Chaos

The beach is usually busy but never super crowded and generally it's orderly. For whatever reason or combination of conditions this wasn't the case today. Total chaos. The pictures don't really do the quality of the surf or the anarchy any justice. The surf was a fun 2ft, occasionally but infrequently 3ft. with a really good peak - wind had swung on onshore by them tie I floated out took some pictures. The line-up was packed, I counted over 40 people on the one peak and manners had been left on the shoreline. It wasn't unusually to have three people dropping in on you in front. Got 3 - 4 waves unmolested but the rest were write offs. If everyone had taken their turn you might have been waiting a while but at least you would have got a clean run of it.

Lifeguards were kept busy

Even on the clear ones it was a game of dodgeums

A glorious day so kind of
difficult to get too up-tight about it

Lots of sharing going on

Casting Back

It's been a while since I last posted and there's a good rationale for this, I'll explain in a post when I feel ready to cover it. In the meantime, for various reasons, I've been trawling through old photos and came across one taken the first time I tried surfing. It's kind of difficult to see but that's me standing up for the first time. I was pretty pleased with myself getting to my feet within an hour and riding the white water and thought I had it mastered but it was a long time before I really got the hang of it. Still learning in fact and don't think I will ever stop.

The odd thing is that I stumbled across this, completely by accident almost 25 years to the day that it was taken (on 25th July, 1988). Which means I've hit the quarter centenary of loving this sport. And it got me thinking about what it is I love about surfing and why it's such a magnetic pastime. Lots of people have tried to capture in words and many far more eloquent people than myself have failed, so I'm not expecting I will nail it in this list.

• It drives you to travel and explore places that you might not visit. If you look at many of the popular beach destinations of the world it was surfers who discovered it first, breaking the ground for those that followed. Bali, Maldives, Mexico, Fiji. Not always a good thing but it's surfers that forged the path.
• You have fun even when it's average. A mate of mine once said that he gave up windsurfing because the combination of conditions needed to make it enjoyable for him got so precise that he only really went out a few times a year. Eventually, as other commitments built up, he wasn't able to go on those days. As a sociable sport I've had fun with a bunch of mates even in 1 - 2ft surf.
• Enjoying it is generally free. You might have to drive but you can rock up at almost any beach and simply jump into the ocean. No court fees, no club memberships.

On reflection I think it's a deeply personal thing but at the end of it all, when you sum it up, it shapes our lives and the life decisions we make in ways that are common to other sports that share the same combination of skill and nature. It has for the past 25 years and no doubt will continue to do so for the next 25.

Darkness, cold, and light

Mid-winter, cold wind rushing from the North West turning the sand into a light crunchy coldness on your feet, relieved as you hit the water. Blustering off shores feathering a 4 - 5ft swell. Acute from the South bringing that scaling drop from solid 5ft in the mid-peak downwards to 3ft on the inside as you pull further away from the swell's energy. Unless you look right where it rises consistently as you flow along the wave to reach higher and higher above you.

Photos were taken on dusk, wrapped up warm with a snowboard jacket and the ISO racked up high. 1600+ giving it a grainy blurredness of old film.

The wind was helping give the rooster tails a boost.	Wobbly but clean.
Some nice lefts sliding through.	Speed blur on the inside section.
Homeward bound	The city glow's all that's left.

Tracking the Blue Line

A super steep rise in the swell forecast today from a current small 1-2ft to a solid 4-6ft by the end of the day. The blue line's the one to watch....

Forecast graph from WillyWeather;

http://www.willyweather.com.au/

Easterly Four to Six

Footage from the surf last Sunday. Some epic rides from Marcus and Charlie and a few unknowns in between. If you recognise yourself in any of these let me know.

A Step Away

Just one pica-point from perfect today with a solid East swell and offshore winds. For the fussy amongst us the wind was a bit on the wrong side of brisk which made take-offs tricky and there were more than a few (very) late drops. Some made it, some ended up getting rolled around in the ocean, boards got broken, and people got humbled.

Injury has kept me landlocked this past week so there's an extra helping of photos and, in a few hours when I get around to editing it, some footage (Charlie was the stand-out on the vid. with three back-to-back barrels on the corner reef). Pete was doing his best to get tenderised; only caught a couple of his waves and both were just in time for getting pole-axed and gently pulled through the rocks.

Had the bomb sound effect all lined up ready for Marcus on a crazy-late take-off that he side-slipped down into, making it in legendary style (this is also on the vid that I'll post later tonight). However, it'd be a shame to miss an opportunity to dust off the effect so here's the vid. of his spaceman free-fall from a similar swell last year*. Photos from today below the video.

* no apologies for the repetition. The man can surf so these moments of re-engaging with gravity warrant attention.

Marcus and the troops going out to do battle

In the eye of the storm

Seagull sweep

There were an insane number of these types of waves

The sets weren't mucking about

Tucked in

Wide view of the point

Stacked up

Big open face

Pre-humbling

About to get pole-axed or slotted?

