Not quite flat… but pretty close

Point was a one-person operation at 0730.

 

Hello Friends,

Grey skies to start – again. Surf conditions are distinctly marginal. In fact, we’re getting closer to flatness. The MHL data is showing 1.5 metres of 8 sec period east windswell, so there could be the odd waist high set at the exposed locations.

Wind is supposed to swing around to the NE this afternoon and to kick up to 20-25 kts. That could possibly improve the chances of getting something a bit bigger. Of course, being windswell, it’ll be biggest where it’s most onshore and smallest where it’s most protected.

Not spectacularly exciting, but tomorrow is currently looking as though it will be even smaller.

Have yourself a top old day and keep on smilin’

Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Thursday until midnight: Wind: N/NW 10/15 knots early turning N/NE 20/25 knots in the afternoon before turning N/NW 20/25 knots late afternoon/evening.Sea: 1 to 1.5 metres, rising to 1.5 to 2.5 metres. Swell: NE 1 to 1.5 metres.
Friday: Wind: W/SW 20/25 knots, turning SE 15/20 knots during the afternoon and then SE 18/23 knots during the afternoon.Sea: 1.5 to 2.5 metres.Swell: NE 1 to 1.5 metres, turning S/SE 1.5 metres.
Saturday: Wind: NW/NE 5/10 knots becoming N/NE 15/25 knots

The Goat’s Surf Forecast

SURF FORECAST ISSUED THURSDAY 10 DECEMBER 2009:

SEVEN DAY OUTLOOK FOR SYDNEY:

Small for the weekend

Friday: small end of the 1-2 metre range East South East

Saturday- Monday: about 1 metre or less East South East

Tuesday: about 1 metre East South East.

Wednesday: in the 1-2 metre range East.

Thursday: in the 1-2 metre range North East.

Forecast for Thursday evening
Mostly fine, just the chance of a light shower this evening. Moderate to fresh northwest to northeast winds ahead of a westerly change tonight.
Precis: Mostly fine.

Forecast for Friday
Fine. Sunny. Moderate southwest winds, fresh at times at first before turning southeasterly during the afternoon.
Precis: Fine. Sunny.
Fire danger:

City:         Min:  20 Max:  24   Parramatta: Min:  19 Max:  27

Terrey Hills: Min:  19 Max:  24   Penrith:    Min:  19 Max:  29

Liverpool:    Min:  18 Max:  28   Richmond:   Min:  19 Max:  29

UV Alert: 8:40 am to 5:00 pm, UV Index predicted to reach 12 [Extreme]

Saturday Fine. Sunny periods.

City:          Min:   17  Max:   25

West:          Min:   12  Max:   31

Sunday Late shower or two.

City:          Min:   18  Max:   27

West:          Min:   16  Max:   33

Monday Shower or two.

City:          Min:   19  Max:   22

West:          Min:   17  Max:   25

Tuesday Shower or two.

City:          Min:   19  Max:   25

West:          Min:   17  Max:   29

Wednesday Fine.

City:          Min:   19  Max:   25

West:          Min:   17  Max:   32

Thursday Fine.

City:          Min:   19  Max:   28

West:          Min:   15  Max:   38

Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Thursday until midnight: Wind: NE 20/25 knots, tending NW.Sea: 1.5 to 2.5 metres. Swell: NE 1 to 1.5 metres.
Friday: Wind: W/SW 20/25 knots, turning SE 15/20 knots during the afternoon, then easing to 10/15 knots in the evening.Sea: 1.5 to 2.5 metres abating to 1 to 1.5 metres in the evening.Swell: NE 1 to 1.5 metres, turning S/SE 1.5 metres.
Saturday: Wind: NW/NE 5/10 knots gradually increasing to 15/25 knots
Sunday: Wind: SE 10/20 knots.

