Nice Early.

Beautiful conditions on the beach early.  2 foot and offshore.  Enjoy.  Surf Photos of You.

Cleaner…

Its heaps cleaner this morning than it has been for a while.  Swell is out of the E – SE and is a bit of  a mixed bag.  Its around 3 – 4 foot along the Narrabeen stretch but may be a bit straight there.  There are a few waves around.  Wind is just swinging around to the NE, so you know where.  Enjoy.  Surf Photos of You.

Small and smooth

There are still some small waves around this morning.  Be quick as they are filling fast with the high.  Nice light offshore W – NW breeze to make it a nice surf.  Enjoy  Surf Photos of You.

Late morning high tide blues

Pump it up

Swell kicking in

Hello Friends,

Was busy in the middle part of the day over in town. Got back to the beach around 1400. Checked the Bower to see if the wind was tearing it up. Chop wasn’t super bad, but it was too messy to tempt anyone out. Some sizable sets coming in too.

A few people were out along the Manly stretch, but it really looked like a lot of work to get out there and the bomb sets were pretty frequent. Wave faces were into the three metre range on the bigger ones.

Same story, if not a bit bigger again around at Curly. But no one in the water. Just too much of a struggle to get out and there weren’t any obviously consistent peaks.

Around at Dee Why the crowd was starting to gather on the point. A couple bods over in the beachy, but it looked rippy and hard work. The point doesn’t really like east swell, but there were some very makeable and slabby things coming in every now and again. The biggest sets were looking crazy though. I only saw a couple that didn’t shut down and for the most part folks were jumping on the little ones (wave faces in the 2-3 metre range).

Had a look at the Collaroy Narrabeen stretch too. Nobody in the water until you get all the way up to the north end. It kinda looked tow-able in the south, but you probably wouldn’t try paddling out. Northy was very well attended, but did not seem to be as consistent as Dee Why. A couple folks were playing tow-ins at Turimetta too.

The chop was present along all the south ends, but it wasn’t really bad.

Swell is currently in the 2-3 metre range with a whopping 12-13 sec period, so this is not a day for beginners!

Outlook for tomorrow is north to NW wind tomorrow morning and although the swell seems to have peaked up north, I’d be astounded if it was dramatically smaller on Weds.

Have yourself a good one!

If you didn't mind wearing the bomb sets, it was possible to jag the smaller ones too.

The queue lines up for a turn

The bigger set waves just a little nutty.

Pocket rocketing at Dee Why around 1400

Some sizable sets mashing into the point mid-arvo.

On a balcony in Redfern today.

Running around: Curly, DY, Sth Narra

Hello Friends,

First stop this morning for me was at lovely south Curl Curl. Bitterly cold at 0700 and already well populated, it was nonetheless quite consistent and, as it turned out, the biggest spot I looked at. Set wave faces were well overhead and despite a kind of raw look, there were some longish rides being had. I filed a live report from the beach (see bottom right for link) and grabbed a few snaps. The dominant impression is that the swell is generally slow and not very intense. Certainly there are snappy sections now and again, but mostly it’s looking kinda soft to me.

The bigger ones were looking interesting around 0700.

Kinda sectiony but fun to play around on at south Curl Curl.

Over the hill at Dee Why it was equally busy in the water as the pre-work crew grabbed a few wave memories to carry them through the day. When I first pulled up it looked as though the point might be kinda interesting, but after watching for awhile it turned out to be pretty slow and weak. Better for the fishy or mal I’d say.

The beachbreak was even less impressive. The swell looked promising on approach but most of the time the payoff was fat and full looking. I saw a couple fun-ish looking lefts come through and the light offshores were contributing in a positive way to the experience.

Maintaining a low centre of gravity at Dee Why beach.

Even at this size, you had to work 'em at the point around 0730.

After filing another quick live report and snapping a few piccies, I was glad to get back into a warm car* and head for my final check out spot on this run – Edgecliff Blvd on Collaroy Plateau. The southern end of the Collaroy-Narrabeen stretch was showing some okay size too. Not nearly as consistent though as the more exposed Curly and Dee Why.

*reminds me… I’d advise taking a couple litres of hot water with ya this morning. You’ll really be looking forward to the warming jolt when you’re back at the car getting changed out of your wettie.

They aren't that frequent, but sets look good.

High tide is just on 1000 this morning and low will be at around 1540.

Outlook is for the swell to weaken as the day goes along and by tomorrow to be back into the waist high range.

Get out there if you can and enjoy!

Snaps from this morning

As noted earlier, I was out and about with the Nikon D3 and 300 f/2.8 looking for some surf snaps. Got quite a few which I will post to galleries on my personal site later on. For now, here are some samples…

You can just imagine where this is going next...

All smooth and clean and ready for the next move.

Mostly not as good as this one in the middle at Curly this morning.

Pop up peak at maybe Emerald St or thereabouts this morning.

Another smooth moment at Gardens this am.

Nice rebound by a future NN boardriders champ from this morning at Northy.

Tide was kinda high and waves soft but very clean at Gardens.

Ski guy gets a shapely one over the reef at Northy.

Gardens on high tide

Stopped by south Narra to see how it was faring at around 0830. Skies were mostly heavily overcast, but there were some photographically interesting patches of light on the sea. Naturally I had the camera with me, so I grabbed a few shots to share.

The surf conditions were clean, but the tide was just on high so they were mostly floppy and hard to get into for the crew of two or three in the water. Wind was okay as well, but at that point it was still out of the SW. Once it comes more around to the predicted S-SE those smooth faces will probably be a lot less so. However, the Bureau does say the wind should back off a little in the afternoon.

Swell is due to stick around at about the present size, but the period is still averaging a less than amazing 8 seconds – with some 10sec component.

Have yourself a top old day.

Hunting sections at high tide Gardens.

Silvery sea and surfer at Gardens.

Gull running before a Gardens shutdown.

Photo crazy

Your webmaster has flipped. He’s goin’ nuts with the camera. I’ve already shot sth Narrabeen, Dee Why beach and Dee Why point. Plus I looked at but rejected as not worth the effort Mona Vale, Warriewood, Little Narrabeen and Northy. Late this afternoon I grabbed another couple hundred of the folks messing with the junky conditions at Dee Why beach. Funny how even in those ordinary circumstances there were a few okay ones. The way I figure it, even if a shot of you looks only half decent, it’s still better than no shot at all!

I plan to post the pics to my site tomorrow. Though that sorta depends if I go out shooting again or not…