Late night tunes: Blind Willie Johnson edition

Posted on February 18th, 2009 in Cool Picks, Late night tunes, Video.

I was checking out the very excellent thread on our forums called What are you listening to today? and I saw Lucky Al’s briefest of posts extolling Blind Willie Johnson…

So I went off to have a look-see, an’ heresa whut ah found fo’ y’all…

Dark was the night, cold was the ground…

Trouble soon be over. This looks like a recreation, but I reckon it’s the man’s voice and playing for sure.

Never heard of Keni Lee Burgess before, but man can he play slide! Smooth as silk and a great voice too on his rendition of Blind Willie Johnson’s Nobody’s fault but mine.

Thursday morning?

Posted on February 18th, 2009 in Big Picture.

Hi there hardy few!

Not too many people stopping by the old site at this hour, so it’s a good time to offer a few quiet thoughts about tomorrow’s prospects.

First, the Bureau’s call:

Thursday: Wind: NW/SW 10/15 knots tending E/SE 15/20 knots in the afternoon. Sea: 1 to 2 metres. Swell: E/SE 2 to 3 metres.
Fine. Mostly sunny. Early fog patches in the west.

And here’s the MHL trace as of 2100 Weds.

As you can see, there was a real peak late morning in Sydney. It’s now dropped back to 2 metres at 8 sec from the S by SSE.

From the look of the forecast models, we’re set to see our swell fade back to around the 2 metre mark. The drop should continue through the day, but it looks as though there should still be some activity on Friday. However, by then, the wind could be around to the ESE again…

I’d say your shot then for Thursday is spots that like the ESE swell we’re likely to have. Could be fun at lots of places actually, especially if the call for NW winds holds true.

General trend is for smaller but not flat conditions through next week.

Tide is low around 1100 and the water has warmed up again…

Go well!

It’s a wrap: Wednesday considered

Posted on February 18th, 2009 in Big Picture, Manly.

Hello Friends,

What a rollercoaster!

This morning started out misty, cool and windy. I began the day with a check out run down to look at south Narrabeen. Swell at that stage was out of the east at 4 metres at about 8 seconds apart. The wind was SW though, so although the picture taking conditions were pretty ordinary, there was definitely some size going on.

I hung around the parking lot just north of Marquesas on Ocean St for about half an hour, watching a couple blokes doing tow-ins up the beach where the Gardens used to be. Overall the conditions were not particularly good, but I did grab a pic or two to share.

The wait between sets was relatively long, plus the swell was not quite the optimal angle for Gardens, so after awhile I lost interest, and headed south to see what I could find.

Dee Why point wasn’t too crowded, but at that stage it wasn’t really coming together. Again, there was plenty of size, but the swell angle had too much east in it. I got a pic or two and then made for Manly where I figured there might be some interesting conditions to contemplate.

It was pretty obvious when I came around the corner to the bridge at Queenscliff that Manly was the spot. Skies were still grey and ‘orrible, but the swell was pumping. At that stage the wind was just a breath and there were barrels like the one below everywhere from North Steyne to the flags at South Steyne.

For the next hour or so I snapped away at the waves at North Steyne. And then I got out my camcorder to shoot a bit of video (haven’t looked at that yet…). The crowd was building rapidly as every car with surfers in it screeched into parking spots when the occupants saw what was happening. Below are few snaps from the morning’s session.

Arvo Update: lookin’ good

Posted on February 18th, 2009 in At large, Surf Reports.

Hi all,

Got quite a few pics and some video to share. I’ll put a few up now and then more later…

First, here’s the latest from the Bureau:
Wind: S/SW 25/33 knots tending S/SW 20/25 knots in the afternoon.Sea: 2 to 3 metres.Swell: SE 2 to 3 metres.
Observations as of 1500 are in line with this.

Swell peaked this morning at close to 4 metres, it’s dropping fast though, so I’d be trying to make a beach appearence this afternoon if I could. It’s already back to 2 metres on average. Direction is swinging too. This morning it was SE, now it’s almost south. The only good thing is that period has bumped up a touch, so it ain’t gonna be flat be dark or anything.

I’ll try to do a look ahead for tomorrow am this evening.

Best spot by far that I saw was north Steyne. But there were waves at Gardens earlier and Dee Why had a few fairly sizable but sketchy sets around 0930 or so.

Wills and Wilson Awarded Wildcards into Quiksilver Pro

Posted on February 18th, 2009 in Contests, News Stories, Surf News, Top stories.

