Surfing Lake Superior in Winter

2009-01-19 — Icicles hanging from the brim of your 10mm thick wettie hood?? Here are two stories from the NY Times, one’s a slideshow. How cold would it have to be to keep you out of the water? I’m staying in Sydney, thanks muchly.

Link to NY Times Story: Surfing Lake Superior in Winter

Link to NY Times Story: Hanging 10 (Degrees) on Icy Lake Superior

Believe it or not, the second story is in their Travel/Escape section!!!!!

Good morning

There’s a few nice little waves this morning, but it really is quite small, you’d be ruling on a single fin or a fish out there.

Narrabeen Rpt

Yet another thrilling day of epic knee-high dribble & windy chop!

Interstate surfers win at Billabong Taj’s Small Fries in WA

Yallingup, WA – In excellent surf at Yallingup in the remote south west of Western Australia, interstate surfers Soli Bailey (Byron Bay NSW) and India Payne (San Remo Victoria) have won the under 16 Boy’s and Girl’s divisions of the prestigious Billabong Taj’s Small Fries national event.

While the interstate surfers managed to take the two premier divisions, WA surfers also shone through at this event lead by the exciting potential of Margaret River 11 year old surfer Jack Robinson who made all three finals which included a massive scoring win in his under 12 division. Robinson won his under 12 final with outstanding scores of 9.63 and an 8.5 out of 10 and in his under 14 final was close to winning having scored the finals top scoring ride of a 7.5 but had to settle for 3^rd place in that final without a reasonable second scoring ride. Jack also placed 3^rd in the under 16 final.

Other WA surfers who really excelled today included Alex Durant (1^st place under 14 Girls), Creed MacTaggart (2^nd place 16 Boys) and Shaun Manners (2^nd Place 12 Boys).

As expected the surf conditions were superb throughout this event which finished at Main Break Yallingup and the youngsters reveled in the conditions.

Taj was onhand throughout and the current World Number 3 rated surfer closed the event by saying “ It’s so good to see fantastic young surfers competing at such a high level – the kids are coming from everywhere and striving to get better and I know my local boardriders club at Yallingup and the community love this event  – we’re lucky to have such a great area for waves and to serve up the conditions to these kids is just perfect.”

Soli Bailey and Jack Robinson tied for honours of the standout surfers today – Bailey by winning two divisions across under 14 and under 16 and Robinson care of his three finals performances and super high scores spread through the finals.

Bailey commented on his performance here saying “We’ve had great waves here and it’s a really cool event. I’m going to Hawaii next month and to surf these waves is sort of a good lead up with lots of power and size – I’ll stay on for a few days here because it looks like there’s some big waves coming – the place is fantastic”

India Payne’s win was the biggest of her career and also one of the closest as she managed to edge out local Yallingup girl Mikaela Greene by just 0.5 of a point.

“That was so close, we were changing the lead throughout the final and I was so relieved when the siren went and I was in front – it’s a great event to win because the waves are always so good here and to have Taj Burrow watching us all surf the finals was a really good feeling”

There were numerous excellent performances today across all finalists but special mention must go to Sunshine Coast Queensland pair Kai Hing (4^th place under 12’s) and Eli Steele (2nd place under 14’s) who performed well all week and their long trip to the south west proved well worthwhile.

Results across all divisions can be found via the Surfing Australia website at www.surfingaustralia.com and a gallery of shots from this quality event will also appear on the website in a few days.

Without doubt, all surfers left the event today feeling super about surfing in one of Australia’s richest areas for class surf and all those who remain eligible will be eager to surf this event again next year!

Good day for anything but surfing at Dee Why

Same old thing at Dee Why this morning. Flat. Couple of folks out there splashing around a bit but it’s desperation surfing only. On the other hand, Coert emailled me some shots from Margaret River yesterday. Sigh. A slight bit better than Sydney…

Things don

Reigning State Champion Shaun Gossmann Wins Billabong Alley Classic

The Gold Coast’s Shaun Gossmann executes a powerful layback move en route to winning.

