Midway through the day and wanted to share a few snaps from surf hunting this morning. Lots of size thanks to the 4 metre south swell, but as usual with Sydney, the actual surf options were fairly limited. Went up to Avalon and back and the story was pretty much the same everywhere – big, but not really all that interesting because of so many close outs. Any place remotely surfable was mobbed as well. Ended up getting into some very messy and weird ones at shitrock with Dee Why’s Rob and a kiwi pal of our site from way back. Bit silly, but at least I sorta got one okay one and can therefore say I surfed today!
Well, as I’d hoped, the swell’s cleaning up as it fades and this morning’s dawn patrol has turned out to be a good thing at spots like Dee Why. Both the point and the beach are seeing some solid head high to a little overhead sets. Not surprisingly the combo of swell, blue skies and almost no wind is being reflected in the numbers in the water.
Let me see if I can go find you some more pics to look at later…
Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Thursday until midnight: Wind: Variable 5/10 knots at first, tending E/NE 13/18 knots during the afternoon and N/NE 18/23 knots in the evening. Sea: less than 1 metre, rising to 1.5 to 2.5 metres during the afternoon/evening. Swell: S/SE 1 to 2 metres, decreasing.
Friday: Wind: NW 10/15 knots inshore and 15/20 knots offshore ahead of a S/SE change 20/25 knots in the morning, easing to SE 15/20 knots later.Sea: 1 to 2 metres, rising to 2 to 3 metres for a period during the day. Swell: SE 1 to 1.5 metres. Possible thunderstorms.
Saturday: Wind: E/SE 10/20 knots.
Did you get in today? There were a few options around. I figured there might be a little something getting into Manly this morning, so I pretty much headed straight there. Got some fun and reasonably sizeable sets between Queenscliff and Nth Steyne. Conditions were damn fine too. Light offshores, solid 11 second, 2 metre east swell and sunny skies. Curiously, it was not that crowded.
There were certainly plenty of people in the water having fun, but the groups at each of the half dozen or so distinct peaking zones where relatively scattered. It was more of a challenge getting waves because there was quite a difference between the bigger sets and everything else. So, if you paddled inside, you ran the risk of getting hammered by a bomb, and if you sat out the back, you missed out on the more consistent offerings inside. That’s surfing I guess.
Didn’t really give the Bower a proper look, but there seemed to be a crew on it out there. From what I could tell, it was better from the top of winki around to Deadmans.
After I got out, I spent some time shooting up and down the stretch from Queensie to mid-Steyne. I’m currently processing the pics, so you’ll find them in the galleries on my personal site in the next day or two.
Came home via Curly, but it was surprisingly inconsistent and small compared to Manly. Watched the small cluster of folks in the middle of the beach for awhile, but they really didn’t catch much.
Did some chores, and then made another quick dash down to have a look at the Collaroy-Narra stretch. There was the usual population issue up at Northy, but I didn’t have time for a closer look. I assume there must have been something given the numbers. South Narrabeen had three or four peaking zones and folk were out running the risk of snapped boards and bodies. Sets were breaking pretty hard on the banks and for the most part you couldn’t make them for more than a few seconds. Still, makes for good picture taking, so I stuck around until the light went away.
Happily, it looks as though we’ll have another couple days of fun waves – at least. Have yourself a great evening.
Short and sweet: it’s firing again this morning (’scuse me while I wipe this egg off my face). Swell is a couple metres from the south at 11-13 seconds apart, so if you got waves there yesterday, check it again today.
Pics up shortly…
Low tide is at 1023 and high’s at 1712.
Not as big as the beachy but fun looking for sure.
South swell stacks into Dee Why beach.
Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Saturday until midnight: Wind: NW/SW 10/15 knots tending SW 15/20 knots during the evening. Sea: 1 to 2 metres. Swell: S 1.5 to 2 metres.
Sunday: Wind: W/SW 8/13 knots, tending NW 10/15 knots in the evening.Sea: 1 to 1.5 metres.Swell: S 1.5 to 2 metres.
Monday: Wind: W/NW 15/25 knots shifting S/SW 20/30 during the afternoon and evening.
Just back from a shooting session at Dee Why. Light was pretty ordinary, but I shot a lot anyway because it was so big. You’ll find the pics below the Bower shots…
In the meantime, here are some snaps I got from a sesh at the Bower this morning. It was pretty setty and the light was fairly dull, but I did get a few okay pics (still having issues with the camera focus mechanism). Waves were pretty fun too. But man did those sets have some clout. I think we all got worked at one time or another…
Frank jags a sizable one on his deluxe veneered bellyboard.
Checking the lip.
The Bower was producing a few worthy ones for the biggish crew.
And here are a few snaps from Dee Why late this afternoon…
It was just nuts at the point this afternoon.
Deportment lessons with Ms. B.
That ain't no short board either.
Set looms on the horizon at Dee Why point.
The champ taking a hard line with one of the sets.
