach - effectively running at 90 degrees to those in QLD - and this sets up permanent, or semi-permanent, areas of deeper water, hence rips, hence rip bowls.
More to say later...
Don’t know if Harold Holt went that well there, or maybe it was a Russian submarine?
Spend more time paddling towards shore than paddling out around MP and PI some days... still awesome tho, well PI is anyway : ) Mornington is a fickle mistress.
Great article, I was taught about that coast and its rips by a very generous brilliant surfer who seemingly knew it like the back of his hand. Go well my dear friend.
Loving the comments equally and as for the comment ^^ about old blokes and westernport as a local legend and shaper says “mate, you have nothing to prove, ya fucking done it all”.
There’s a reason they call MP the Hoax Coast…. Jokes aside it does get some good banks
No they don't,
They call one coast the almost coast.
Mp area is gold. Sounds like something you would here from someone stuck in jaN juc in an el Nino
More than two decades ago there was an old Tripod page called The Hoax Coast.
https://web.archive.org/web/20021019050350/http://hoaxcoast.tripod.com/
The surfshop.com days…!
Great read. We hunted those rip bowl reforms on those beaches a lot in the 80's and 90's. It was love/hate.
So fickle but as good as anywhere when they turn on. Chunky barrels.
Glad it was an MP boy who wrote this, I thought all that info. was supposed to be secret!
Haven't been on that coast this century, that left point tucked in there with two names is the closest I've been. I do miss those beaches.
There are rip bowl set ups on the SC/Bellarine, one in particular that gets as good as any and is pretty much permanent depending on sand. Couple more that can get going too on the same stretch. Not saying though.
I do have a question for the author or someone that surfs there, is that shit pipe still going at the west end of Gunna? I think they call the bank there Pumping Station, I remember it being pretty toxic and would turn the water brown and stink up the whole place, but used to get good waves out the front of it. Is it still there?
Still pumping but there’s a pretty high tech treatment plant in Boneo now
Thanks @geek. Glad it sounds sorted these days, I remember it being pretty bad back then, put me off surfing Gunna a bit. I preferred the stretch behind Rye more than Gunna anyway in those days. It cops a bit of shit, the MP, hoax coast and all that, but the guys who live and surf there love it and wouldn't have it any other way.
it was only bad when it was easterly ?onny
In the big rains a couple years back the plant couldn't handle it and it let out untreated sewage for a few weeks. I think it's a bit of a disgrace it's there at all. In a national park no less
La Niña reduced the consistency of the bigger swell events that create these rips and in turn buggered many banks on the MP.
First carpark had one big sandbank from one end of the beach to the other which made for one long close out.
Great to read, it's been a long time since for me out there. Great memories, did get pretty snobby/ rich towards the end of my stint in vic.
The power of that stretch of coast should never be underestimated
Rip Harold
Gotta say as an older Vicco Surfer the MP is a great coast but it's hard work when the swells up.
You have to keep the paddling fitness up or you toast.
Its the conveyor belt but without the run up the beach.
With so many gnarly limestone reefs just at the shore, exits on high tide can be a bit of a suck it up and hope for the best.
Takes extra gonads Pete, especially padling into the double-ups
Being a Woolamai Beach Lifeguard, we spend a lot of our time dragging people out of these rips, so we do regular rip swims as specific training, and deliberately body surf inside the rip bowls as a means of getting swimmers back to shore. Many the flogging has been had...
I cant stop coming back and looking at the ariel shot of my local, so many memories, from playing in the tie bar as a kid, to camping on our block in the early 80s when the area was mostly tea tree, to moving into our holiday house when moved to the coast, to renting houses with mates although my own house is just out of the pic.
Memories of the old beach road that can just be seen and old airport when you could fly to Tassie or King Island.
Then of course the banks each bank is semi permanent changing and moving slightly but each still having its own characteristics, each bank in the pic brings back memories of surfs and i have my favourites and go to banks.
don't tell me you live in the viet vet museum @indo?? (joke ; )
onto it @mattlock. largs north gets some killer stormies, haha (joke ; )
seriously, this has been an interesting topic, since craig's piece, bread an butter daily waves for some, we don't get 'em quite as dynamic as the east coast, but between johanna and where indo-d looked at buying a house a few years back, and then onto where I knock about, there's 3 or 4 of the best of these (smaller) 'rip bowl' bays in the country.
(anyone gone to j-bay and had a 20min dawny at cape st francis? - I hear it's the shit)
MP does get good…. Sometimes
https://www.instagram.com/morningtonpeninsulasurfpics/
A lot of the time
I tend to haunt cowards cove bit more these days but I remember you gotta be prepared to do a few postie laps if you miss the sweet spot
Overall I'd say Australia has the best beach breaks in the world.
Would be pretty safe bet. East coast especially
The most impressive 4-5ft waves I have ever surfed have been on a sa beachbreak.
Incredibly thick rh barrels.
Not a rip-bowl though.
On a cape west of Adelaide.
Down the beach or near the stairs?
I’m Vic based these days but head over that way 1-2 times a year. Has been pretty straight last few times.
Not down the beach. We used to call that the hardwinder. Got another name now.
Near the stairs although there weren't any then.
Sets up there sometimes under the right conditions
The one down the beach has had a number as long as I've know of it (around 25 years). Heavy waves.
It didn't have a name in the 80s Bnkrf. My mate called the hardwinder.
Not many people surfed it then. I did a couple of times when small and generally got pounded into the sand.
I'm not sure when the boogers gave it the number.
Heavy waves on that beach for sure. Pound for pound the heaviest beachbreak I've experienced.
Good read Lachy. Weekly story please!
great read Lachy, spot on, many good memories sweating in a 4-3 battling/scoring in those rip bowls, a couple of the semi regular ones got epic, even tripling up some days. It was a great lesson on how water moves and what it can do to swells and banks
Love it Lachy.
Well written- just don’t tell anyone else!
Another great aticle. They do exist.