Stephanie Gilmore Claims Billabong Pro Maui and Vans Triple Crown

Stephanie Gilmore (AUS), 21, claimed her third consecutive Billabong Pro Maui title today as well as her second Vans Triple Crown title. photo: ASP/CI/SCHOLTZ va GETTY IMAGES

Billabong Pro Maui
Stop No. 7 of 7 on the 2009 ASP Women’s World Tour
Honolua Bay, Maui/Hawaii USA
December 8-20, 2009

HONOLUA BAY, Maui/Hawaii (Wednesday, December 9, 2009,Thursday Australia time) – Stephanie Gilmore (AUS), 21, took out the final stop on the 2009 ASP Women’s World Tour today, the Billabong Pro Maui, in clean four-to-six foot (1.5 metre) conditions at the iconic pointbreak of Honolua Bay over Sofia Mulanovich (PER), 26, clinching her third consecutive Billabong Pro Maui title after three years of competition at the premier event. Gilmore wrapped up her dominating season amongst the Top 17 by claiming her second consecutive Vans Triple Crown title today as well.

Gilmore capped the year off in appropriate form after claiming her third ASP Women’s World Title at the Gidget Pro Sunset Beach, when she advanced over Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS), 18, in the Semifinals, en route to defending her flawless record at the Billabong Pro Maui while claiming the prized Hawaiian specialty series and the beefed up $25,000 prize purse supplied by Vans.

“Once again, Maui has just been incredible and to win this event three times in a row is just awesome,” Gilmore said. “I couldn’t have been happier with the way things have gone today. Winning the Vans Triple Crown is definitely up there with winning the World Title and it’s definitely one of the biggest accolades of surfing professionally. I can’t believe it’s all happening again, it’s awesome.”

Gilmore absolutely dominated the day’s proceedings, blitzing the highest heat total of the entire 2009 ASP Women’s World Tour season by surfing a near-perfect heat of 19.67 out of 20 to usurp Samantha Cornish (AUS), 29, in her Quarterfinals heat before topping Fitzgibbons and Mulanovich en route to her second ASP Women’s World Tour win of 2009.

“I guess it’s a little surprising,” Gilmore said. “I would have thought that the highest heat total would have gone down yesterday with all of the barrels. Today there are still some rippable waves out there, but I don’t know. I just went surfing.”

Mulanovich campaigned through a lengthy day of competition, topping Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS), 23, Australian veteran Rebecca Woods (AUS), 25, and ASP Women’s World No. 2 Silvana Lima (BRA), 25, but was unable to top Gilmore for the victory and claimed a runner-up finish at the final event of the year to finish her season ASP Women’s World No. 3.

“It’s been a great day,” Mulanovich said. “Congratulations to Steph (Gilmore). She’s a champ and a hero to all of us and thanks to the sponsors of the event and my family and friends. It’s been a great event.”

Fitzgibbons navigated the Honolua Bay lineup with poise and maturity beyond her years and posted some amazing scores before falling in her Semifinals bout against Gilmore, but clinched an impressive heat victory over Coco Ho (HAW), 18, in the Quarterfinals on the way to her third place finish.

“I always love surfing heats with Coco (Ho),” Fitzgibbons said. “She always pushes my level up and I usually have my best heats with her. She’s also a really great friend. I wish there were more waves so we could have dueled a little bit more. She surfed amazing this year and my hat goes off to her.”

Lima, who smashed one of two perfect 10-point rides during the Billabong Pro Maui with amazing barrel riding in yesterday’s action, was in stellar form for the final day of competition, but was overtaken by former Peruvian ASP Women’s World Champion, Mulanovich, in the dying minutes of their Semifinals heat, taking a third place finish to wrap up her year while finishing ASP Women’s World No. 2 for 2009.

“The waves were a lot smaller than yesterday, but it was still good,” Lima said. “Sometimes the heats were slow, but the conditions were still great.”

