Snowy Surf Festival @ Manly

Posted on June 11th, 2011 in Manly.

I went down to Manly to check out the first day of the Snowy McAlister Surf Festival. Although it was a bit fat and bumpy early with the low it seems to be settling down and a little bigger as the morning wears on. Its around 2 – 4 foot with a SWtr blow. Enjoy. Surf Photos of You

Shire Rpt

Posted on June 11th, 2011 in Surf Reports.

Looking pretty crook. Heaps of whitewater visible at Boat Harbour, and the rest of the stretch is pretty badly onshore and sectiony. Grey day, too

Goin Past

Posted on June 11th, 2011 in Manly.

Saturday morning brings grey surf and rain  Swell is a bit weak at Manly as the energy is heading past.  Looks like you have to wait quite a while for a shoulder – head high one to swing into the right spot  Low tide around 10am so maybe it will improve as right now things are a litle fat.  Offshore and clean.

Surfboards Direct

Huey’s back in da house

Posted on June 10th, 2011 in Dee Why.

Aw Huey…

Posted on June 10th, 2011 in Dee Why.

Afternoon update:

Used the excuse of needing to test the new Olympus TG-810 tough waterproof camera to jump in at Dee Why point this morning before the clouds came over. When I pulled up there were some nice solid looking lines coming in. I thought I might be a bit under-gunned by the end of the session due to the forecast dramatic swell increase. At that stage the MHL Sydney buoy was showing more than 2 metres of 10-12 sec south swell.

But it all changed when I got in the water.

Maybe it was the SW wind, maybe it was just Huey being contrary, but whatever the explanation, the swell immediately began to back off. The sets weren’t as big and the lulls were getting longer. By the time I gave up on it an hour and half later, the crowd had dropped from a dozen to only two or three and nothing over waist high had turned up in the previous half hour. Still, I managed to jag a few waves and a few snaps while I was about it.

As I changed in the carpark, the sky began to cloud over per the BoM’s prediction.

By 1400 the ocean was a mass of white horses, the swell was a dribbly looking metre or so at Dee Why and the MHL buoy was showing 2 metres of 8-11 sec south swell. Very disappointing. I’d hoped we might get something quite a bit better than that…

Oh well, so it goes!

New swell.

Posted on June 10th, 2011 in Long Reef.

There has been a nice increase of swell overnight.  Don’t you love it when you check out the surf and put yesterdays tiny surf out of your memory banks.  The swell is expected to increase during the day and peak overnight.  At the moment its around 3 – 4 foot but smaller in the southern corners.  There will be waves over the weekend with the winds from the southern quarters.  Have a great day with anticipation of getting waves soon. Surf Photos of You.

New South Swell

Posted on June 10th, 2011 in Surf Reports.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patience

Posted on June 10th, 2011 in Manly.

Slow signs of a new south swell.  Wait and every 5 or 10mins there’s a 2ft set. Will be bigger at south facing beaches and they say its going to pick up later in the day. Clean , offshore etc

Surfboards Direct

Rolling with Rocky (HMB Jetty)

Posted on June 10th, 2011 in California, Half Moon Bay, Surf Reports, Surf Sessions. Last night when I slid my 7'0" Emm into the boardbag, I noticed a small ding near the tail rail. I'm guessing it involved an unfortunate encounter with a barely submerged rock when I got knocked down in the shallows at Cowells last week, although I'm surprised I didn't notice it sooner. There's a sharp shallow dent with delamination that strangely extends under the tail guard. I was going to tape the ding and surf anyway, but thought better of that. The board is dry now, and best to get it fixed right way. So instead I loaded my 5'8" Surtech Xanadu Rocky into the car for dawn patrol. I've been riding Emm since late fall and was curious to see how the session would go on the shorter board.
I talked with Vanessa in the parking lot before she dashed across the road for a quick surf ahead of her trip to Sayulita later today (lucky!). Deepak and I were next into the water, and took a spot near the main peak while Vanessa surfed farther down the beach. The sweet solitude lasted a mere ten minutes before shortboarders clotted up the main peak, pushing me to the next one. While I didn't have trouble catching waves, it took me a while to get my feet planted anywhere close to where they needed to be on the little board when I popped up. Too far forward, sinking the nose. Then overcorrecting, many times, too far back and close together. Those rides were consequentially brief. Every once in a while a head-high set would roll through, giving the shortboarders nice rides, and I tested out my remarkably rusty duck-diving skills (that is, lack thereof). As the first wall of rumbling whitewater approached, I thought, OK, what do I do again? Push the nose down and also--. The wave answered: Too slow! You are going for a TUMMMM-BLE! After dozen more of those, I found some of the rhythm again and my duck-dives became at least partly effectual. Not so much my popups, although I count it as an accomplishment that I stuck the landing and made the drop on one chest-high wave (which sadly closed out at the bottom and chucked me off).

