Avalon’s Lindop Family

THE PARENTS OF AVALON BEACH SHARK ATTACK VICTIM HONOURED.
The parents of Avalon Beach shark attack victim, 15 year old Andrew Lindop, have been honoured and their efforts recognised with major Surf Life Saving Awards. Both are members of Avalon Beach SLSC.
Charles Lindop, the father of Avalon beach shark attack victim Andrew has been

awarded the Award of Courage by Sydney Northern Beaches Surf Life Saving.
This is the second time Charles has received an Award of Courage for saving someone’s life!
Keeping it ‘all in the family’, Andrew’s mother Louise received the Life Saver of the Year Award covering all 21 northside surf clubs at the same ceremony.  
On the day of Andrew’s shark attack Charles, who is a Patrol Captain and Gold medallion holder at Avalon Beach SLSC, and Andrew were not on patrol, but were board riding just after dawn not far from their home at North Avalon.  Charles had just caught a wave when he heard Andrew scream. Conscious of his own safety but with his son as his priority, Charles paddled to Andrew reassuring him.  
With blood everywhere in the water, Charles put himself between Andrew and the shark and helped him paddle onto a wave.  A courageous act – notwithstanding a father’s natural instincts to help his son.
With the help of two local boardriders who were on the beach Charles dragged Andrew from the water, faced him head-first down the beach and used the leg rope from his surf board as a tourniquet around Andrew’s thigh. Charles issued a clear, steady stream of instructions to helpers including fellow club members to ensure Andrew received the best care until emergency services arrived.  Andrew is currently in good spirits recovering, waiting for nerves in his leg to mend.
Louise Lindop, Andrew’s mother who was honoured with the Life Saver of the Year Award, is the Club’s training officer as well as a patrolling member of Avalon Beach SLSC.  She has dedicated hundreds of hours to training volunteer lifesavers on the Northern Beaches, been part of teaching surf safety at schools, as well as assisting in rescues. 
The first time Charles received the Award of Courage was two years ago when he saved the life of a drowning tourist while on holidays at remote Treachery Beach on the New South Wales mid north coast. On that occasion Charles used his broken surfboard (which had been broken in half by the heavy surf) to paddle out to the victim who was caught in a rip and close to drowning.  Other surf club members present on the beach and a surfer assisted getting the man safely to shore.
Also present on that occasion, Louise helped take care of the patient on the beach until emergency services arrived and took him to hospital.  Treachery can only be accessed by 4WD or a 500 metre plus walk over sand dunes. There is no surf club, patrol and no mobile phone reception. The man recovered following hospital treatment.
Charles said that he had done nothing different on that occasion to anything any club member would have done in the circumstances.  On both occasions he was able to use skills learnt in the surf club to prevent tragic accidents happening to people just enjoying themselves in the surf.

_________________F_L_A_T_________________but wait till tomorrow arvo

Given the buoys are showing a westerly swell at 4 secs, it’s fair to say that conditions at Curly are very small to micro and the waves in the lagoon are bigger than the ocean.  Watch tomorrow afternoon through to Friday when a sizable southerly swell with off-shores blows in.  Wax up the gun- should be a cracker!  Enjoy.

Cool out there this morning

Seems to be quite a wait between them, but there are occasional set waves to be had.

Nippy out there (by Sydney standards) this morning. Scattered cloud about as the day gets into gear, and most important, we have a little trickle of swell for those who like their carpark suiting up on the brisk side. Happily, there is a tiny trickle of swell for the keen. It’s characterised by long waits though because the only surfable sets are those with a 12 second period. The average period is only 8 seconds, and since the primary swell direction is SSE and the height at sea only a metre, that means in between the longer period sets it’s going to be just about flat.

At around 0800, the wind was still relatively light and from the NW. However, as the Bureau forecast below indicates, it’s going to pick up this morning and be whipping along at 25-33 kts as we get to the other end of the day.

And it doesn’t look like backing off overnight. Indeed, it could be blasting along at up to 40 kts from the W by this time tomorrow. The models aren’t all predicting the same set of conditions for us. Some project the arrival of solid swell by tomorrow, while others are saying Thursday will be the day. They do agree that it’s most likely to be out of the south with a period into the 10 sec range and size at sea into the 4 metre range.

So, if you had to peg out a day for a wave, it looks like Thursday might not be a bad plan…

Go well with your day!

Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Gale warning
Tuesday until midnight: Wind: W 15/20 knots, reaching 25/30 knots offshore, increasing to 20/30 knots generally this morning, then to W/SW 25/33 knots this evening.Sea: 2 to 3 metres, rising to 2.5 to 3.5 metres this evening.Swell: SE up to 1 metre.
Wednesday: Wind: W 25/35 knots, possibly reaching 35/40 knots at times. Turning W/SW during the morning, S/SW later. Sea: 2.5 to 4 metres. Swell: SE about 1 metre, increasing to S 3 to 4 metres.
Thursday: Wind: S/SW 25/35 knots, easing to 15/25 knots later.

Avalon to Narrabeen Rpt

Hewey is asleep

C C Small & Smooth

Fine, dry and cool on the Central Coast this Tuesday morning.  The swell is smooth and small at 1 – 2 feet from the east .  There is light west northwest breeze forecast to strengthent later.  High tide 0915 and low tide around 1440. Local barometer 1004 hpa, 7 degrees C. 93% humidity.   Have a great week.

Byron Bay Today June 7th 2009