Checking it out on a Monday afternoon

Hello Friends,

Once it was plain that the sun was out for the rest of the day, I decided to take a jaunt. The period of the east swell has increased slightly to around 9 seconds. So I thought there might be something worth escaping the keyboard for.

First stop was just south of Gardens. There were two or three people out near Marquesas, but while it was solidly overhead on sets, the incoming tide, swell direction and generally sloppiness of the surface conditions were not combining very well. I waited around for awhile to see if someone would catch something but they never did.

Council trucks unloading a future bank at Wetherill St?

While I was standing there, I noticed that the Council was tipping sand off the end of Wetherill St to counterbalance in a tiny bit the recent pronounced erosion. I reckon the beachfront is about as carved out as I’ve seen in my 20 plus years on the northern beaches. Much of it will return come the calmer summer months, but I’d bet we haven’t seen the end of the erosion for this winter.

Next stop was Long Reef. The swell was getting in there too, but it was suffering from a kind of sluggishness. Although there was enough size to have fun, that shortish period seems to be translating into rather slow, lumbering and sectiony waves. The lefts were the only real option up the north end, whilst down toward No Man’s you could get the odd very brief righthand section. But the lack of people in the water was testament to the conditions.

Long Reef shorey kinda putt-putting along this arvo.

Wave looks pretty tasty for upwards of 3 seconds - and then shuts down.

Untempted to paddle out myself, I sought inspiration further south, so pointed the old surfmobile toward Dee Why.

The more direct exposure to the oncoming east swell was yielding some good size faces, but the messiness factor and slothful period meant that most waves were pretty crumbly. You needed to work the board pretty hard to get reasonable acceleration. The longer and wider the craft, the better the results. Fairly busy too in the beach break. There were some little things in front of the point for a couple bodyboarders. I saw one get a longish section before he got picked off. Doing a lot of waiting out there I’d say.

Surely Curly…

Big enough to be very fun, but pretty sectiony too at Dee Why.

It was busy around at north Curly and for good reason. It was the best of a pretty ordinary bunch. The crew was scattered about at the north end and there didn’t seem to be just one place where you could get into ‘em. Plus there were both rights and lefts. But… but it was still kind of full and slow on lots of them.

Sectiony like everywhere else, but definitely a few fun ones to be had at north Curly.

Here’s the latest from the Bureau. I like the look of the wind forecast. Maybe it’ll clean up a bit more overnight…

Oh, and first tide tomorrow is a high around 0830.

Go well one and all.

Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Monday until midnight: Wind: N/NW 10/15 knots inshore, grading to N/NE 18/23 knots offshore.Sea: about 1metre inshore, 1.5 to 2.0 metres offshore. Swell: NE 2 to 3 metres.
Tuesday: Wind: NW/NE 5/10 knots.Sea: to 1 metre.Swell: NE 2 to 3 metres.
Wednesday: Wind: N/NW 10/20 knots.
Thursday: Wind: W/SW 10/20 knots.

Surf Days Ahead for Indigenous Kids

(Maroubra, NSW – Monday; 22 June 2009): A group of Indigenous children will be given the experience of a lifetime this Wednesday thanks to the No-Way Campaign Foundation and Surfing NSW.

Hailing from Brewarrina, a small town 800 kilometres north-west of Sydney, a group of approximately 20 children will be making the long trip down to Sydney to meet their heroes, whilst learning how to surf with some of Rugby League’s hottest talent’s.

Beginning with a session with the NRL’s One Community, entitled “Eat Well, Play Well, Stay Well”, presented by Rugby League legend Mario Fenech, the kids will be afforded the opportunity to attend South Sydney First Grade Training Session – a dream for many of the disadvantaged youths.

“It will be such a special day for these children,”  said Darren Morton, CEO and founder of the No-Way Campaign Foundation.

One which they will never forget and a great way to reward the kids from the bush.”

Culminating with a surfing lesson with South Sydney superstar John Sutton, the day will be focussed upon  promoting healthy lifestyles and educating positive lifestyle choices amongst the children.

“The health of the kids is not great, as some have poor eating skills and diets high in salt and sugar,” Morton continued.

