Curl Curl – Fri, 31 July 2009 – 1515-1545

Shot an amazing number of pictures because it was very consistent and the light was excellent. If you were in the water at the south end of Curly between 1515 and 1545, there is a good chance I got at least one of your waves. These images can be enlarged quite a bit, so you can crop in on the subject and still get something good enough to use for a large print. That’s because they were shot with Nikon’s top of the range D3 professional camera and the equally top of the range 200-400mm zoom.

If you’d like to get  a high resolution image, then drop me a line via the RealSurf feedback form.

You can view each page of pics full size simply by clicking on any of the thumbnails.

IMPORTANT: Please give me the picture number of the one(s) you want in high res. You can find out the pic number by putting your cursor over the correct thumbnail picture(s). Also, since I have to find time in my day to search out and forward the correct pic or pics to you, I will be much more cheerful if you’ve also made a contribution to my new camera fund via the buy me a drink link (right)! Make sure you mention if you’ve done so (makes me so much quicker!)

[imagebrowser id=5]

To view all 282 pics from this shooting session, please Click Here

Dee Why Beach 31 July 2009 1605-1620

After shooting at Curly, I ducked back over the hill to see what I could find at Dee Why. Wave quality was not as good, but there were some nice ones coming in at the point (the beachy was shutting down a fair amount) These images can be enlarged quite a bit, so you can crop in on the subject and still get something good enough to use for a large print. That’s because they were shot with Nikon’s top of the range D3 professional camera and the equally top of the range 200-400mm zoom.

If you’d like to get  a high resolution image, then drop me a line via the RealSurf feedback form.

You can view each page of pics full size simply by clicking on any of the thumbnails.

IMPORTANT: Please give me the picture number of the one(s) you want in high res. You can find out the pic number by putting your cursor over the correct thumbnail picture(s). Also, since I have to find time in my day to search out and forward the correct pic or pics to you, I will be much more cheerful if you’ve also made a contribution to my new camera fund via the buy me a drink link (right)! Make sure you mention if you’ve done so (makes me so much quicker!)

[imagebrowser id=7]

To view all 116 pictures from this session, click here.

WWII Japanese sub off the northern beaches

A couple of interesting stories about the wartime sub that sank off Bungan Head on the northern beaches. (thanks to the Goat for rounding these up)

The Manly Daily story.

From NSW govt Dept of Environment, Water, Heritage and Arts website…

For over 60 years one of the great Australian wartime and maritime mysteries was the whereabouts of the third and last Japanese midget submarine, which invaded Sydney Harbour on the evening of 31 May 1942. That night, the harbour was full of allied naval vessels and the midget submarines were on a mission to inflict maximum damage.

Read more…

And here’s a fun and very well written little story called No Bodies: what became of the crew of M-24 (published on the website afloat.com.au.

The mystery and intrigue surrounding the missing crew of the Japanese midget submersible and their postattack steps are carefully retraced by expatriate historian, Associate Professor Kojihiro Matsuda*.

As my colleagues and I think, the crew did not die but abandoned their sinking midget submersible by jumping-off and going ashore at the Collaroy Basin. The damaged midget M-24 drifted on, empty, and sank quietly off Bungan Head. It was still dark, on the south end of Fisherman’s Beach, as Ban and Ashibe brushed the soft northern beaches sand from their feet and put their highly unpopular polyester socks and rubbersoled, lace-up, special submariners’ shoes back on. They easily skirted the tank traps that had been laid along the beach, laughing quietly, because as far as they knew; no tank-landing was being considered.
Smoking a navy-issue cigarette he had kept dry in a cellulose acetate drybag, superior officer Ban made the decision to proceed north by land to the end of the peninsular, confident that they would be able to signal the mother sub from the headland for a belated pickup.
Reaching the narrow sandy strip behind Collaroy Beach which ran beside the recently upgraded Pittwater Road, they saw on the other side of the road what they thought was a concrete bunker. It was in fact the local cinema, with The Wizard of Oz spelt out in belatedly dimmed incandescent bulbs. Wooden power poles and weatherboard houses lined both sides of the un-kerbed but upgraded road.
As they wandered North they saw a military radar station in complete darkness, its radar antenna motionless.
All was quiet except for some earlyrising roosters on a nearby chook farm and to the north a few still undimmed streetlights pinpointed the small settlement at Narrabeen.

Keep reading….

Longy this morning

Stopped by Long Reef to have a look at the littleness this morning. One person was in the water and amazingly they caught a wave! Quite an accomplishment given the dire conditions.

Long Reef this morning.

When I was walking back to the car a small flock of brightly coloured little birds flew across my path. One of them fetched up nearby, so added another snap to my bird picture collection…

Zosterops lateralis (south eastern form) spotted in the heath at Long Reef.

REVIEW: Last Hope – 16 original short (surf) films

Last Hope is as the title above says, a collection of 16 short films about surfing. The project was pulled together by a couple of surf media veterans, Andrew Kidman and Aaron Curnow. In his intro remarks, Kidman says “I thought something special would come of just letting the filmmakers make whatever they wanted.”

I thought it would be an interesting exercise to create a review as I watched Last Hope. But rather than just sit here tapping away while I watched, I’ve decided to take a more absurd approach and to document my responses as I have them via Twitter. So, here’s the plan: at 1150 Sydney time, I’ll push the play button and start tweeting.