Rocky &; me, a few years ago

Emm was shaped to be a transition board between my 8'0" Magic and the 5'8" Rocky, although I wasn't sure if Rocky would be a good fit for me even if my skills improved. Now I know it's not, and I'm starting a list of what I don't like for my shaper. The board felt too light, like it was hollow or made of styrofoam. I know it actually is lighter of course because it's more than a foot shorter than Emm, but it felt like it didn't have enough density and was getting tossed around like a pool float. The board also seemed too wide when I was sitting on it, but based on a straight comparison of Rocky's numbers (11.75" x 19.5" x 14.875" x 2") to Emm's, I'm not really sure how that could be, unless perhaps it holds its wide width father back.

Regardless, Rocky's years with me are almost up. My next birthday present to myself will be the same as the last: a custom board shaped by Ward Coffey. Something smaller and more maneuverable than Emm, and also duck-diveable. I will be a decent shortboarder one day.

Surfline: 3-5'. Inconsistent SW (205-220) groundswell holds as short to mid-period NW (295-310) swell-mix mixes in. Most better exposures have waist-chest-shoulder high waves, while standout spots are seeing better sets. Winds are light-moderate onshore out of the SW-WSW for some healthy surface bump and texture at most breaks. Buoy46012: (Wave) SWELL: 6.6 ft at 9.1 s NW 45 / WIND WAVE: 4.3 ft at 6.7 s NW / WVHT: 7.9 ft / APD: 6.8 s / MWD: 315° (Met) WSPD: 14 kts / GST: 16 kts / WVHT: 7.5 ft / DPD: 10.0 s / WDIR: 320° / ATMP: 53.4° F / WTMP: 54.1° F. Tide: 3.5' falling to 2.5'.

Rolling with Rocky (HMB Jetty)

Posted on June 10th, 2011 in California, Half Moon Bay, Surf Sessions. Last night when I slid my 7'0" Emm into the boardbag, I noticed a small ding near the tail rail. I'm guessing it involved an unfortunate encounter with a barely submerged rock when I got knocked down in the shallows at Cowells last week, although I'm surprised I didn't notice it sooner. There's a sharp shallow dent with delamination that strangely extends under the tail guard. I was going to tape the ding and surf anyway, but thought better of that. The board is dry now, and best to get it fixed right way. So instead I loaded my 5'8" Surtech Xanadu Rocky into the car for dawn patrol. I've been riding Emm since late fall and was curious to see how the session would go on the shorter board.
I talked with Vanessa in the parking lot before she dashed across the road for a quick surf ahead of her trip to Sayulita later today (lucky!). Deepak and I were next into the water, and took a spot near the main peak while Vanessa surfed farther down the beach. The sweet solitude lasted a mere ten minutes before shortboarders clotted up the main peak, pushing me to the next one. While I didn't have trouble catching waves, it took me a while to get my feet planted anywhere close to where they needed to be on the little board when I popped up. Too far forward, sinking the nose. Then overcorrecting, many times, too far back and close together. Those rides were consequentially brief. Every once in a while a head-high set would roll through, giving the shortboarders nice rides, and I tested out my remarkably rusty duck-diving skills (that is, lack thereof). As the first wall of rumbling whitewater approached, I thought, OK, what do I do again? Push the nose down and also--. The wave answered: Too slow! You are going for a TUMMMM-BLE! After dozen more of those, I found some of the rhythm again and my duck-dives became at least partly effectual. Not so much my popups, although I count it as an accomplishment that I stuck the landing and made the drop on one chest-high wave (which sadly closed out at the bottom and chucked me off).

Rocky &; me, a few years ago

Emm was shaped to be a transition board between my 8'0" Magic and the 5'8" Rocky, although I wasn't sure if Rocky would be a good fit for me even if my skills improved. Now I know it's not, and I'm starting a list of what I don't like for my shaper. The board felt too light, like it was hollow or made of styrofoam. I know it actually is lighter of course because it's more than a foot shorter than Emm, but it felt like it didn't have enough density and was getting tossed around like a pool float. The board also seemed too wide when I was sitting on it, but based on a straight comparison of Rocky's numbers (11.75" x 19.5" x 14.875" x 2") to Emm's, I'm not really sure how that could be, unless perhaps it holds its wide width father back.

Regardless, Rocky's years with me are almost up. My next birthday present to myself will be the same as the last: a custom board shaped by Ward Coffey. Something smaller and more maneuverable than Emm, and also duck-diveable. I will be a decent shortboarder one day.

Surfline: 3-5'. Inconsistent SW (205-220) groundswell holds as short to mid-period NW (295-310) swell-mix mixes in. Most better exposures have waist-chest-shoulder high waves, while standout spots are seeing better sets. Winds are light-moderate onshore out of the SW-WSW for some healthy surface bump and texture at most breaks. Buoy46012: (Wave) SWELL: 6.6 ft at 9.1 s NW 45 / WIND WAVE: 4.3 ft at 6.7 s NW / WVHT: 7.9 ft / APD: 6.8 s / MWD: 315° (Met) WSPD: 14 kts / GST: 16 kts / WVHT: 7.5 ft / DPD: 10.0 s / WDIR: 320° / ATMP: 53.4° F / WTMP: 54.1° F. Tide: 3.5' falling to 2.5'.