Watch: Dirty ol' Wedge

Stu Nettle picture
Stu Nettle (stunet)
Swellnet Dispatch

If you looked at the global swell charts a fortnight ago you would've seen storms spreading like tumours across the deep South Pacific. Red blobs, purple blobs, black blobs too, all sending their energy to the north and to the west.

Seven days and 5,000 kms away, that same energy would bounce sideways off Newport breakwall and into the oncoming vector, turning straight lines of swell into towering, teetering pyramids that break just metres off the beach.

Here's the action from just one day, June 11th.

Comments

simba's picture
simba's picture
simba Wednesday, 20 Jun 2018 at 8:50am

Geeze hope the hospitals nearby.....did any one make a wave ?Body surfer at 3.30 awesome drop in.........

stunet's picture
stunet's picture
stunet Wednesday, 20 Jun 2018 at 9:26am

Make a wave? But surely that's not the point. 

The Wedge, or in fact any dirty ol' shorey, reminds me of the live album by The Damned, 'Mindless, Directionless, Energy'. Just dive in and get pummelled, that's the pleasure.

wax-on-danielson's picture
wax-on-danielson's picture
wax-on-danielson Thursday, 21 Jun 2018 at 3:07pm

Compared to what you usually see out there it looked like heaps got made.

chook's picture
chook's picture
chook Wednesday, 20 Jun 2018 at 10:04am

thanks for the tip on the damned live album...pretty sure i can also find a thumping shorey in the eastern suburbs today

sunlover199's picture
sunlover199's picture
sunlover199 Wednesday, 20 Jun 2018 at 10:47am

i dont understand why an adult male would choose to ride a booger, gut sliding lid ?
are they gay or a woman trapped in a mans body ?
fair enough if they have a disability and cannot stand tall.

bodysurfersmate's picture
bodysurfersmate's picture
bodysurfersmate Wednesday, 20 Jun 2018 at 1:44pm

whats the matter with being gay, or a woman?
You have an issue that you need to be dealing with, along with those other males that like to put people down for being who they are and surfing how they like.
Best thing you did was to quit surfing.

Sprout's picture
Sprout's picture
Sprout Wednesday, 20 Jun 2018 at 2:27pm

You forgot to be racist too.
Fuckwit.

sunlover199's picture
sunlover199's picture
sunlover199 Thursday, 21 Jun 2018 at 1:29pm

1488

cswells's picture
cswells's picture
cswells Wednesday, 20 Jun 2018 at 2:49pm

Your ignorance of enjoyment and bigotry makes you a kook. Kook.

scrotina's picture
scrotina's picture
scrotina Wednesday, 20 Jun 2018 at 3:21pm

i ride a surfboard at certain spots, and a boog at other spots that really suit a boog. i am an adult male, so am i a part time gay lol?
what i would really like to know though, is what it will take to get sunlover199 to say all that shit to my face. obviously has a big ticket on himself with talk like that, so i'm sure he'd be happy to take up the offer. message me if you've got the balls, sunlover199...

Fieldy's picture
Fieldy's picture
Fieldy Friday, 22 Jun 2018 at 8:19am

idiot alert. I bet you never even had a barrel. I've seen lids gets slotted on waves that even the best stand-ups can't even consider. 'Body surfing is the purest form of surfing in the world', as stated by Mike Stewart, 9 time bodyboard world champion and bodysurf world champion. Kelly Slater has called him the 'most barrelled person on earth'.
Who gives a fuck who you are or what you ride, the ocean is there for all to enjoy.
Just a reminder, it is 2018 dickhead.

Fieldy's picture
Fieldy's picture
Fieldy Friday, 22 Jun 2018 at 8:20am

idiot alert. I bet you never even had a barrel. I've seen lids gets slotted on waves that even the best stand-ups can't even consider. 'Body surfing is the purest form of surfing in the world', as stated by Mike Stewart, 9 time bodyboard world champion and bodysurf world champion. Kelly Slater has called him the 'most barrelled person on earth'.
Who gives a fuck who you are or what you ride, the ocean is there for all to enjoy.
Just a reminder, it is 2018 dickhead.

GuySmiley's picture
GuySmiley's picture
GuySmiley Wednesday, 20 Jun 2018 at 11:16am

.... nah ....

what's the thing about slow-mo, I hate that, anyway just like the footage I've seen of Michael Ho surfing between and sometimes over exposed rocks the question to ask is why?

Billyw's picture
Billyw's picture
Billyw Wednesday, 20 Jun 2018 at 11:56am

could have been a good watch but why oh why the slo mo? so painful

nat-old's picture
nat-old's picture
nat-old Wednesday, 20 Jun 2018 at 12:24pm

Sunlovr - mate have ya had too much sun or are you just a tosser troll?

bodysurfersmate's picture
bodysurfersmate's picture
bodysurfersmate Wednesday, 20 Jun 2018 at 1:35pm

All those guys taking waves have huge courage.
Sunlover199, for a 50yo overweight ex surfer you sure are a troll.