Wee Trip North of the Border

Chatting to Paul about places we've surfed and got reminded of the superb trip we had up in North Scotland in August 1997. So this is tracking waaaaay back. It was an epic drive up from Bath, via some-place-I-don't-remember in the Midlands where we collected Big G from the train station a mere three hours late. He seemed pretty pleased to see us when we arrived. Especially since most of us didn't have mobile phones to let him know so I reckon he though we'd abandoned him.

We had a night in Glasgow which we navigated without getting hurt, then a further 10 hour drive before finally getting into the water on dusk, which was close to 9pm. The surf was consistently fun for the whole trip, the weather unbelievable, waves uncrowded, locals friendly and the beer cheap. Can't say as much in a positive vein for the hair styles of the times. Please remember it was the 90's before you judge.

 

Open Ocean

Dead South swell, big open ocean feel to the sets with that, "I'm out in deep water" sense to it as you lined up to unfamiliar landmarks. It wasn't really that big, it just had a lot of energy behind it. That sense that it had started its journey somewhere off the coast of Antarctica. The backwash wasn't helping, flicking it from overhead to double overhead as it bounced through. Check the footage below the pictures for the effect.

All of these minimum gripes aside caught a fair few good ones, paddling around a football pitch sized line-up to get into the right spot. The ones you waited for really made it worthwhile. Check the video below the pictures at around the 1min 10sec. mark where Marco caught himself ones of sets worth waiting for.

Open ocean sets

Inside section

Backhand hack

Audience

And here's a short segment of footage;

Summer Flashback

Digging around in the old archives and found this time-lapse from back on November, 2011. A stark reminder of how average the surf and how busy the beach gets during Summer.

The Dark Shadow

Totally flat this weekend so decided to don the flippers and mask to check out what lies beneath the South end reef. Always good to know what's lurking beneath your fins as you slide across the wave.

Unexpected critters under there, including the dark shadow resident that I've spotted a few times and scared the be-jezuz out of me. This time confirmed as a cruiser that frequents both here and the beach to the North.

Short vid., the Dark Shadow emerges towards the mid-point.

Below Sea Level

There's been a neat little peak at the local beach for the past few weeks. A magic little setup that's not necessarily epic but is making something of nothing. Last Sunday it picked a fairly weak 1ft swell and turned it into something worth surfing. And this weekend it's still going. Grabbing what there is in a slightly more solid but still small 2ft swell and turning it into something completely rideable. Even a few barrels thrown in for good measure.

Other beaches were pretty much flat or with very little so when I originally posted these on Twitter I got the "shopped" slur. Believe them, it was this good despite the crappy amount of swell.

As always, if you see yourself in any of these shots drop me a note in the comments and I'll send you the high res version of the picture.

 

 

 

 

 

Bagged and Tagged

A double. Saturday 16th, up at dawn, perfect 3-4ft waves, great left handers with the odd right. And just trading these with Marcus until, dead on 7, the hordes descended. It was almost like they'd been sitting on the ocean floor and then released, en masse, like spawning coral to bob to the surface and clog up the line up. Got a full sessions worth of waves in 30mins. One after the other, long lefts, prior to the spawning event. And although the wave count dropped afterwards and grabbing the peaks was more work, caught plenty more post the event horizon.

Sunday; dribble by comparison but still caught a few. Onshore, much weaker but the occasional fun one. The biggest downer? A marauding pack of bluebottle jellyfish. Got tagged several times, including one that got wrapped around my hand. Those things look delicate but those bastards are strong. Like nylon. They won't snap or break. And so the only option was to try and untangle the beastie from my hand, getting stung on fingers and opposable thumb equipped appendage until such time as I got the angry blue bugger off me. Went in after that looking a bit like someone had taken a whip to me. For those who haven't had the displeasure of a bluebottle sting they hurt. Not unbearably, but it's definitely not something you want to experience by choice. A memorable session for all the wrong reasons.

Rinse Cycle #8

Absolutely no takers today. And not that surprising given the 6-8ft bombs and gale force onshore turning the ocean into a frothy mess of white water. Waves were breaking about 1/2km out to sea; huge slow motion rollers that it was difficult to put a size on but could only be described as monstrous.

Even novelty spots were out. Went to have a look at C and C. One taker but even they gave up after ten minutes of futile paddling and destruction in the shore break. Prospects look much better for tomorrow with one or two spots likely to be offering a worthy wave. It's going to be crowded though as the weekend crew are going to be hungry and homing in on the limited options.

The wind and surf combo managed to submerge the steps to the beach beneath a long sand drift. They usually standing 4ft proud of sea level so the weather had been hard at work over night. The sand banks are going to be interesting after this. Could go either way, dredged out some fine channels and peaks or destroyed it for weeks.

Australia Day

No photos for this one. Surprisingly good waves despite a moderate NNE cutting into it. Surfed at the North end to stay out the wind a bit. Evil shorebreak that was chewing up swimmers and sand though getting rolled around in just a shortie meant it didn't feel quite so threatening as mid-winter. One guy was out with a hand plane and making good use of it, catching waves from the outside all the way into the shore. Have only seen people use those at The Wedge and Hawaii before so it was a novelty. Though in the Summer it seems anything goes; longboards, yellow and blue foamies, knee boards, surf skis, rescue skis, fish, boards that look like eggs (and surf with about as much finesse as one). With the recent flat spell finally broken they're all out.

