C C

Fine, foggy and warm on the Central Coast this Wednesday morning.  The swell is smooth, weak and very small at 1 – 2 feet from the east.  There is a very light northwest breeze forecast to go northeast and strengthen later with a warm day.  High tide 1020 and low tide around 1655.  Local barometer 1014 hpa, 94% humidity, 18 degrees C.  Have a good one.

Fogged in morning

1030: hardly anyone out for hardly any waves on a misty morning.

Hello Friends,

The dense fog that developed last night seems to be lifting a little along this stretch of the northern beaches. Still, there isn’t quite enough visibility to take a picture yet, but through the swirling mist, I can see that there’s not all that much to take a picture of where Dee Why’s concerned. It’s barely breaking along the rocks at the point (too small to catch, I’d say) and it’s looking knee to waist high at best in the shorey.

A look at the latest MHL Sydney buoy data shows that our swell settings are more or less where we left them at dusk yesterday, ie about a metre of 7sec period east windswell. It looks as though these conditions prevail right up and down the coast of NSW.

Given the utter puniness of the conditions, the fact that we have a pretty ordinary wind setting (10-15kts of SSE’ly) is almost beside the point. The wind is supposed to go around to the E/NE later, but at this stage I don’t see it having a particularly positive impact on our surf prospects.

Outlook for the next week or so continues to be fairly uninspiring for most of the NSW coast. From the shape of the models, it would appear that we’re due to have a relatively stable high hanging around out to the east from us. It’ll deliver a steady supply of 10-20 kts of NE wind that just isn’t likely to push up much of anything beyond the odd chest high bomb set at places that are also facing into the wind direction. As I’ve been saying for the past couple days, the far north of the state and SE Qld look a better bet for size, but only at those spots sheltered from the brunt of the NE’ly.

Summer’s got us in its grip for now kids, so we might as well keep on smilin’ while we wait for Huey to notice us again.

Go well!

south-west vancouver island

on monday at 3 pm : up to one foot or less, at our rivermouth point – not quite surfable, but decent little lines were rolling in, so it could change quickly – further up the straits, something minimally surfable likely would be found – the marine winds warning at the straits mouth is for a gale, southeast to 35 knots – weather clear, warm by day, very chilly nights – please stay tuned ….

Bronte Boys Win NSW Jim Beam Surftag

Bronte Boardriders with the spoils of victory.

North Narrabeen, NSW –- In front of a big, boisterous crowd on Australia Day, Bronte  Boardriders were anointed the best club in the state, taking home the NSW Jim Beam Surftag.

With up to 40 teams jam packed with professional surfing stars, from all corners of the state, converging upon North Narrabeen over two days, only four clubs were left standing in the final.

However, after a stellar weekend of electric surfing and team comradery it was Bronte who were crowned champion – defeating Werri Beach, North Narrabeen and Ulladulla, who finished second, third and fourth respectively, in a tightly contested final.

With current world number 17, Tom Whittaker, Aaron Graham, Luke Hitchings, Ryan Clarke and Caleb Reid leading the charge, Bronte racked up an impressive total of 80.1 (out of a possible 204) in the final.

Overcome by the situation, Whittaker was lost for words as the strong Bronte crowd went into raptures.

“How good is this?” Whittaker remarked with a massive smile.

“This is so good – Bronte is back!”

Having been a late entry into the trials, Bronte fought their way throughout two gruelling days of competition to be crowned state champions.

“We just wanted to make the National Final,” Whittaker added.

“To be standing here with the trophy is amazing.”

Tom Whittaker (Bronte) in action.

Joining the four finalist’s in the National Final, to be held on 13 – 14 March 2009 at North Narrabeen, was Curl Curl, Cronulla, Queenscliff and Dee Why – who qualified for their first National Final.

Unlike conventional surfing contests that play upon individual results, the Jim Beam Surftag National Series is a teams based concept drawing upon the performances of five surfers per team – as opposed to one.

“The team event is so good for our sport,” Whittaker continued.

“It’s such an awesome contest.”

Despite the team nature of the event, the best individual performance went to Nick Riley (Queenscliff); with a 9.20 (out of a possible 10).

The National Jim Beam Surftag heads to Western Australia next, with two teams looking for qualification into the National Final.

For more information be sure to log on to www.globalsurftag.com.

MV

No waves worth writing about today, maybe a little better at low tide but it was flat this morning!

Owen Wright Peaks At Wright Time To Win Hurley Burleigh Pro Junior

Owen Wright had a great Australia Day to celebrate.

Gold Coast, AUS – Owen Wright (Lennox Head, NSW) has began the 2009 ASP Australasian Pro Junior Series in perfect style, taking out the season-opening Hurley Burleigh Pro Junior in tricky 2-3ft (0.5-0.8m) point break waves on the Gold Coast today.

On a day when Australians celebrate our great country, Wright made certain an Aussie lifted the prestigious junior crown, recording a two-wave combined total of 18.50 (out of a possible 20) to outclass Brazilian Miguel Pupo in an exciting, man-on-man final.

A thrilled Wright said winning his first Burleigh crown was made extra special by the Australia Day festivities.

“I dug deep and did Australia proud,” said Wright.

“My friends and family were all on the hill supporting me, so I felt like I was due for a win. I think I did myself proud as well.”

Burleigh Heads yet again provided the ideal forum for the final day of competition, with a mass of people lining the point as the world’s hottest 20-years and under surfers went head-to-head in search of junior series glory. 