Gold Coast, AUS – REIGNING state champion Shaun Gossmann (Burleigh Heads) claimed first blood in the race for the 2009 Queensland Championship Circuit (QCC) crown, taking out the season-opening Billabong Alley Classic on the Gold Coast today.

Gossmann, 26, proved his 2008 QCC crown was no fluke, making his mark on the Currumbin Alley line-up to collect $3,000 and a valuable 1000 rating points in the 3 star rated, $6,000 tournament.

“It feels good to come to this event and do well, especially after coming off such a high last year,” said Gossmann. 

“My result in last year’s event set me up for the 2008 crown, so hopefully I can repeat it this year.”

The former Durbanite, who won each of his three heats en route to the final, defied rising 2-3ft wind-affected, high tide waves to take line honours head of Byron Bay’s Ellis Ericson, Coolangatta’s Clancy Dawson and Alexandra Headland’s Blake Wilson.

Post final, Gossmann said he was thrilled to jag his maiden Alley crown after multiple finals appearances.

“It’s eluded me for like eight years,” he said.

“I’ve made four or five finals in the past, so to finally come off with a win is a huge relief. I’m over the moon.”

In tempo with the tricky conditions, Gossmann jagged a set wave before unleashing successive high-performance moves to net an 8.00 in the early stages of the 25-minute final.

Leaving nothing to chance, Gossmann backed it up with a 6.85 to put the result beyond doubt. Gossmann finishing on a two-wave combined total of a 14.85 (out of a possible 20) to Ericson’s 11.35. 

Dawson and Wilson finishing in third and fourth respectively. 

Final Scores: Gossmann (14.85), Ericson (11.35), Dawson (10.75) and Wilson (8.75).

Apart from winning the Alley title, Gossmann joined a prestigious list of past winners including World tour stars Joel Parkinson (Coolangatta), Luke Munro (Currumbin) and Adriano De Souza (Brazi).

Adding to the event’s already high stakes was the Tooheys Extra Dry ‘Wave of the Weekend’. Despite finishing in third, Dawson was awarded four cartons of the clean crisp taste of Tooheys Extra Dry for netting the event’s highest individual wave score, an impressive 9.60 (out of a possible 10). 

The next stop on the 2009 Queensland Championship Circuit (QCC) will be the Rip Curl MP Classic, starting on Jan 31, 2009. 

The Billabong Alley Classic is the first stop of the 2009 Queensland Championship Circuit (QCC), a four event – $16,000 series, that continues to set the benchmark for surfers aspiring towards a professional surfing career. 

Check out all the action on www.surfingqueensland.com

Shaun gets da goods.

C C

Fine, dry and mild on the Central Coast this Monday morning.  The swell is smooth and smallish at 1 – 2 feet from the east.  There is a light northwest breeze forecast to go northeast and strengthen later.  Low tide 1010 and high tide around 1550.  Local barometer 1014 hpa, 87% humidity, 14 degrees C.  Have a great week.

Early riser’s call

Hello Friends,

Thought I’d chance it and have a go at calling the prospects for waves in Sydney on Mon. am… let’s see how I go from lovely Santa Cruz California…

Basically it looks like, er, summer. Here’s the Bureau’s call as of early yesterday evening:

Wind: NW/NE 10/15 knots, increasing to N/NE 15/20 knots in the afternoon and 20/30 knots in the evening. Sea: about 1 metre, rising to 2 to 3 metres. Swell: SE about 1.5 metres.

The swell does indeed seem to be coming from the SE down at Batemans Bay. And it’s about a metre or so on average. Sadly though, the period has fallen from 8 to 7 seconds, so I’m not too hopeful about your prospects for this morning. Maybe, if the wind does in fact push up as much as the Bureau calculates, there will be some little ones in the semi-exposed NE corners.

It looks like the summer afternoon NE’r pattern will hold across the next three days, if not longer. With luck that will mean slightly bigger stuff in the afternoons on Tues and Weds. Not looking too brilliant for my return on Friday though… oh well, it’ll sure be good to dial up the water temp to boardies again…

Go well and have yourself a top old day!