“Sending these kids healthy lifestyle messages is the main rhetoric of the day. ”

With a different theme for each day of the week during the National Drug Action Week, Wednesday is fittingly entitled “Indigenous People/ Rural Australia”, something which Surfing NSW CEO, Mark Windon is keen to promote.

“It’s going to be a really special afternoon,” Windon said.

“Surfing is a great recreational activity and one of the best workouts for your entire body; combining fun and exercise will be the aim of their session.”

Selected on their school attendance, good conduct around town and on some occasions a break from their sometimes troublesome life, most of the children participating in the day will never have seen the ocean, let alone stand on a board.

“To see their faces and reaction toward the ocean, waves and the surfing lifestyle will be priceless,” he said.

With ASP World Tour competitor Sally Fitzgibbons (Gerroa, NSW) on board as the No-Way Campaign Foundation ambassador, Windon can see the potential for a long and fruitful relationship between the two organisations.

“Hopefully its the beginning of a long association between Surfing NSW and the No-Way Campaign Foundation,” he said.

“It’s such a great initiative and one we’re proud to be involved with.”

An initiative coordinated by the Alcohol and other Drugs Council of Australia (ADCA), and supported by the Department of Health and Ageing, Drug Action Week aims to raise awareness about the full range of issues.

The National Drug Action Week runs from 21-27 June 2009.

Messy but not flat

Hardy bodyboarder snags a little section at the point shortly after sunrise.

Hello Friends,

Rained pretty heavily at RealSurf HQ last night. How’d it go in your part of the world? Was hoping for a bit better result this morning, but ocean still looks pretty lumpy and flabby still. There’s not much wind about as I write this on short and final to 0800, and what there is appears to be coming mainly from the NW.

Down at Dee Why there were just a few people in the water at sunrise time. The wave quality looked pretty ho-hum sadly. There were little sections every now and then, but the energy levels were/are not impressive. One of those days when you could get in, but not one of those days when you’d kick yourself for not getting in.

Outlook is for the size setting to stay right about where it is now for another day or so before declining away to flat by next weekend. Today should feature frequent sunny breaks and light winds inland. Along the beaches the NW could pick up a bit more, but it’s looking pretty good on that front, so with luck it’ll clean up too. Should be a balmy 19 degrees as well.

On other matters, your correspondent spent a fair amount of time twiddling and fiddling with the site over the weekend. I’ve changed the site search system over to one that uses google, so you can now search both the net in general and for stuff on RealSurf. I’ve also been making a few minor adjustments to our free surf classifieds and in so doing realised that we’d kept that particular light under a bushel lately. So, here’s a call to anyone with surf gear they want to turn into cash: why not post it on our surf classifieds today? Listing is free and your ads can run for up to 30 days.

Okay enough outta me for now. Go well with your day!

Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Strong Wind Warning.
Monday until midnight: Wind: NW/N 15/20 knots inshore, grading to N/NE 25/33 knots offshore, easing to 10/15 knots inshore and 15/20 knots offshore during the afternoon.Sea: 1 to 2 metres inshore, 2 to 3 metres offshore until late afternoon. Swell: NE 2 to 3 metres. Isolated thunderstorms.
Tuesday: Wind: NW/NE 5/15 knots.Sea: to 1 metre.Swell: NE 2 to 3 metres.
Wednesday: Wind: N/NW 10/20 knots.

Burgery looking but not flat and all but empty.

C C

Overcast and mild on the Central Coast this Monday morning.  The swell is messy at 2 – 3 feet + from the east northeast.  There is light to moderate west southwest breeze going northerly later.  High tide 0735 and low tide around 1310. Local barometer 1013 hpa, 14 degrees C. 98% humidity.   Have a great week. 

Byron Bay Today June 21st 2009

Late arvo update

Hello Friends,

Climbed aloft to the crow’s nest for one last view of the beach on this winter solstice day. It got steadily gloomier this afternoon, so the light levels were getting pretty low for taking pictures. I dialled up the sensitivity to ISO 800 and decreased the shutter speed to a barely adequate 1/200 of a sec. Even so, I had to boost the exposure during editing to get anything; hence the very grainy result below.