Wright, 19, lived up to his reputation as one of the brightest young surfing prospects in the world, blasting past defending event champion and no.2 seed Tamaroa McComb (Central Coast) in the quarters, U/18 World Junior champion Alejo Muniz (Brazil) in the semis before dispatching of Pupo in the championship final. “

The lanky goofy foot, who has only recently relocated from Culburra on the New South Wales South Coast to the right had point break of Lennox Head, proved unstoppable in the extended 30-miunte final, flexing his superior competition repertoire to setup victory with a pair of 9.25’s.

Despite Pupo hitting back with an 8.90 late in the exchange, Wright held on for a decisive victory.

Final scores: Wright (18.50) def Pupo (14.90).

Wright said he was pleased to snare victory from the international contingent after his disappointing world juniors’ campaign earlier this month in Narrabeen.

“I’m stoked to bag a win after getting knocked out by an international surfer at the world juniors,” he said.

“They’ve really been serving it up to us over the last few events, so to get one over them is awesome. I guess I just peaked at the right time.”

Finishing equal third today was Australian Sam Wrench (Ulludulla) and Brazilian Alejo Muniz. Wrench’s semi-final finish today represents his highest placed finish at an ASP Australasian rated event and he will be looking to feed off this result when action continues at the next chapter of the series on North Stradbroke Island next week.

In semi final one, Pupo ended Wrench’s dream of a maiden Pro Junior win, netting a semi-winning total of 13.60 to book a spot in the final.

Semi final two was a one-sided affair, with Wright leading from start to finish to send Muniz packing from the prestigious tournament.

Not so lucky were Brent Savage (Casuarina), Chris Friend (Twin Waters), Dean Bowen (Gerroa) and Tamaroa McComb (Central Coast), who all finished in equal 5th. 

The Hurley Burleigh Battle was also staged today at the contest site to coincide with Australia Day. The battle saw surfers divided along state lines to compete in a team style format to determine which is the strongest in pro junior surfing. Six teams of two surfers competed over four, 30-minute heats. Teams were from Australian states (QLD, NSW, VIC, WA, SA) along with a sole international team.

Team members were judged on their highest scoring ride, plus a “shared” wave, where surfers from the same team have to ride a wave together. The concept was created to encourage teams to work together, and judging was set up to favour teams that have both surfers on the same wave-face, surfing in the same direction at the same time.

The action didn’t stop there with teams slugging it out across a Ping-Pong tournament as well as a Pie Eating showdown.

The next stop on the 2009 ASP Australasian Junior Series will be the Oakley Pro Junior which begins on February 3rd.

The Hurley Burleigh Pro Junior is proudly supported by, Nike 6.0, Electric Sunglasses, Surf Dive ‘n’ Ski, Australia’s Surfing Life Magazine, ASPAustralasia and Surfing Queensland.

Checkout all the action on www.surfingaustralia.com

Final Results:

Quarter 1: Sam Wrech (10.00) def Brent Savage (7.00)

Quarter 2: Miguel Pupo (13.50) def Chris Friend (10.10)

Quarter 3: Alejo Muniz (14.25) def Dean Bowen (8.50)

Quarter 4: Owen Wright (16.00) def Tamaroa McComb (13.75).

Semi 1: Miguel Pupo (13.60) def Sam Wrench (11.35)

Semi 2: Owen Wright (17.00) def Alejo Munzi

Final: Owen Wright (18.50) def Miguel Pupo (14.90)

Owen Wright (AUS/Lennox Head/ NSW) did the young Australian 20 year and under Pro Junior surfers proud.

Back to work

Not a single person in the water this morning as reality bites, the holidays are over and everyone heads back to work today. The beach is grey, overcast, wet and rainy — but don’t dispair, if the BOM are anything close to correct, come this afternoon we’ll have sunny skies for the next week. Unfortunately, seems there’s not much of anything on the way in the way of swell during that window, but who know, things can change.

Didn’t hear anything of what it was about but last night about 5:30 had just come out of the water and was packing up in the car park at Longy when the shark alarm went off for about 5 minutes.   No one else left in the water at the time but there were no PA announcements or otherwise afterwards. Maybe someone knows something?

Narrabeen Rpt

There isn’t any surf today

NSW Surftag Finals: Action from Sat. 25 Jan 09

Just posted a few shots from the first day of the NSW Surftag Finals held at North Narra.

You can view the shots here www.surfphotosofyou.com/SurftagNSWFinal

And here: http://www.surfphotosofyou.com/LatestNN to see photos taken of all the other action in and around the session.

Enjoy and have a great day.

Cheers, Doug

Foggy start to Ostraya day

Hello Friends,

DY

The weather people tell us that the gloomy grey skies along the coast of Sydney will gradually break up by this afternoon and we should have a few sunny periods. Not much of any wind around at the moment, but we should see the the SE’ly build up and be around the 15-20 kt range by the time the skies are clearing.

The swell got into the 2.5 metre range at sea yesterday morning, but it has now dropped back to a metre from the ESE and is around 8 seconds apart. That’s pretty marginal for a spot like Dee Why, but there might be something a little more interesting up the beach where the exposure to the weakening swell, but I’d be keeping the hopes reasonably modest. Think mal or fishy rather than your highly tuned shortboard…

Outlook for the next 7 days in Sydney continues to be for weak, summery conditions. As noted yesterday, it looks like the biggest waves will be up north along the Goldie and Sunshine coasts, particularly as we get up to next weekend. The problem is that it looks as though there’ll be a fair amount of NE wind with it as well, so there are likely to be massive crowds at the very few NE protected spots.

Have yourself a top old Australia Day!

ps: Tim Bonython sent us an Aussie themed wave pic to celebrate the day.

Tim Bonython offered us this pic for Australia Day. (Brownwater? Winter?)