Hello Friends,

Despite the gloom, went out and did a bit of shooting today to see if I could immortalize a few of the hardy weekend warrior crew. Will be putting up galleries later once all the images are processed.

As the day winds up, the ocean is still grey and the skies greyer still. The breeze is a steady 12-15 kts out of the S to SSE, so the surface is still pretty messy and fairly lumpy. However, the swell is still pushing along at a reasonable size. The MHL buoy is down, but I’d guess it was probably in the 2.5 metre range and still mainly SE. Wave faces on the bomb sets at Dee Why looked to be into the head high plus range.

As you can see from the pics, I shot for awhile down near Clarke St Collaroy. There were some very crunchy sets coming in and a few of them were overhead. Quality was variable, but there was the odd clean face and makeable section to be had from the generally lumpy and shutting down conditions. Certainly it didn’t take me long to shoot a hundred or so frames.

After sorting out a spot of bother with my car (battery died), I went down to Collaroy to check out the action north of the pipe. If anything, the sets were breaking in even shallower water. The bodyboarders seemed to be getting more than the standups. It was fun to shoot from the pipe, but the light was pretty ordinary and the water looked very suss.

Ducked home to change memory cards and batteries and then headed down to Manly to see if any of the banks were working. Again, quality was not noteworthy but in amongst the heaving lumpiness there were the occasional clean walls for lucky punters who happened to be in the right position. As at the other spots, the water quality looked very dodgy. Sadly, it rained heavily a couple times, so I had to give up shooting. Oh well.

Tomorrow the wind’s supposed to swing NE and the Bureau says the swell will be out of the east at 1.5-2 metres. It didn’t look too east as we ran out of light this evening, but be that as it may, then we should have a little something around tomorrow for the early. The showers could still be a factor, so we’re probably in for another grey morning.

Tuesday the weather is supposed to fine up, but the swell is probably going to be smaller again. With luck it won’t be too tiny to surf.

Have yourself a top old Sunday evening and catchya tomorrow.

Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Sunday until midnight: Wind: SE/NE 15/20 knots.Sea: 1.5 to 2 metres.Swell: E/NE about 2 metres. Chance thunderstorm.
Monday: Wind: NE 10/15 knots, increasing to 15/20 knots in the afternoon.Sea: 1 to 2 metres.Swell: NE 1.5 to 2 metres.
Tuesday: Wind: NE 5/15 knots.
Wednesday: Wind: NE 5/15 knots becoming 10/20 knots later.

Hello Friends,

Usual leisurely start for yours truly this morning. The steady rain on the roof lulled me back to dreamland a few times… meanwhile, the keen were chasing chest to head high sets in the murky waters of Dee Why. Wind is out of the SSW at around 10-15kts and the south swell is averaging about 3 metres on a period of close to 9 seconds. Those are juicy settings so hence the crowds.

It looks as though the swell will stick around through today and should still be doing something tomorrow morning – if we’re lucky.

The current projections from the WAMs is for the energy levels to fade away as the week goes along and by Friday it could be back to near flat again as the monsoon trough simmers down.

(All that rain means that the ocean will continue to be heavily polluted by stormwater runoff. Whadya bet there will be lots of busy GPs by this time next week as all those ear, nose and throat cases come in. You’d have rocks in your head to get in on a day like this if you’ve got any unhealed cuts or scrapes.)

I’m gonna watch and wait myself, but whatever you decide, have yourself a safe and good one!

Tides: L @1040, H @1620
Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Sunday until midnight: Wind: S/SW 15/20 knots decreasing then turning E/NE 15/20 knots.Sea: 1.5 to 2 metres.Swell: E/NE about 2 metres. Chance thunderstorms
Monday: Wind: NE 10/15 knots.Sea: about 1 metre.Swell: NE 1.5 to 2 metres.
Tuesday: Wind: NE 5/15 knots.
Forecast for Sunday
Rain periods, heavy at times. Chance thunderstorm. Light to moderate south to southeast winds, fresh near the coast tending moderate to fresh east to northeast in the afternoon.