Bit of a mixed bag this morning. I started my survey of options with a visit to Manly. Not many in the water along the beach but looked like a fair few at the Bower early. Beachy was producing some very, very nice looking set waves, but you’d be doing a bit of work if you got caught inside and as a consequence it was not excessively populated. Looked to be waves from one of the beach to the other.
Bodyboarder finds a pocket.
Patience is rewarded with some Manly cleanness.
Mr Aquabumps preparing to shoot at Manly this morning.
Not looking too big in this shot, but some larger ones getting in.
Didn’t check Freshy, but did have a look at Curly. Couldn’t see anyone in the water from the middle of the beach south. Too glarey to see the north end but I’d be surprised if there was much quality given the look of the rest of the beach. Big, but disorganised and chaotic looking for the early.
Over the hill at Dee Why the situation was much the same. Swell was overwhelming the point and the beachy just looked messy and big and confused. Every now and then you could jag one of the medium size ones at the point (too big and they just close out across to the top of the super peak). Only a small crew in the water for the early.
Mid-size ones were most makeable for the early.
Up at Collaroy things were pretty ho-hum. You could get a left back from the pipe, but the swell needs more north to really get going. Nothing much getting into the Kick. A sole tow-in was working out at Centuries…
Just him and a mate with a jetski doing tow-ins.
Last stop on the run-around was a visit to south Narrabeen. Only a couple bods in the water there and for good reason. Very high percentage were shutdowns and they’re big and quite heavy so you really don’t want to be in the impact zone for any length of time. Had to wait 10 minutes to get a shot of a person on a wave – and then I forgot the autofocus wasn’t on… d’oh!
Looked like quite a crew up at Northy as well.
One of the few makeable ones at south Narra this morning.
Sets stacking into Dee Why for the huge crew to feast upon.
Hello Friends,
Just go now if you possibly can. Offshore, shoulder to head high plus at south spots. Easing offshore winds, sunny skies, low tide at midday…. whadya want? Oh, no crowds? Um, sorry, they were already there at first light. Everywhere will be jammed, but the swell seems to be pretty consistent so just be patient and you’ll definitely score.
This is going to be a big shooting day for yours truly, so expect a heap of pics later.
In the meantime, I’ve posted another batch of 350 (seriously!) I shot in just 45 minutes at a very, very good high tide Dee Why beach just on dusk last night. If you were out there you might wanna have a look through and see if I caught your inimitable stylings. I shoot anything that moves, but try to pick the peak moments when you are least gooselike!
Have yourself a top old day.
Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Sunday until midnight: Wind: SW 20/25 knots easing to 15/20 knots during the day.Sea: 2 to 2.5 metres abating 1 to 2 metres. Swell: S 2 to 3 metres.
Monday: Wind: W/SW 10/15 knots tending SW 15/20 knots in the evening.Sea: to 1 metre rising 1 to 2 metres. Swell: S about 2 metres
Tuesday: Wind: SW/SE 10/15 knots.
If so, I hope you went a bit better than I did. PB and I headed down to No Mans around mid-morning. Not sure I’ve ever encountered so much sweep there. Basically the entire go-out was spent paddling steadily toward the south. If you relaxed for a moment you’d get carried back into a dunderland of weirdness and rips straight out from the lugga. I did get a couple fun ones though, so was worth doing. However, in retrospect, I wish I’d gone for the late down the beach toward the SLSC.
I ducked down there for about 3/4 hr of shooting in the last embers of the day. Shot at least a couple hundred frames, so I’ll process them overnight and put them up on my blog tomorrow at some point – should anyone be interested. UPDATE: find 350 snaps I took in 40 mins here.
Outlook for tomorrow is for the swell to keep on pumping and for the SW to gradually ease across the day. It’ll be fine and mostly sunny as well, so I plan to get out and about with my camera again.
First tide tomorrow is a high at 0657.
Saturday until midnight: Wind: W/SW 20/30 knots, chiefly offshore.Sea: 2 to 3 metres offshore.Swell: S increasing to 2 to 3 metres.
Sunday: Wind: SW 20/25 knots easing to 15/20 knots during the day.Sea: 2 to 2.5 metres abating 1 to 2 metres. Swell: S about 3 metres.
Monday: Wind: SW 15/20 knots.
Tuesday: Wind: SW/SE 5/15 knots.
Been awhile since I had a water camera and a chance to surf the point. Put those two together from around 1100 to around 1400 and came back with a few keepers to share. An extremely fun sesh too. Crowd ranged from 4-10 depending, so it was no drama for your ancient mariner correspondent to snag a few as well. Had such a good wave (in that I surfed it about as well as I can surf) for my last one too. Dontcha love when you can finish up on a really good wave? Just leaves ya glowing I reckon. Anyhoo, herewith a sample of the pics I got. I’ll be posting everything I shot later over on my own site just in case anyone in the water wants one.
Pulling into one after another - as usual.
Dee Why TV personality Mr Martin gets hisself slotted.
He was catching heaps in a frantic effort to get his fill before work.
It got overcast and cold, but for the hardy few who were willing to snap a board if they got in the wrong spot, there were waves to be had on the dropping tide. Ah, winter time.
