The new design: week one

Not sure how many folks will be interested in my ruminations on the new design…

The first four days of the new design were plagued by server issues. We were grossly underpowered and as a consequence everybody had trouble getting to the site. We crashed the server a couple times and on Weds, the ISP told us to rack off in the nicest possible way.

So, we’re on our own dedicated box and are now going pretty quick. No complaints about speed since the move.

As usual, I’m learning as I go. I’ve never done something quite like this, so I’ve probably not done an entirely great job. Still, the move had to happen because the old site was such a nightmare to manage and maintain.

This is so much easier! I can do lots of little chores very quickly and the underlying blogging platform is radically more flexible than what we had.

But the audience is not uniformly in favour of the changes. A poll I had running on the site showed the majority felt it was a bad move. Rightly or wrongly, I’m taking this with a grain of salt because the service was so diabolically bad when that poll was running. My hunch (hope?) is that main problem was not the overall design, but the annoying slowness and error pages we were getting.

I’m still trying to get a mag out, but once I finish with that, I have a plan to write a series of posts about how folks can use the new system. I hope that will brighten up those who are dark with me about the changes.

Over the weekend I’ve started knocking over a list of stuff I couldn’t finish for the launch. There’s lots more to do, but the good thing is that I can roll the changes out as I do them. As I’ve said elsewhere, I really should have put a big “beta” somewhere on the site to let people know that things aren’t set in concrete and that we’ll be evolving quickly.

More on these topics soon!

-Don

Hail at Dee Why

Hi all,

Had a nice fall of hail up the back of Dee Why this arvo!

Here’s a pic I took of the residue on my balcony.

Hail late afternoon at Dee Why

saturday 4 pm

[south-west vancouver island] – on saturday at 4 pm: maxing at 1.5 feet – only the gentlest of undulations over the middle reef at the lost village beach – i paddled out nonetheless, and had an unsuccessful go, to the amusement of mad campers running around undressed – looks like we’re waiting on a new swell from the open ocean, facing us to the south-west – marine winds westerly to 20 knots – overcast, cool, low ceiling -  **********- and you, vast sea, sleepless mother, who alone are peace and freedom to the river and the stream, only another winding will this stream make, only another murmur in this glade, and then shall i come to you, a boundless drop to a boundless ocean – k gibran ….

Late morning update

1000: Curly was extremely crowded from the middle to the south end.

Hello Friends,

Just back from daughter’s soccer game at Middle Head. One of the great vistas in our fair city from up there. Grabbed a couple shots of two rarely surfed waves the locations of which are well known to every surfer who has taken the ferry between Manly and Circular Quay when there’s a bit of swell about. Neither were looking particularly surfable for any real distance. You might get a 10 metre ride under today’s conditions.

Came back via Curly. It was super crowded and for good reason(s): sunny, light offshores, fun chest to head high sets, a few distinct peaks, beautiful looking water… etc. I’d say it will require great patience to surf there today…

Here are a few pics…

Finding an unmanned pocket away from the crowds.

How many times have you gone by on the ferry and wondered about this spot?

Allegedly surfable under precisely the right conditions - which these aren't

Lambs Wool Wetsuit?

I was bobbing around out the back of Tama at first light this morning thinking, “I wonder if the people who make ugg boots make wet suits”. Other than the cold breeze all the other conditions are quite perfect. Glassy and off shore with a good swell to chin high. Check Tama rock out crop, Bronte rock out crop (summer reef) and Bronte reef. Bondi not great and crowded.

Ross.

Narrabeen Rpt

2008/2009 parking stickers are starting to appear, so the swap is on again. Works like this – if you have a spare you want to swap, drop an email to stickerswap@hotmail.com with what you want/have in the subject line, i.e. “Have Pittwater, Want Manly”. If you want to buy a sticker, don’t contact me. Contact the relevant council, or post something in the Realsurf forum. Anyway, swell has dropped again overnight. Bomb sets would be in the headhigh range, but otherwise it’s around waist-hig

Cold, clear Sunday morning

0720: Dee Why beach busy because of waves like this.

Hello Friends,
Another cold start to the day… well, it is the dead of winter, so I guess one oughtn’t to be surprised. But surprised I was, in a mild sort of way, to find that there are still some okay sized waves about. Conditions to kick off Sunday are quite nice actually. No wind to speak of, and our little swell of yesterday afternoon hasn’t changed much overnight.

It’s still coming from the SSE at around the 1.5 metre mark on average at sea. Huey’s left the average period setting at 9 seconds and, just for fun, has added the odd 11 sec period set to the mix. When these longer period packages arrive, the wave faces at SSE exposed spots can push into the head high range. For the most part though, you’re probably better to count on sets being a bit smaller than that.

The Bureau’s call is for the wind to be from the WSW this morning at 10-15 kts, swinging more S-SW in the afternoon.

Outlook…
Tomorrow the Bureau says the wind will push up: “Wind: SW 18/23 knots strengthening to S/SW 20/30 knots in the afternoon and then 30/35 knots in the evening. Sea: 2 metres rising to 3 to 3.5 metres in the evening Swell: SE rising to around 2.5 metres by the afternoon. Isolated thunderstorms.”
It’ll stay that way through Tuesday morning.

The swell models concur and suggest that a SSE pulse will begin late on Monday, build overnight, and reach a peak of around 3-4 metres at 10 sec apart by Tuesday morning. The energy will drop back, but should still be bigger than we have now, and it should last right through the week. How good is that?

Go well with your Sunday!

0720: looks like a long wait for the surfable ones at the point.

A few at Curly

There’s a few 3-4 footers at Curly this morning, swell’s out of the south with SW winds but it’s not quite lining up as well as it could and rides look a little short.  Should be a new swell coming in tomorrow and into next week. Enjoy.

Central Coast

Fine and cold on the Central Coast this Sunday morning.  The swell is smooth at 2 – 3 feet + from the east southeast.  There is a light southwest breeze forecast to go northwest later.  Low tide 0830 and high tide around 1520.  Local barometer 1004 hpa, 77% humidity, 7 degrees C.  Have a good weekend!