 

 

 

 

Quiksilver Pro presented by LG Mobile

Stop 1 on the ASP Men’s World Tour 

Snapper Rocks, Gold Coast, Australia

February 28^th to March 11^th

 

 

Snapper Rocks, Gold Coast, AUS — Recently retired world tour surfer Danny Wills (Byron Bay, AUS) and rising star Julian Wilson (Coolum, AUS) have been awarded main event wildcards into the upcoming Quiksilver Pro presented by LG Mobile.

Though at opposite ends of their careers both surfers are capable of causing damage to the worlds top 45 in the season-opening ASP men’s world tour event on Australia’s Gold Coast from February 28^th to March 11^th.

After more than a decade as a full time pro surfer, Wills, 33, announced his retirement at  the Pipeline Masters in Hawaii in December last year. 

“It’s a big change after knowing no different for the last fifteen years but it was my choice to give it away. I’m really stoked to be finished and I’m enjoying home life with the family,” said Wills.

“There will be no pressure at all (in the Quiksilver Pro presented by LG Mobile) it will be great to be on the side of the hunter and not the hunted this year,” added the highly respected competitor.

Wills and Wilson will draw one of the worlds top three rated surfers of either nine-time world champion Kelly Slater (USA), world no.2 Bede Durbidge (Gold Coast, AUS) or world no.3 Taj Burrow (Yallingup, AUS) in round one of competition.

Twenty-year-old sensation Wilson will be competing in his third consecutive Quiksilver Pro presented by LG Mobile as a wildcard.  Entering with experience on his side this year, Wilson could prove more dangerous than in 2007 when he relegated Slater (Florida, USA) into the sudden death round two heats with an opening-heat win.

“I haven’t got anything to lose.  I love it,” said Wilson.

“Surfing against the worlds best is fun, you learn a lot and I know the wave at Snapper so I’m excited to make the most of this amazing opportunity. Kelly (Slater) would be fun to draw,” added Wilson.

The prodigious talent has just bounced back from an ankle injury – that had kept him out of the water for the last three months of 2008 – with a pro-junior win earlier in January.

“I spent 3 months out of action and it feels so good to be surfing again,” said Wilson.

“I won my first event back, I’m not at one hundred per cent just yet but I’m winning so my confidence is there,” added Wilson.

Again this year Wilson will be riding and auctioning a pink surfboard at the Quiksilver  Pro to raise awareness and funds for the national breast cancer foundation.

The third and final wildcard will be granted to the winner of the Quiksilver Pro Trials to be staged in conjunction with the Roxy Pro Trials on Friday, February 27^th.  

The season-opening ASP women’s world tour event the US$90,000 Roxy Pro presented by LG Mobile and the opening men’s world tour event, the US$340,000 Quiksilver Pro presented by LG Mobile will commence on Saturday February 28^th and run through to March 11^th.

Both opening world tour events are mobile, granting access to some of the best surf breaks on the planet. The tournament will be based at Snapper Rocks yet can travel from Stradbroke Island to Duranbah Beach on the QLD/NSW state border in search of optimum waves.

Manly

Posted on February 18th, 2009 in Fairy Bower, Manly.

As the tide dropped this morning the Bower picked up and produced some great rides. Until the crowds picked up. But when the tide bottomed North Steyne went ballistic with head high barrels for everyone. The photos don’t show the size that well but the action is there. Notice the photo with Northie in the foreground and the Bower action in the background. Unfortunately I picked up a deep fin slash off one wave and had to call an end to the session earlier than I wanted to. 

Mid afternoon update

Posted on February 18th, 2009 in Surf Reports.

Things have changed.  Sun’s out and the wind has become civilised (SW) and there are  now some great waves happening at the Point. Totally different situation than earlier.

Of course, it’s mobbed.

Crew of 25 of so are all over it. Sets are in the head high and more vicinity but don’t expect to get one unless you’re willing to fight for it. Some decent ones up the beach way as well now but even that’s pretty crowded.

Avalon to Narrabeen Rpt

Posted on February 18th, 2009 in Surf Reports.

“Wait” would be my suggestion. Given time, this current spike of southerly swell might well settle into something more appealing, especially since the wind is no longer a factor. Currently, the only places I saw people doing any surfing were a hopeful drifting around at Nth Av, two guys tucking into hollow shutdows at Little Av and too many people for the weak inconsistent shoulder-high offerings at The Path

Yeew

Posted on February 18th, 2009 in Mona Vale.

Mona is pretty average this morning, might be nice this arvo when it goes offshore! Palmy was the goods early this morning so everybody should go up there! haha

South Gardens

Posted on February 18th, 2009 in South Narrabeen.

Couple folks towing in at the southern end of Gardens…

The showers relented briefly enough for me to grab a snap of these folks working the very heavy shorey at south Narrabeen-North Collaroy.

Collaroy was reasonably occupied, but my quick impression is that like yesterday, the sets are breaking way outside.