To follow them as they happen, just point your browser to my twitter stream at: http://twitter.com/mr_realsurf

Well, that was interesting… here are all my tweets in the movie running order…

#lasthope opens w/slo mo of Nat Young at Angourie in the 70s. Chill tune fun, fun looking waves and super smooth Animal

Nat sequence shot by Albert Falzon, mellow tune oh ma the sea is rising, study of kid standing on rocks and swell coming in – nice

Bones soCal surfer profile, surfin’ philosopher, vintage singlefin, California green water, tune Been So Long slow and mellow

Mini waves – ultra glassy tiny cylinders in slo mo, very meditative & gorgeous almost cgi look to footage. If only I was 6″ tall!

Brocky & Baddy by Albert Falzon, more blue far north 70′s perfection – out takes from Morning of the Earth

Falzon’s Brocky & Baddy vintage single fins at Angourie in some long ago 70′s summer – oo MP! stylin’

Colts sequence… some place in US, car on fwy, horse racing shots () moody, but where’s da waves man

Let me see the Colts tune by Smog, nice, but only water seen is San Francisco bay

“Dad’s been away again” Sufjan Stevens tune soundtrack to combo of vintage surf footage and home movies. Moody nostalgic feel

Val’s nightmare features live ver of dirty three’s everything’s f*d , tasty tune, and some outtakes from Litmus movie.

“Val’s nightmare” dark sequences from the cutting room floor, concert footage to surf footage ratio about 5 to 1

“Atlantic City Ashes” sequence & tune of same title, if that’s surf in Atlantic City, it looks solid. First seq pretty dodgy but

“Atlantic City Ashes” cold water walls and super short fishy (looks like kneeboard) footage dark & wintery brrr.

“central Cal” is dat Piedras Blancas Split screen b&w guy drawing patterns in sand – oo Sandspit seq too brief! Spacey tune

“central Cal” hangglider seq, cloudy beach, waves from train where Ranch, Jalama No surfin’ but moody & like the sand artist

“requiem for the lot” Cali surfers defending Wind’n'sea parking lot against redevlopment, super fun looking wave too.

“Requiem for the Lot” Windansea parking lot overlooking the wave special to those folks. Becoming a dog park apparently.

“A train” Not having swell gives you time to think, read about and contemplate surfing. Agree. Ode to the marginal days. Nice.

“A train” surfing in New York to Holly Throsby tune One of you for me, man water looks cold & landscape dire.-but waves are waves

Spaceshell sequence, more dark, moody intro, big waves, Ghost Tree maybe Then little Rincon La Jolla who knows, in Cali tho

“The Island” super8 grainy, old Ektachrome blue, many summers ago, smokin’ rights. Now smokin’ lefts. Early 80′s maybe in HI

“The Island” old film world. Colour shifted, beat up and scratched, can’t help but be melancholy

“End” by John Frank, opens with sea and sky from boat, little coda to the collecction. Credit roll…

the last word. Generally worthy, probably much too arty for typical surf movie audiences, consistent if dark mood… good tunes

the last word cont, sequences well crafted, not modern performance surfing , but that’s what everyone else does in their vids.

last words: a good collection for a rainy afternoon waiting for surf & reflecting on waves past…

The Last Hope DVD is bundled with a CD of all the music and a 24 page booklet with thoughts, interviews and pictures. It’s released on the Spunk Records label.

Nice day but we have swell issues

Small line trickles ashore, leaving beach unscathed.

No two ways about it – we’re running on empty. What little swell is showing on the MHL buoy for Sydney is about a metre and coming from the SSE at an average period of 8 seconds. There is some 13 sec component mixed in, so I’d guess there might possibly be a rare catchable one at exposed spots… at low tide… if you’re lucky…

From the look of the forecasts and models, we’re not likely to see any significant change across the next 48 hours. At least one of the interpretations of the forecast data is showing the possibility of a little bump on Friday, but then fading back through the weekend before a fresh and good quality pulse turns up on Monday. Of course Monday’s a long way off, so I’m just taking it under advisement for now…

Have yourself a top old day!

Tides: High @ 0753, Low @ 1324

Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Wednesday until midnight: Wind: W/SW 10/15 knots, turning E/NE 5/10 knots during the afternoon, then N/NE 8/13 knots in the evening.Sea: around 1 metre. Swell: S/SE about 1 metre.
Thursday: Wind: W/NW 5/10 knots, tending N/NE 13/18 knots during the afternoon.Sea: to 1 metre, rising to 1 to 1.5 metres later. Swell: S/SE less than 1 metre.
Friday: Wind: NW 10/20 knots, increasing to 20/25 knots ahead of late W/SW change 20/30 knots.

Very Clean

But its also very small. A great day for a wakeboard or waterski out in front of Manly today. The wake from the boat being your best chance of getting some action I’m afraid. Oh well we have had a pretty good run over winter so its hard to complain too much especially given the spring like weather we are getting. It doesn’t look like we have got much in the pipeline either for a few days yet so best you find something else to do with your time!!!!! Seems lots of folks are off down the mountain (I recond they are only hills) to get their fix.

C C Very Small & Cold

Fine, dry and cold on the Central Coast this Wednesday morning.  The swell is smooth and very small at 1 – 1.5 feet from the east southeast.  There is light west northwest breeze forecast to freshen and go northeast later.  High tide 0755 and low tide around 1325.  Local barometer 1013 hpa, 4 degrees C. 93% humidity.   Have a good one.

Byron Bay Today Aug 4th