For Billabong Pro Maui highlights, videos, photos and more log on to www.triplecrownofsurfing.com or www.billabongpro.com

For additional ASP information log on to www.aspworldtour.com

Billabong Pro Maui presented by Hawaiian Airlines Final:
1 - Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 18.00
2 – Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 10.17

Billabong Pro Maui presented by Hawaiian Airlines Semifinals Results:
Heat 1: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 16.03 def. Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 14.94
Heat 2: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 13.83 def. Silvana Lima (BRA) 11.70

Billabong Pro Maui presented by Hawaiian Airlines Quarterfinals Results:
Heat 1: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 15.83 def. Coco Ho (HAW) 15.83
Heat 2: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 19.67 def. Samantha Cornish (AUS) 7.26
Heat 3: Silvana Lima 16.70 def. Melanie Bartels (HAW) 7.20
Heat 4: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 12.77 def. Rebecca Woods (AUS) 6.50

Billabong Pro Maui presented by Hawaiian Airlines Round 3 Result:
Heat 8: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 9.50 def. Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 8.17

Final 2009 ASP Women’s World Tour ratings

1. Stephanie Gilmore (AUS)

2. Silvana Lima (BRA)

3. Sofia Mulanovich (PER)

4. Coco Ho (HAW)

5. Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS)

6. Melanie Bartels (HAW)

7. Chelsea Hedges (AUS)

8. Paige Hareb (NZL)

9. Rebecca Woods (AUS)

10. Rosanne Hodge (ZAF)

11. Samantha Cornish (AUS)

12. Jacqueline Silva (BRA)

13. Alana Blanchard (HAW)

14. Bruna Schmitz (BRA)

15. Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS)

16. Amee Donohoe (AUS)

17. Megan Abubo (HAW)

18. Layne Beachley (AUS)

Avalon to Narrabeen Rpt

Forgettable

Lay Day for Pipeline Masters BUT – Final Day for Billabong Pro Maui ON

Samantha Cornish (AUS), 29, was a standout yesterday at Honolua Bay. photo: ASP/ CI/ SCHOLTZ via GETTY IMAGES

Billabong Pro Maui presented Hawaiian Airlines
Stop No. 7 of 7 on the 2009 ASP Women’s World Tour
Honolua Bay, Maui/Hawaii
December 8 – 20, 2009

HONOLUA BAY, Maui/Hawaii – The last of seven stops on the 2009 ASP Women’s World Tour season, the Billabong Pro Maui presented by Hawaiian Airlines, is on this morning in good six foot (2 metre) conditions at Maui’s iconic pointbreak of Honolua Bay and will crown a champion by day’s end.

The culmination for the ASP Women’s World Tour season plays a critical role in several surfers’ campaigns towards requalification for the 2010 ASP Women’s Dream Tour. The Billabong Pro Maui also represents the final event of the Vans Triple Crown, which boasts an additional prize purse of $25,000 to this year’s winner.

Due to a compromising interference by a non-competitor in the Heat 8 of Round 3 yesterday, this morning’s action will rerun the heat and follow through with Quarterfinals, eventually crowning the 2009 Billabong Pro Maui and Vans Triple Crown champion by day’s end.

“We’ve got good six foot waves today and we want to capitalize on this swell, so we’ll crown a champion this afternoon,” Rodney Kilborn, Billabong Pro Maui Contest Director, said.

Yesterday’s action saw three-time ASP Women’s World Champion and two-time Billabong Pro Maui champion Stephanie Gilmore (AUS), 21, clinch the day’s highest heat total while overtaking the Vans Triple Crown Ratings. ASP Women’s World No. 2 Silvana Lima (BRA), 25, was also a leader in yesterday’s competition, earning the day’s only perfect 10-point ride with a throttling barrel.

