Northern Charge - Deadmans
There ain't too many options on Sydney's Northern Beaches during a big south swell, but slip a bit o' east into the mix and watch the shelves light up. On Saturday, with a lovely SE swell making landfall, Deadman's broke for the first time in a good while, and it was as tricky and unpredictable and entertaining as ever.
Ol' Geordie Tarren had the angles covered with a mix of drone-style shots from the cliff as well as water footage.
Of interest: On Sunday Swellnet ran a Wave of the Day from Deadies, 'Unidentified jive on Sydney's Northern Beaches.' The jiver was identified as Lachie Rombouts and the same barrel appears at the 5:30 mark. Geordie hooked up with him perfectly for the shot.
Comments
Awesome big wave surfing
Having never surfed it feels like the swell angle is still wrong?
TBH it never looks quite right. Deadies ain't a 'good' wave, it's wildly unpredictable. However, I think if the swell was the same angle but a few feet bigger it would've been quite the show. Straight south swells just don't get in there, Blue Fish Point blocks too much swell.
may not be a good wave stu but there is the opportunity to make a big critical takeoff into a doubling up slab draw, full rail arc it around at the bottom and pull up into a truck size barrel. it doesn't get any better!
Haha Camel. Yeah 4.5m @ 11secs and we get 6 foot. Most of that footage is shot between 6:30 and 8am. Shame they didn't show a booger almost getting a double wave holdown and a flogging on the inside. Its well put together just waves underwhelming. Everyone had high expectations for this swell and its turned out today and Friday were the best days. Was a shame as the Bombie was breaking on Saturday and was wrecked by the wind. The SE direction for Deadies was good, too much East and its unsurfable. Here's a photo from Ben Johnson of Tobias Leago, on a decent wave one.
Whole weekend pumped down my way. Saturday arvo into the evening was something special. For that matter, last night was too.
Think you're being too beach specific though Mick, today was the best of it locally, amazing morning of surf, but that's not to say other locations didn't pump. And Camel there were 10ft sets at dawn but the rest of the morning was around 6-8ft at exposed spots.
Stop it Stu, there will be an invasion down your way. Actually Manly was good in the evening too.
Yeah thats true Craig was just focused Mantown
Heavy a two wave hold down ! 22 sec under at least !
Couple of shots from the same session..
Anyone see DY point on the weekend?
Nah Camel he just got a breath. I posted it on the fb
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152237430376949&set=vb.694356948&...
Haha, that guy got rolled by that wave for a good 75m or so, straight in and around the boulders.
Brett herro saw d y
Brett was out there surfing fine with his Andy Cap on. Saw a couple of great barrels and there is some Go Pro footage around. I will see if I can track it down
@ Skyout checked it lunchtime Saturday high tide ledgey was average...may have been better lowtide but didn't check again
Ah okay thanks - thought it might have been good on swell direction and wind.
Any thoughts on surfable options for this Wed or Thurs morning? Looking pretty gale force.
Going back to Deadmans for a minute. I never saw it surfed in the seventies. Well why would you when Winki was just about always going to be better? The rumour then was that Nat and surfed it on a dare at some stage in the sixties. It's a heavy wave but the cost/benefit analysis tends to work against it for any but the pure daredevils.
It was originally called Whodares, wasn't it? Which would indicate how many people had surfed it.
Stu , we called it " you can ride it " Had one crazy mate who did . No leg ropes .
In 'Big Surf Manly Style', an article in 'Big Surf' a Tracks publication, Paul Burnett calls it Big Winky, Whodares, and Suicides ("whichever you prefer") but not Deadmans. He also says he's only seen it surfed a handful of times at size.
The article was written in 1988.
Stu I don't know when the name Deadmans came in but I would guess it was some stage in the 90s.
Maybe Blindboy can enlighten me but back in the seventies maybe 71 or 72 just before Gough Whitlam got in there was a major contest held at fairy bower and im sure Nat came third if memory serves me correctly and Michael Peterson won it but it was surfed around the front in big waves ........ do you remember this Blind Boy or anyone and was that winki or deadmans.?Showing my ignorance but i remember people saying it was very rarley surfed and pre leg rope days.Watching from the top looking down when Michael scored a tube in front of the rocks and the hoots went up.Panel vans and long hair,those were the days.Anyone remember?
That was the first Surfabout contest in 1974. I think there were waves surfed at both Winki and Fairy Bower itself. From memory leg ropes were still pretty new and of that crazy design that had coiled up cord through the middle guaranteeing a rapid return towards your head if they reached the limit of their stretch. And yes MP won.
I watched a lot of that, contest at The Bower. Took a bunch of photos too. One of the stand outs for me was Col Smith , Narrabeen .
Col was one of the most innovative surfers of that era in Australia and was a huge influence on several generations of Narrabeen surfers.
Thanks Blindboy i was out a couple years but i thought you would remember.I think Nat donated his 3rd place winnings to the labour party ...anyway its a bit fuzzy now.
74 coke....it was solid & breaking right thru winki & the bower. The Hawaiians were freakin out cos they weren't used to surfing in front of the rocks, Gerry Lopez took a hammering on his backhand on the ledge @ winki.. Couple of hell men were surfing Deadmans in the 80s..."boomer" bought a 6'4 from me just for it !! Pre leg ropes,Robby Holt was undisputed king of winki & George S dominated bower
You've ripped off my u/n from Surfline. Yes? We went to Cactus in Jan '74 and I'm pretty sure we had leggies. My best session EVER at Pondalowie on the way where I got shacked deep for the first time.