Filthy

As the weeks of relatively dry weather pass by the dirt, dust, and general detritus of day-to-day living gathers on the sidewalks and open concrete spaces. Until the heavy rains collects it all up, pushes it into the storm water drains and out into the ocean. At the beach this made itself known at the North end where a stinking streak of filthy brown delineating the point where the outlet drain fed into the sea. If you're from Europe isn't something you're probably used to, many of the waves being more remote and not sat on the edge of a significant population. Coupled with relatively frequent rains keeping the streets free of heavy accumulations of grit and muck big wash pits are rarer.

We started out South of it, mouth closed, head held up to avoid it sneaking into the delicate soft tissue of your nose or ears. Once passed this it was out to where the water was clear blue, with very peaky 3-4ft waves. Glassy smooth with the heavy and persistent rain dampening what little offshore there was.

Heavy shorebreak so it was a sharp drop, one or two moves on a pristine face, and then kick out before an inside gurgling sand machine (mixed in with a brown, seaweed, tennis ball, and who knows what else, soup). Really fun waves, well worth a paddle and not too many out. Rain was far too heavy to get the camera out so you'll just have to trust me on this one.

Heading back now to douse the ear, nose and throat with something that contains alcohol. Probably too early for a beer so will need to raid the meds. cabinet.

Big swell kicking in tomorrow so will be cooking rice or finding a less hectic beach to float at.

Washing Machine

Trip away this weekend in the amazing Killcare region. Plenty of surf options and a small amount of swell but not really surfable with a straight into the beach close-out so opted for sitting in the washing machine zone.

Don't be Afraid

It's been four years since I last bought a board (excepting the 6'6" purchased for an overseas trip a few years back but doesn't see the light of day that often). A lot has changed over that time.

My current board is 6'0" x 18 1/8" x 2 1/8" with a single to double concave through the bottom that gives it great drive and pretty good speed but it gets very flighty in anything breaching the 4ft (overhead) mark. So I wasn't certain if I'd been sucked in by the sales rep chat ("this'll be sick in beach breaks and reefs from junky 2ft to perfect 6ft, man!) when I walked out the shop on the weekend with a brand new board.

Dimensions 5'11" x 18 3/4 x 2 1/4. The shortest board I've ever owned, the widest board I've owned (beyond the board I learnt to surf on which was a 6'8"). And definitely the thickest board I've ever owned. Add to this a super complex bottom contour with a mix of concave and a bit of vee through the tail and I was a little nervous.

The only reference point I had was back in 1993 when I had a go on Jonny's 5'11" Wave Graffiti which slid around underneath you like a plastic bag in the wind. And this beautiful board had a set of channels on the bottom that you could shave with. Without these it would be unsurfable. So as I walked out the shop I wondered if I'd just thrown over $700 at a 5'11" folly.

The local on Sunday seemed like a perfect test; slightly sloppy 2ft on the inbetweeners, up to 4ft on the sets, and a heavy shorebreak for something a bit steeper. There was no need to worry, this board is fantastic. Easy to paddle without the extra volume making it feel sluggish once you're on the wave, loose without being slidey, but balancing this with manoeuvrability and holding turns really well. In short, this is a great board. I think it will be harder to control in perfect, top to bottom surf but in the waves I surf most of the time - good surf but not always spot on - it goes perfectly.

So what's the moral of the story? Taking a direct quote from the rep in the surf shop, "don't be afraid". Go shorter and a little wider. Though do make sure the bottom contour supports it.

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Declaration and disclaimer; the board model is a DHD Eager Beaver. I did look at Al Merrick, Lost, Super, and Chilli boards. All had quite similar dimensions at this length though bottom contours varied. I stuck with the DHD as this is what I current ride and I like the shape. I paid for this board with my own money. I don't have any affiliation with DHD or any of these other brands.

If you are in the market for a new board, do some research first, don't take everything the surf shop rep tells you at face value (there were lots of contradictions in some of the advice I was given and some of the board shapes were quite different, do visit more than one shop to get a balanced view (if you go to more than one shop you'll find some consistency between them - that's the accuracy to focus on. Everything else is largely sales chatter).

If you are thinking of buying a new board give me a shout - happy to be another point of view to bounce off.

UPDATE; like any new board you need to decide on a persona. A name that characterises the sense of its being and how you hope it will perform (my own ineptness in controlling its lunging moves aside). There have been a few suggestions; "The Hulk", "The Green Hornet", "Snot" (which I'm less keen on). Open to thoughts. New photo attached to give you some idea of where the inspiration comes from.

Summertime - breaking the drought

It's been three weeks, for various reasons, since my last surf. Today was as good a day as any to get back into the water with a glassy 2-3ft swell visiting us from Fiji. Worth a paddle.

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.