The Odd One

Although there wasn't much in the way of swell, barely 2ft on the sets, it was much bigger and better than it had been for a while. Early start: at the beach for 6.45am though there was still a crowd. Peppered with folks from nearby South facing beaches which weren't catching any of the small NE swell.

Caught a few - including a small cover up. It was very small and brief. A, "you'd only see it if you frame grabbed it" brief. Nevertheless, I'm making a very weak claim for it.

Forecast looks less than average until the middle of the week when thing start to get interesting again. The Spring wobble seems to have finally sorted itself out. Hawaii trip in T-2 weeks so some swell wouldn't go a miss otherwise I'm going to be largely cooking rice.

Ocean Swim

In the ocean with the fish. On the beach with the hordes of Sunday sun seekers. A few laps of the bay; swim from one end to the other, run back, repeat. Along with a float in the crystal clear water above the South end reef. Stunning day. Off to have a belated Thanksgiving Day celebration this afternoon.

Flat Run Continues

And so it goes on. Aside from a significant bump in swell on Wednesday - that an 8am work commitment meant I had to let the pre-work session slide by - it's been basically flat or onshore. Stuck in the late Spring doldrums of East quadrant, onshore winds and weak, small swell.

This pattern seems to kick in every Spring as the weather systems dust off Winter, try to re-order themselves and t decide what they're going to wear for Summer. Will it be a set of matching solid NE swells? Or will it be a skimpy run of not much but weak wind swell (2010 followed this trend with plenty of desperate surfs in onshore waves, dodging packs of bluebottle jellyfish).

Only time will tell. In the meantime we're destined to watch the wave cams present us with dribbling shore breaks. The next best thing, which requires dusting off the Speedos, is an ocean swim. Flat days aren't so bad if you can still have the luxury of getting into the ocean somehow.

How's the surf in your part of the world as we shift seasons?

Ferrrr-lat

Totally flat this weekend. You could consider the tiny 1ft dribble technically a wave, crumbling as it was, weakly, from the South. No sign at all of the promised 2-3ft swell. Never materialised. Even in an age of super swell models and reams of data it's perfectly possible to get it totally wrong.

Opted for a long swim. Forty minutes worth of back and forth. From one set of flags to the next. Run back. Repeat. Probably not entirely necessary to be so masochistic about it though have a trip to Hawaii in five weeks so need some level of fitness and the ocean isn't co-operating for the usual "doesn't feel like exercise" surfing option.

Shark O'Clock

Despite the report looking abysmal went to wash the day away with a quick dip at one of the lesser visited beaches. Got there just as the sun was dropping behind the hill. Caught more than a worthy quota, somewhat distracted by murky waters and vulnerably dangling feet.

Technical stuff; 2-3ft, quite a bit of chop but since it was shore break the faces were pretty clean. Worth the lengthy waits between sets (despite having to be sat beyond the rest of the pack to do so).

Protect B.C.

I've been seeing a lot about this over the past couple of months as oil companies look to push to construct an extended pipeline and increase oil tanker traffic in the British Columbia area. This would go through some of the most unspoilt parts of the region; probably not the best idea given the damage it could do when something goes wrong. The company behind it, Enbridge, has been at great pains to explain it has spill plans in place that exceed world class levels though has had trouble explaining the details of what this means when it comes to pressing questions. That seems less than reassuring. Add on top of this that the company has had a few major spill incidents over the past few years.

I'm not a Green-y, or prone to standing on a political soap box but what they're proposing to do seems slightly mad. If you feel like taking action you can sign a petition. At the very least it's worth finding out a bit more about it. If you're not environmentally motivated then there is some good surf in the region that could be at risk. Video below has some snippets of the waves in the region.



STAND - power teaser from Dendrite Studios on Vimeo.