Monday wrap

Posted on February 9th, 2009 in Manly.

Your correspondent managed to jag a few rather fun waist to chest high waves at the Bower around low tide. Manly was bigger and more intense looking when I went by a little before lunch, but I sorta felt like catching a few little ones at the Bower, so went there instead.

Wind was offshore there and in the south corner at Manly (which at one point was looking very tasty indeed).

Sadly, I don’t have any water snaps for you because my little water camera, after a couple years of faithfully accompanying me on virtually every surf, has blinked out. Salt build up in a seal that I hadn’t noticed.

Coming back through Manly, I was held up at the Corso lights, so I pointed my camera at the Bower and amazingly actually got a shot of someone on one of the little ones.

After getting out of the water, I happened to fall into conversation with a couple who I’d talked to early in the water. It turns out that they’re (among many other things) a couple of Normandy natives who are out from France doing the travelling around Oz and surfing thing. Fred and Aurelie Branger are into tandem surfing and SUP riding and like everyone, they have their own website called nalu-surf where you can read about their wide ranging water activities.

Anyway, they’re putting on a few Tandem and SUP classes whilst they’re in Sydney, at least some of which are in association with the Mighty Matt Grainger of the famous Manly Surf School. Their next event, I believe, is on the Valentines Day weekend. Check out the details here (and dig Aurelie’s great graphic design).

Hope–finally.

Posted on February 9th, 2009 in Surf Reports.

In the event you aren’t too au fait with deciphering these sorts of charts, this data is basically suggesting that we’ve got waves incoming in Sydney.

Once the lines on that bottom graph cross over the 10 second mark you can usually expect some powerful groundswell to start arriving at the beach soon. The upper chart is showing that we got a change in swell direction with the newly arriving swell coming from the dead South and it’s 2-3 metres. What all this translates to (when taken in context with the weather report and charts) is that we’ll start seeing some decent sized waves, probably in the head high region, over the next few hours, and biggest on the south facing beaches like Avalon, Curl Curl, Long Reef and Bondi. 

At 225pm not much appearing at Dee Why but you can see some activity up toward Long Reef. Bad new is that the wind is forecast to build along with the swell, also from the S to SE, so while we can expect some waves, we’ll also find that they could be pretty chopped up by the wind everywhere except protected corners like Dee Why or the Bower. 

MHL data:

It’s on and about time too

Posted on February 9th, 2009 in Curl Curl, Surf Reports.

Curly was not breaking well on the high tide this morning and the southerly was mushing it up but Manly was 2-3 feet, clean and uncrowded at 8.30am.  Well worth a paddle and things should improve as the afternoon takes hold.  Should be reasonable again tomorrow at Manly but Curly will feel the effects of the southerly. Enjoy.

Best I’ve seen for a while – and cool.

Posted on February 9th, 2009 in South Coast.

Dominating factor was water temp this morning. It’s a bit chilly, I’m guessing about 16-17C, but maybe its just the old brittle bones. The surf is decent (relatively speaking)  2-4ft+ ENE swell with a cool S/SE breeze and the odd bomb sets showing up. Surface condx are ordinary with sth ends probably the pick. High tide was into it a bit but I’d be holding out some hope of some improvement with the tide on the way down. Rosco.

Manly wins

Posted on February 9th, 2009 in Manly.

Whilst sitting at Freshie writing report stuff earlier, I couldn’t help but notice how much white water was bouncing off the cliff line at North Head. So, I headed over the hill to the land of Big Al for a quick look-see…

And what did I see but actual, real live, waves. The swell, which is hardly evident elsewhere seems to be heading straight in to the already well populated sands of fair Manly.

Although I didn’t have time to drive down to the south end, it looked to me as though that was where the real action was. I saw a couple sets that were definitely shoulder high.

The tide was right on high, so things should only improve…

With the wind beginning to blow pretty hard out to sea, I’m thinking it’s only going to get a lot more crowded at one of the few surf options around…

Mona Vale

Posted on February 9th, 2009 in Mona Vale.

The surf is finally starting to pick up again, sure it might be southerly and windy, but it’s going to beat the half a foot waves we’ve had for the last month!

Freshie Follies

Posted on February 9th, 2009 in Freshwater.

Freshwater had a crowd of two when I stopped by for a look around 0740 this morning. The little east windswell is kinda working into the corner, but the high tide and short period are combining to make for rather weak conditions. If you waited long enough, I have no doubt there would be a bomb set into the chest high range.

Wind wasn’t too much of a factor at Freshie – certainly not as much as at Curly – but the call is for 20-25 kts later, so it won’t stay unaffected for much longer I’d say.

Have yourself a good one – with whatever comes your way.

Grey and southerly

Posted on February 9th, 2009 in Big Picture, Curl Curl.

Hello Friends,

Writing to you this morning from the salubrious surrounds of the Freshie carpark. The radio is on with news of the horrendous fires in Victoria. I suspect that no matter where you are in Australia, and no matter what you’re doing, you’re thinking about those folks today and wishing them the best.

Surf situation is pretty ordinary along the southern end of the northern beaches. The cooling southerly is chewing the surface up a fair amount at the exposed stretches.

No one was in the water at Curly when I stopped to grab a snap at around 0730. It didn’t look that awful really, so I was a little surprised at the lack of attendance. Definitely saw a couple in the waist to chest high range at the south end too. Admittedly, the high tide is making the weak east swell less than amazing looking, but you can see there’s a little energy there and maybe when the tide drops…

Here’s the Bureau’s call for today:

Wind: S/SE 15/20 knots, reaching 20/25 knots at times during the afternoon. Sea: 1.5 to 2.5 metres. Swell: E/NE 1.5 to 2 metres.
Tuesday: Wind: E/SE 8/13 knots increasing to 13/18 knots ahead of an afternoon or evening S change 20/30 knots. Sea: about 1 metre, rising to 1 to 1.5 metres, then 2 to 3 metres. Swell: SE about 1.5 metres.

The MHL buoy is showing that the windswell’s gone around to the east, picked up slightly to around 1.5 metres at sea on average and is about 7 seconds apart.

More in a sec…

C C

Posted on February 9th, 2009 in Central Coast, Surf Reports.

 

Overcast and humid on the Central Coast this Monday morning.  The swell is semi-smooth and small at 1 – 2 feet + from the east.  There is a light southerly breeze may strengthen later.  High tide 0850 and low tide around 1530.  Local barometer 1008 hpa, 90% humidity, 22 degrees C.  Have a good one.

 

Dee Why: Disappointment with a drop of optimism on the horizon

Posted on February 9th, 2009 in Dee Why.

That southerly change overnight certainly hasn’t knocked the humidity out of the air at Dee Why, nor has it yet pushed up any swell. Same old dribble at 0700 but the charts look optimisitc that we may get something later on today.