Photos

The sixth annual Wooden Surfboard Day is fast approaching and the organiser, Grant Newby, is putting the finishing touches to his own display craft.

Australia's left coast has been making hay while the sun shines on another bluebird day.

Mick won the competition, but Curren won the people's vote.

Yesterday David Scard delivered the ashes of Allan Byrne to their final sepulchre - inside the barrel of a Grajagan barrel.

Ten years ago the view would've been somewhat similar: a double overhead reef, a few ugly ledges, and a smiling nude nut falling from the sky. Last Thursday Jughead fell from the skies again and Swellnet cornered the NSW Central Coast surfer for a chat.

Manly surfer and occasional Swellnet contributor, Mick Freeman, has spent the past few weeks traipsing around the dark continent, or at least its lower coastal periphery.

After the worst May in many years, June and July are cracking along nicely and the normal summer swells are arriving on cue.

More great sequences from last Thursday's east swell at Cape Solander. This time around it's Bones Dwyer, Sam Mac, and Spud.

Six feet of E/SE swell had the reef draining for a coterie of rock jockeys including Mark Mathews, born again slab hunter Jughead Allport, and another fella who went missing a few years, the Gold Coast's Clint Kimmins.

From a solid east swell in the city to a bluebird day in the Alps, Craig Brokensha scored the best of both worlds.

"We had a big swell roll through and took the punt on chasing something very different. All I can say is, it was mind blowing."

Dom Wills took a novel approach to Cape Solander during yesterday's east swell. On two seperate waves he put his crack to the wax and rode goatboat style.

Pumping surf, nimble surfers, brisk offshore.

A six foot E/SE swell pushed into a straight west wind and sparked up the NSW coast, nowhere better than Cape Solander.

Could these shots have been disguised as any other location? The low angled sun, the steel grey water, the oysters-off-the-rocks offshore, and of course the head-to-toe rubber, each is an intrinsic part of the Victorian winter surfing experience.

When Perth got as good as anywhere.

The Tassie lads recently had a shot at a totally tow-free day at Shippies. From the first wave - Marti Paradisis on an outlandish bomb, apparently - to the last it was paddle power all the way.

“I just want to say I love you to my daughter who was born two days ago,” Rothman said. “I wore her hospital bracelet the whole time."

The son of Tassie surfing pioneer and board collector extraordinaire, Phil Critchlow, Zebulon is comfortable in any of the island state's many knee deep rock ledges.

Certain breaks along Australia's southern coast pumped on the backside of last week's wild weather. One such wave was Steve Townsend's local and he captured it doing its thing.