After witnessing one of the largest storm swells in decades out of the east yesterday, a swing in offshore winds overnight cleaned up the surf considerably into this morning.

A small gallery depicting the large, unruly, victory at sea conditions around Sydney this afternoon.

'Twas a splendid weekend down Vicco way with a clean mid-range swell and offshore NWers.

Bells action captured from the tide line.

The best photos from Round 1 of the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach.

A raw and bumpy Long Reef Bommie session went down this morning on Sydney's Northern Beaches, with a cameo by Camel.

With wave heights expected to get bigger from here on, it's going to be really interesting to see how many locations hold the size.

He's a 500th generation Huanchaco fishermen. He can build a caballito (translated as 'little horse') in one hour. And this morning he built a little horse and went surfing at Bondi.

Tim Bonython captures the action from the channel.

No contest but a hearty consolation prize.

"The best day in years." "As good as Pipe gets." The post-heat interviews were full of complimentary raves about the impeccable conditions at Pipe on Day 3 of the Volcom Pipe Pro.

After four days of settled weather the 'wind blew tall' for the fellas on the BF Goodrich trip to the desert. 

A celebration of beach cricket, fresh lobster, and tow surfing.

Tim Bonython, Mick Corbett, and Jarryd Foster have holed themselves up in Nazare taking advantage of the uncrowded conditions. 

While northerly winds were playing havoc with the Queensland and northern New South Wales coasts on Saturday, a lone stretch of sand was turning the energy from TC Victor into something magical. 

Josh Kerr did some smart multi-tasking this morning doffing the CT jersey and donning an inflatable vest for his first hit out on the Big Wave Tour.

It seems like almost a year since Manly's offered solid clean surf without close-outs, but it was worth the wait.

After watching and waiting for almost a year to travel to this region, the swell and winds finally aligned, but... over the Christmas/New Year holidays.

2015 was probably the worst year of waves I've seen locally around Manly since I made the move to the East Coast. This however gave me an excuse to hit the highway each weekend to maximise the most out of the marginal swells, the rewards are captured in the following images.

First and second goes into the main event where they'll face off against title contenders in Round 1.