Raging, stormy, crazy

Cronulla officially a surfing reserve

Boundaries of the new Cronulla Surfing Reserve

In early September, Cronulla officially joined 23 other National Surfing Reserve sites around Australia. Cronulla is NSW’s fifth National Surfing Reserve (the others are Angourie, Crescent Head, Lennox Head and Maroubra). Recognised by the NSW Department of Lands, Cronulla is now gazetted by the department under terms of the Crown Lands Act of 1989. The zone covered extends 500 metres to sea from the mean high tide line (see map above).

Declaring a surf reserve means officially recognising its cultural and historical importance to Australian surf culture (something Cronulla and the other sites clearly have!). Beyond that, it also means that interested groups can form a Board of Management to promote and protect the site. This might for instance mean devising a management plan for the area or acting as an advocate when developments are proposed that might affect the reserve.

According to a paper published in 2007 for the 9th International Coastal Symposium, co-authors Dr. Andrew Short and National Surfing Reserves chairman Brad Farmer outline three broad purposes for declaring a surfing reserve: formal recognition of the surfing significance and quality of the surf; recognition of the long and close links of surfers and the surf spot(s); and, to assist in the long term preservation of the site for future surfers. 

The very first surfing reserve was established by the Victorian state government in 1973 at Bells Beach.

south-west vancouver island

on friday at 6 pm: expect decent wave conditions a little further up the straits, towards open ocean – a very low, swirling white ceiling over our fishtrap beach, and some even-looking troughs clear across the straits, portend joyful surfing conditions, possibly at our rivermouth point, or at least at the lost village point, half an hour further up the coast, into our rainforest wilderness – marine winds westerly to 20 knots – please stay tuned ….

A few snaps from 0900

Wandered down for a look at the beach. Surprisingly clean along the Collaroy stretch, but no one in the water. North of Collaroy the size picks up quite a bit, but at Collaroy proper the sets are rolling in and closing out or sectioning all over the place. The Kick looked the best of the bunch, but it too had the sectioning thing going on. Many were checking it out, but there weren’t any takers. Brownwater was it’s usual hoaxy self. You can get some nice looking pictures there when conditions are like this, but those waves are breaking right on the reef and they fat out almost instantly.

Not Pretty.

Ugly scenes at the beach this morning as huge seas continue to pound the coast. Big swell but as bumpy as 10 minutes on the dodgem cars. Good “read a book day”.

Horrendous Conditions

Gale force southerlies, torrential rain and 6 – 8 feet washing machine conditions. Rain to subside this arvo and wind to turn southwest? Enjoy!

Sydney Rpt

Next season’s parking stickers are starting to appear, so the swap is on again, and URGENTLY NEEDS MANLY & PITTWATER STICKERS. 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. Perfect conditions this morning in Sydney, with light offhshore winds, blue skies & 4-6 foot hollow lefts & rights at every single beach

Saturday morning call

Hello Early Risers,

I’ll be posting my first report of the morning a little before 0730 – just ahead of talking surf with the ever-sunny Mr Simon Marnie on the ABC 702 weekend show. However, I thought I’d take a chance and have a guess at how things will look at first light on Saturday morning…

And I reckon it’ll look dead ordinary.

There is no reason to mistrust the Bureau’s late Friday arvo call for 20-30 kts of SE wind and showers this morning. 

There should be some okay size east swell because through the day yesterday – and into the evening – the numbers were going up gradually. It was 2.5 metres or so on average at daybreak on Friday, but by nightfall, the heights were getting very close to the 4 metre mark. Thanks to the wind, the swell + sea heights were getting into the six metre range. Direction is pretty much straight east, so I’m wondering how the Collaroy-Narrabeen stretch will fare when high tide peaks at around midday…

Still, however ya cut it, the chances of finding a wave worth the effort in Sydney (and most of the rest of the coast) have to be on the unlikely side today.

The low looks set to head away from the coast pretty smartly, so I’d expect our swell to roll off steadily and to be back to more typical conditions come Monday. 

Fortunately it looks as though the wind might get a touch of SW to it on Sunday, so… who knows… maybe we’ll get lucky…