The Billabong Pro Maui will begin at 8am local time. For live scores, heats on demand, photos, video and more, log on to www.triplecrownofsurfing.com or www.billabongpro.com

For additional ASP information log on to www.aspworldtour.com

Billabong Pro Maui pres. By Hawaiian Airlines Quarterfinal Match-Ups:

QF 1: Coco Ho (HAW) vs. Sally Fitzgibbons (HAW)

QF 2: Samantha Cornish (AUS) vs. Stephanie Gilmore (AUS)

QF 3: Silvana Lima (BRA) vs. Melanie Bartels (HAW)

QF 4: Rebecca Woods (AUS) vs. TBD

Greg Long Wins Quiksilver In Memory of Eddie Aikau

Greg Long (USA), 2009 Quiksilver In Memory of Eddie Aikau Champion. photo: ASP/ CESTARI

WAIMEA BAY, Oahu/Hawaii – After 25 years with most of those spent waiting, Waimea Bay delivered an event of legendary proportions today at the Quiksilver In Memory of Eddie Aikau, Fueled by Monster Energy. It was 25 years to the day since the first “Eddie” was held and waves of up to 50 feet poured in to Oahu’s North Shore as if on cue. With younger brother Clyde still in the lineup, at age 60, joined by the contemporary top guns of big wave riding, a packed arena celebrated every gutsy ride in brilliant sunshine befitting of a tribute to local hero Eddie Aikau.

When all was said and done, it was California’s Greg Long, 26, (San Clemente) who made a late charge in the final heat of the day to claim the $55,000 winner’s purse. Long committed to an unbelievable never-say-die attack, securing all four of his top scores – several of them death-defying and one of them a perfect 100-point ride, in macking 40- to 50-foot waves. It was the high point of his career to-date – pretty incredible given that he only rode Waimea for the first time this week.

“I’m so happy just to be here, invited into the biggest event of big waves in the world with all my heroes, I’m so excited,” said Long.

“It’s a dream come true for me. Riding big waves is my passion and I’ve been following The Eddie since I knew exactly what it was, I was probably 12-years-old just getting into surfing. Since then, I’ve had every single poster from Brock Little to Bruce Irons on my wall. I look to those guys for inspiration and to be standing up here with Sunny (Garcia) and Kelly Slater is a dream come true for me. I never would have thought that this is my first year surfing the event and to come away with a victory is really a childhood dream become real.

“I’m still standing here in awe and I want to go check the scores to make sure someone isn’t going to come here and take this away.

“It really is about the wave and celebrating the ocean. It’s what we do: go out there and ride big waves. The respect and camaraderie in the lineup you don’t find in too many places in the world, and this event really encapsulates everything that’s great about surfing: the friendships you make in the water and looking out for one another.”

The Monster Drop Award, for the most hellacious-but-successful takeoff of the contest, went to Chile’s Ramon Navarro, who also finished fifth overall. This is his first time as an invitee into the event. Navarro’s winning wave was one of the last of the competition; a huge, seemingly endless drop on his backhand, followed by a detonation of whitewater that he emerged from and then stuck with all the way to the beach. He earned a perfect 100 points.

Navarro first came in 2004 to surf Waimea with an invitation from good friend and fellow contestant today, Kohl Christensen. He baked empanadas and sold them to pay his rent and learn the ropes. Today was pay day. Navarro won $10,000 for the Monster Drop Award, and $2,000 for fifth place. It was a great result for someone who almost didn’t surf today after his pregnant wife was accidentally injured on the beach.

“This is a dream for me,” said Navarro. “I want to say thank you to Kohl Christensen, Dusty Middleton and all the crew because those are the guys that invited me here and taught me how to surf The Bay. I appreciate everything from these guys.”

Nine-time ASP World Champion Kelly Slater (Florida, USA), who won here back in January of 2002, placed second after leading the score board from the first second heat of the day. Long turned the tables on him in the final hour of competition. All Slater could do was look on in as much disbelief as the frenzied crowd who were at that point ready to celebrate with anyone. Slater earned $10,000. Third was Hawaii’s Sunny Garcia, earning $3,000. Fourth was defending Eddie champion Bruce Irons (Kauai), $3,000.

