2023 - The Year In Pictures

From an East Coast perspective, the year of surf came in fits and bursts, even laying fully down through early-mid winter to provide the smallest recorded run of swell by the Sydney offshore wave buoy. 

It wasn't completely flat, it's just that all the Southern Ocean storms that provided endless days of pumping waves across the Surf Coast hardly made a dent in the Tasman Sea. Also, diffracted south swells under offshore winds accrued sand at an accelerated rate, filling up gutters and sanding up beaches to the highest they've been in years.

What this equated to was beach-long closeouts for the majority of locations across NSW, frustrating as hell when a swell of any substance impacted the coast, regardless of direction.

But I digress.

Rewinding back to the start of the year, and a Severe Tropical Cyclone named Gabrielle formed in the Coral Sea, tracking towards the central Queensland coast before making a U-turn back to the south-east and onwards to New Zealand.

While south-east Queensland and northern NSW picked up a rare and good quality N/NE groundswell through Friday the 10th, it was the extra-tropical transition from a warm core cyclone to cold core system that provided the bulk of the swell energy for the remainder of the East Coast.

I luckily caught the swell front as it slowly built through Sunday, but near dark it really muscled up with strong, defined 6ft sets hitting a usually C-grade point, transforming it a more respectful B+.

The peak was extended - lasting from Monday through Tuesday - thanks to the remnants of Gabrielle stalling off the North Island, with waves ranging between 6-8ft across most open, east-facing breaks while a handful of deepwater reefs saw sets to 10ft, raw with accompanying southerly winds.

Tim Quinn freefalling

Sam Jones with two mitts in the oven

March was slower before a couple of significant southerly swells popped up into April.

The biggest was generated by a strong Tasman Low, with the swell met by gusting offshore westerly winds. Hawaiian-like peaks thundered across the deepwater reefs on the Northern Beaches.

Matt Chojnacki (above), Matt Abbott and an unknown goofy took on the windy walls, with Chono making it easier for himself on a 10'2" Maurice Cole.

Lost at sea

That south swell was followed by a great quality east swell in the 6ft+ range into early May, with usually busy haunts being on the quiet side. Back-up swells continued to provide non-stop surf through the rest of the month, only settling down as we headed into winter proper, and what a stop it was.

It was then time for a trip further afield, to the Land of the Rising Sun.

Past trips have been in pursuit of bottomless powder in the depths of winter, but this one was based on water in a liquid form.

The trip was a cultural and surf-based one, getting a local tour from my partner in crime. While the main cities were well-attended, the more rural areas provided endless opportunities for a solo session.

Coming from some of the most beautiful coastal landscapes in the world, the contrast to industrialised Japan is stark. Concrete is everywhere and when mixed with the dark volcanic sand and turbird water it’s quite bleak. But seeing past that, with swells coming from all directions and islands a plenty, the surfing options are seemingly endless and unpopulated too.

Mix in the cultural aspects and incredible cuisine, I’d put Japan high on the list for a less ‘out of the box’ surf trip.

On return to Australia, we were thrown straight into one of the most prolonged flat spells I’ve experienced in Sydney.

The days were perfect but mostly unsurfable, with afternoon’s spent whale watching, returning to the same perch high above the Tasman Sea every day. I was hoping to nail a whale right in close and after weeks capturing breaches kilometres out to sea, I noticed the tell tale streak and submarine like hump heading right my way.

The whale got within metres of the shelf and provided me the perfect opportunity to witness it diving deep and resurfacing, clearly hearing the blowout echoing off the surrounding cliffs. A moment made all the more special without the distraction of surf.

By the end of July everyone was getting antsy, either booking trips to chase swells down the Surf Coast or further to Indonesia, but finally a droughtbreaker arrived. It was generated by a classic Cook Strait fetch, though supercharged in nature.

A strong southerly swell arrived on Saturday the 22nd of July, followed by the east-northeast groundswell near dark, peaking Sunday the 23rd.

Magnets across the southern NSW coast came in at 6ft+ under a fresh offshore wind, providing pumping conditions across selected sanded up beaches.

However, it was a one-off affair with the Tasman Sea again settling down into August.

September kicked off with the annual Board Yard Sale, raising funds for Lifeline and the Swellnet team in the Lifeline Classic. Every year it gets bigger and bigger, and this one again was the most successful yet.

On a perfect sunny morning in the park at Freshwater Beach, the local community provided 240 boards for sale, along with some great raffle prizes provided by Marty at The Pocket Cafe. The end result was $4,826 raised for Lifeline from the Board Yard Sale, with the Swellnet team making the finals in the main event.

Smiles all around (Tony Palmer)

Back to the surf, and the spring surf season ended up being quite a standout, especially following the lacklustre winter.

There was hardly an unsurfable day with swells not dropping below 2ft, highlighted by large, back to back east-northeast groundswells through October. The swell activity finally got the sand moving across the beaches, setting up some great gutters and rip-bowls.

With warm water and swell a'plenty, the spring felt very autumn-like and not quite what you’d expect in a strong El Niño year.

Different to past strong El Niño years where cooler water usually surrounds the warm water signal in the Pacific Ocean, we continued to see warmer than normal temperatures country wide, escalating further into the start of summer.

It was this warm water and back to back westerly wind bursts through the western Pacific Ocean that set in motion the earliest Category 5 tropical cyclone on record, named Lola.

It was Lola’s extra-tropical transition north of New Zealand that produced a much larger than expected groundswell in late October, turning North Steyne into a Pipeline-esque seascape with the Queenscliff Bombora firing off windy 12ft+ widow makers which then hit the beach in the 8-10ft range.

November provided more large, out of season surf from the south with the yearly Swellnet catch up being in the right place, at the right time as the swell step-laddered set by set under perfect offshore winds.

Winter like conditions in the middle of November

December’s been a little quiet surf-wise, as it generally is, though a fun-sized trade-swell offered quality waves leading up to Christmas Day.

With a La Niña rebound on the cards following this year’s El Niño and excess warm water surrounding the country, next year looks to be dynamic to say the least.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.