Ulp! That’s big…

0930: Dee Why too scary for anyone to try just yet...

Hello Friends,

Well, at least it’s sunny! Swell has definitely peaked, but it isn’t in to the surfable range at Dee Why just yet. With no people on them for scale, I’m guessing we’re talking 10-15 foot faces minimum. The surface is relatively smooth, but the powering winds of yesterday have left a fair amount of secondary swell which is making most of the semi-rideable ones not even semi-rideable due to the unpredictable sections and general lumpiness.

To put some numbers on the situation, the MHL buoy off Sydney is currently reporting 4-6 metres from the ESE at 10-11 sec. At the peak of the storm around noon yesterday, the sea + swell number briefly went past the 10 metre mark. Yikes!

The Bureau is calling for the wind to be in the 20-30 kt range from the S-SW  this morning, but to ease back to 10-15 kt and swing S-SE in the afternoon. At the same time the general lumpy and confused sea state should subside a little, so just maybe those spots that can live with S-SE wind will be looking a bit more tempting for experienced riders later on.

Outlook for tomorrow is set to be S-SW 15-25kts with the swell about half the current size.

I’ll see if I can get out and about with a camera later…

Go well and Happy Father’s day fellow Dads!

South Narra pics

Wandered down to South Narra late morning. A few bods were towing into the increasingly dodgy conditions. One bloke tried paddling out, but the sweep was just too much for mere humans to get through. Once you were inside, you weren’t going out the back again without the services of an internal combustion engine and a mate. It was getting steadily less clean as the sideshores picked up too. Here are a few moments for your enjoyment. After shooting at Southy for an hour or so, I wandered off to Collaroy and Manly and then went around to the Bower.

A few Bower & Winki shots

After grabbing a few pictures at South Narrabeen, I cruised down to see what the swell was doing along the Manly to Bower stretch.

Made my way down the rocks to a useful pozzy and pointed the lens at the crew playing around at Winki. It was very crowded and not very consistent though. So most people were waiting without a result. Still, as you can see, I did get a few piccies to take home. 

When I finished, the next stop was Manly where I grabbed a few more shots which I lumped together with a couple shots from Brownwater.

Mid-arvo pictures

Hello Friends,

I’ve been out and about with my trusty Nikon D70s. In this post, I’ll share a few snaps I got at The Kick, Brownwater and Manly. I’ve also created separate posts for some shots I grabbed at the Bower and early on at south Narrabeen.

Rare moment of coverage at the aptly named Brownwater (1350)

Brownwater moment (1350)

sketchy decision on a less than wonderful Kick wave (1350)

One of the great things about being a Dad...

Sizable ones if you could get out to them between North Steyne and Queenscliff. (1320)

Kinda sectiony and the wind into it as well at North Steyne. (1320)

Pretty Ugly.

Q. Who was the captain of the gold medal olympic soccer team? A. Messi. And that’s what this great swell and off shore winds have combined to offer us. Messy as my kids bedroom. Maybe this arvo.

Early riser call for Sunday

Hello early-risers,

This is another robo-report created shortly before I clocked off last night… I’ll be along soonish to update, but here’s how I think it might play out

My hunch is that the swell has just hit its peak. Average height of the swell out at sea is on the five metre mark. Add in the chop from the wind and the peak stuff out where the ships travel is over the 8 metre mark. Average period is around the 10 second mark, so there should be plenty of size for Sunday morning, even if the swell fades by a metre or two in the next 10-12 hours. Direction is currently SE and it looks set to stay that way for Sunday.

Wind has throttled back quite considerably in the last few hours. It’s racked around to the SW and is 15-20 kts. The Bureau is still calling for Sunday to start out with 30-40 kts of SW’r, which should gradually back off to be comparatively light by close of play. 

Not much rain on the radar as I write this, so it looks like all is going according to plan and that we should have a much nicer day than yesterday.

Go well!