Navarro’s buddy Christensen can lay claim to the most devastating wipeout of the day that remains burned in every mind here today. He also posted several solid scores, but a wipeout like his is as unforgettable as a win.

The call to wait for today and the ensuing result was mind-boggling, especially since many were questioning not running yesterday in 40-foot surf. By afternoon, all concerned were stunned that 79-year-old contest director and big wave icon George Downing had kept his cool so well and timed it perfectly for a second peak in swell energy. The past 48 hours of massive surf is the largest sustained episode to hit the Hawaiian Islands in 40 years.

From the moment the event was declared “on” at dawn, to the final gut-wrenching wipeouts that came with the peaking swell of afternoon, the air was filled with salt spray and adrenaline. Not a square foot of sand or lava rock was empty as a capacity crowd of over 50,000 packed the natural amphitheater of Waimea Bay to experience the pairing of Mother Nature and the men who ride her mountainous surf.

The insane wipeouts that dropped like dominoes, the hairball air drops and perfect scores, the 28 surfers of the event who put their lives on the line in honor of Aikau today – it all made for the greatest day of the Quiksilver In Memory of Eddie Aikau’s history.

Waimea Bay’s best known big-wave rider and first life-guard, Eddie Aikau, was smiling down on his successors today. Along with the surfers, he would have admired Hawaiian Water Patrol for keeping the lineup and the surfers safe all day yesterday and today. There is no greater collection of guardian angels of the sea than the lifeguards of the North Shore.

Everyone came out in support of Hawaii’s big wave gift to the world, including football: The Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, along with the Hawaii Tourism Authority and the Oahu Visitors Bureau came together with support that enabled highlights of the day to reach all four corners of the globe.

Mahalo to Hawaii’s Oceanic Cable, who along with the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing took today’s action live, all day, throughout the Hawaiian Islands.FUEL TV will air a one-hour highlight show in the United States: 6:30pm PT/9:30pm ET on Friday, December 11, 2009. The show will re-air several times over the weekend.

The Quiksilver In Memory of Eddie Aikau, Fueled by Monster Energy, is the only ASP sanctioned big wave event in the world.

For more information, log onto www.aspworldtour.com

C C Windy

Overcast, muggy, dry and warm on the Central Coast this Thursday morning.  The swell is semi-smooth and small at 1 – 2 feet from the east southeast.  There is a light northeast breeze forecast to go north northwest later.  Low tide at 1000 and high tide around 1600.  Local barometer 1007 hpa, 22 degrees C. 88% humidity.   Have a good one. For Sale -  I have a Surtech (Tuflite) Velzy 12 foot Hawaiian Paddle board (not SUP) for sale.  Excellent condition. $950.00 (cost $1600.00 + new).  This board is a standard (stock) class racing paddle board and goes like the clappers, very fast.  Good cross trainer for paddling on flat days. Contact Matt at  ms2007@bigpond.com

The Sands Of Time, In Byron Bay Today.

Click here for the full, Update In Byron Bay Today.

They say, patience is a virtue, and it is, that’s a fact. But, try telling that to punter that’s staring down the reality of yet another howling day of northerlies in the bay. Try to hang on and wait guys. There’s a reward in all this wind. We don’t collect until the end of it though. Sand is the pay-off, and lots of it. Every day that it continues to blow like this, is another day slowly putting back all that sand  swept away in May. Each day we curse cursing Huey for this wind. Is actually another day closer to new sand banks all over the place. We’ve been out sniffing around for where the sand is starting to build. As per our policy we won’t be saying where. But I’ll tell you this much. There’s at least five really good banks building, and given the right conditions, they’re gonna  fire. If you want a hint? Think south westerlies for four of them. I can’t, or to put it more honestly, won’t say more. You’ll just have to get out and check for yourselves, because the empty waves go to those who bother to look for them, In Byron Bay Today.