Huey left the swell settings in place across the day, but tomorrow the Bureau tells us that we could see a little increase tomorrow from the E/NE. Plus the wind is set to be N-NW inshore during the morning. Tuesday looks quite promising: light N wind and a couple metres or so of ENE swell with generally sunny conditions…

Light fades on a few catchable ones in the corner.

There were a reasonable number of people in the water for a Sunday evening (often one of the least crowded times of day on a weekend), and the waves seemed to have enough push to get some moves happening. Personally I’d call the conditions about 4/10, but maybe if I’d been in the water, I’d have set the rating a little higher! Funny how that seems to work.

Speaking of work, you’ll notice that there’s now a search field at the bottom of the reports column. I went along to a Google seminar for webmasters last week and one of the things we learned is that folks often want to go to a search after they’ve read something. Anyway, thought I’d see if RealSurf visitors found it handy…

On another front, I’ve also put in a link at the top of the page to our free surf classifieds. If you have any surf related gear you want to offload for a bit of coin, why not list it where a lot of surfers will see it?

Sorta pearly kinda light this morning

You could jag a few if you were patient.

Stumbled through the wheelhouse door late this morning, as is my wont on a Sunday. Climbed aloft for a quick look at the unfolding day. Small crowd is hanging around at the southern end of the Dee Why longy stretch. A few are over at the point. Conditions are sorta lumpy and disorganised looking, but at 0930 there wasn’t too much wind about. Swell settings are essentially unchanged in Sydney since yesterday. Energy is coming from the east at a couple metres and about 8-9 seconds apart. Wind is a light northerly.

Not super crowded at the Dee Why end when I grabbed the snap. Seemed to be quite a wait for the sets though. A few dribbling through at the point too, but I reckon you’ll want to be keen to chase those.

There should be a few options on offer this morning. Once the N-NE wind builds up, they’ll contract to the semi protected north corners. Tide’s dropping and will hit low at 1216 in Sydney.

Not too many surf report tweets this morning, but there was one from a T-shirt artist in in Santa Monica who says: “Malibu 1-2 feet.” He tweets at twitter.com/aSURFmoment

Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Strong Wind Warning.
Sunday until midnight: Wind: N/NE 15/20 knots, reaching 20/25 knots at times, possibly 25/30 knots offshore.Sea: 1.5 to 2.5 metres, rising to 3 metres offshore. Swell: E/NE 1.5 to 2.5 metres. Isolated thunderstorms.
Monday: Wind: N/NW 10/20 knots inshore, grading to N/NE 20/30 knots offshore.Sea: 1 to 2 metres inshore rising to 2 to 3 metres offshore. Swell: E/NE 2 to 3 metres.
Tuesday: Wind: NW 05/15 knots.

Byron Bay Today’s Weekend Windup

Getting wet for International Surfing Day

Hello Friends,

Just back from a little beach clean up to celebrate International Surfing Day. Surfrider Foundation northern beaches chapter couldn’t be put off by gale force wind and torrential rain. We combed the length of Fishermans around to Collaroy for rubbish and I’m happy to report that while we definitely picked up a few tens of kilos, the beach was in very good shape – particularly in light of the stormwater rushing out at three or four different spots.

Interestingly there were a fair number of bluebottles washed up along the high tide line. I guess we can expect a few more as the NE’r continues to hammer us.

Grabbed a few snaps of the happy crew…

Sheltering from another squall after cleaning up Fishermans beach, Collaroy.

Driving rain didn't drive off the hardy rubbish hunters from Surfrider northern beaches.

Rain lashing in as we posed for a snap to mark International Surfing Day.

3 feet of blown out mess but the week ahead looks good

2-4 feet of short period ENE wind swell which pretty useless right now. Forecast is for improvement by tomorrow as the wind swings more northerly and then NW by early next week with plenty of swell and better period. Plenty of swell is Bali and rest of indo last week- some good vids available on Baliwaves.com  of Padang Padang doing it’s thang! – Enjoy.