Off to a leisurely start this morning. The sky was grey as we headed north from lovely Milton, our goal those fabled shores a few turnoffs past the latest roadworks. When we got to check-out spot number one the empty carpark told the story. Sure enough when we picked our way down the path to the little observation deck, we beheld an ocean of craziness. There was no question of going out. None.
The swell obviously hadn’t died out overnight.
The wind call was for NW early, swinging NE as the morning got going, so we decided to check a nearby spot that features a little left on the southern edge of a broad, flat rock. Just a couple blokes on it, but with the incoming tide and the first breath of onshore stirring the trees, well, it didn’t seem to have long term prospects.
We’d hoped to score a session at Green Island, so not holding out the highest hopes, that was our next destination.
Since we were already on the north side of Lake Conjola, it was easiest to do the surf check thing from Don Hearn’s memorial lookout. Swell was sizable and there were even two or three stalwarts out trying to get into them, but as another surfer checking it out at the same time said, it was all over the place. Double overhead faces would form up and then abruptly fade – or occasionally do the opposite and punish the hapless would be riders. It didn’t take too long to let that particular dream go.
In the end the solution was to return to the scene of yesterday morning’s triumphs. 9-iron reef wasn’t as crowded and yet it was a bit cleaner. The swell was about the same, maybe a touch smaller, so being by far the most interesting waves we’d seen, the next move was as you’d expect.
Happily the wind held off for more than an hour and we were both able to score some very fun head high plus waves. Once the breeze started to move into the wind category, surface conditions became steadily more messy. I got a few snaps which I’ll endeavour to load later.
After a lunch of tasty pies from the Milton pie shop, we made a loop down to check out Ulladulla bombie.
It was pretty obvious where the crowds had gone. At least 30 of the hottest locals in town were out contending for some solid 2 metre plus sets. It looked pretty intense and the take off zone was a real spot, so not the place to even think about if you’re not pretty handy.
Tomorrow looks like being much smaller than today for most of the east coast. In the last 6 hours the Eden buoy period data has dropped from an average of 10 sec to a windswelly 7 – and I reckon it may slip a bit further. That same trend has started to show up on the Batemans Bay buoy, so I’d say by tomorrow morning Sydney surf options will be small but not totally flat.
Outlook for the next week (based on a quick scan of the wam data) seems to be for a return to spring weakness.
Hope you hooked a few waves from this swell…