Tenn's picture
Tenn's picture
Tenn Wednesday, 20 Jun 2018 at 2:21pm

Ohh man 0:38 backlit perfection that would have felt orgasmic

ojackojacko's picture
ojackojacko's picture
ojackojacko Wednesday, 20 Jun 2018 at 4:57pm

watched some unedited clips on youtube of this swell a few days back. the boogers were taking off in the peak. stand ups taking off on the small ones running at right angles off the breakwall that then jack up. quite a few waves made but more carnage. this is one of the most entertaining waves on the planet - so much fun to watch. bugger surfing out there but

edit: here’s the link. no slo mo. no crap music

shoredump's picture
shoredump's picture
shoredump Wednesday, 20 Jun 2018 at 4:24pm

The thing I can’t understand about this wave is it’s a south swell spot on a west coast, with the breakwall on the south side. You’d think it wouldn’t work like that, but it does. Heaps of fun to body bash it, I have a couple times. The peninsula it sits on, and Balboa island just behind it are beautiful too. Lots of really nice all American weatherboard homes with flags and manicured gardens, kids on bikes and a very relaxed, chilled holiday vibe going. John Wayne airport nearby has no shortage of bizjets parked there too.

stunet's picture
stunet's picture
stunet Wednesday, 20 Jun 2018 at 4:37pm

Yeah, it seems counter-intuitive but that's how most wedges work. The angle of incidence has to be high i.e the swell has to approach from an angle close to the direction the rockwall runs.

Whale Beach wedge is similar, it needs a north swell. Moruya, Iluka, even little Coledale corner, all right hand wedges that require south swell.

savanova's picture
savanova's picture
savanova Thursday, 21 Jun 2018 at 9:54am

sshhh

therealneil's picture
therealneil's picture
therealneil Thursday, 21 Jun 2018 at 10:42am

Just had A quick look at google earth which helps explain how wedge seems to work, looks like the beach faces slightly west of south and the break wall is angled perfectly to bounce the swell across the beach, looks FUn (with a capital FU)as fuck,
as for sunlovers bigotry, jeeze where do you start? I’ve been thinking about this stuff a bit lately. Maybe we as the priveliged few (white, male, hetero, mostly reasonably well off) need to all start calling out (without abusing) people who are bigoted, don’t forget it wasn’t that long ago it was de rigueur to be a bigot, it’s hard tho fuck, I was hanging with an old mate recently who said some off racist stuff and didn’t call him out, to my shame. Anyway gay people, female people, non white people , boogieboarding people, all sorts of people , even SUPing people are still copping verbal and physical shit when they shouldn’t, after all they’re still people.
Respect and empathy are key ?
Peace

stunet's picture
stunet's picture
stunet Thursday, 21 Jun 2018 at 11:28am

Bang on Neil. Good post.

kaiser's picture
kaiser's picture
kaiser Thursday, 21 Jun 2018 at 2:04pm

You had me till you mentioned SUPs. Otherwise top work

chook's picture
chook's picture
chook Thursday, 21 Jun 2018 at 2:05pm

so, that reflection is what makes the new port wedge vaguely rideable? ...most shoreys are just thumping straighhanders and unrideable.

tama gets wedging sometimes...big wedges. i presume it's the cliffs at marks park that are doing the reflecting.

kaiser's picture
kaiser's picture
kaiser Thursday, 21 Jun 2018 at 2:15pm

I’m amazed there’s any sand left there. Must be the dumping and swirling effect rather than surge and retreat that usually occurs when waves hit shore. Or maybe it’s the end point of longshore drift?Where I live, that would scarp the entire beach back to the car park and deposit it elsewhere

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Thursday, 21 Jun 2018 at 3:50pm

South Oz has a mini version at Knights, where we've got a live surfcam. Thought it's a fraction of the size, it still delivers a royal thumping (or a filthy barrel).
Live: https://www.swellnet.com/surfcams/knights


Mecco's picture
Mecco's picture
Mecco Thursday, 21 Jun 2018 at 9:21pm

Hey sunlover199, here’s my story.
I’m a 57yo Z grade bodyboarder - who wears a Gath helmet! I’m a kook, a dork, a disgrace and possible proof that Darwin’s theory of evolution is untrue.
But what am I to do as I love the surf as much as the most ardent Swellnetter? What beats looking at the Bells cliffs from the surf, going to the beach with my surfer son and sharing stories of our “epic” rides, the simple pure joy of catching a nice wave?
I tried for years to learn how to surf but due to my complete lack of sporting ability just couldn’t do it. Using a bodyboard is so much easier and allows me to catch a wave, though talking of surfing ability, be honest, would you have the skills and/or courage to charge maxing out Pipe on a lid?
I hope sunlover199 you were trying to be funny and stir things up, but it’s never cool to be sexist or homophobic.
To all those of you who called out sunlover199’s poor choice of language and defended the rights of anyone to have a go in the waves, my heartfelt thanks.
If you’re in Victoria and you see a tall skinny bloke in a Gath with a yellow bodyboard come and say hello and share your good tempered booger jokes. Just please don’t be sexist or homophobic - or racist for that matter.

Fieldy's picture
Fieldy's picture
Fieldy Friday, 22 Jun 2018 at 9:30am

and that ladies and gentlemen is what I consider 'leadership amongst the pack'.
Well done Swellnet group for identifying, and calling out, what is not cool nor acceptable in the surfing community or this platform.
Peace