It’s all not happening this morning. Had a look at Curly, Dee Why and Northy and all up I spotted a total of four people in the water. One each at Northy and Curly and the other two at Dee Why centre. This is not surprising however. The combination of grey, periodically rainy, skies and a gutless, tiny SSE windswell being worked over by onshores does not make for the most attractive incentive to get wet.
The outlook for the remainder of the day is pretty much for more of the same. Tomorrow isn’t looking a lot better, although there is some slight hope that as the wind goes around to the NE in the late afternoon that we might get something of interest in the afternoon at north corners.
Go well with plans today and keep on smilin’!
TIDES: H @0625, L @1315
Weather Situation
A high east of Tasmania is moving slowly east, extending a ridge along the New South Wales coast, while a low pressure trough is situated off the northern coast. During today the high is expected to move further east, and the coastal trough should weaken. The approach of a cold front from the Southern Ocean towards the end of the week is likely to bring a southerly change to much of the coast.
Forecast for Tuesday until midnight
Winds: Easterly about 15 knots. Seas: 1 to 1.5 metres. Swell: Southeasterly about 2 metres. Isolated thunderstorms offshore late this evening.
Forecast for Wednesday
Winds: East to southeasterly 10 to 15 knots tending northeast to southeasterly up to 10 knots around midday then becoming northeasterly 10 to 15 knots later in the evening. Seas: Below 1 metre. Swell: Easterly 2 metres.
Forecast for Thursday
Winds: Northerly 10 to 15 knots increasing to 15 to 20 knots during the morning then tending north to northeasterly 10 to 15 knots during the afternoon. Seas: Up to 1.5 metres. Swell: Easterly about 2 metres. The chance of thunderstorms offshore, extending throughout from midday.
Spent close to an hour taking snaps down at Curl Curl this morning. Waves weren’t exactly spectacular, being a bit on the fat and slow side thanks to the high tide and weakening south east wind swell. But the forecast wind didn’t turn up, so the 20-30 people splashing around on the banks in the middle of the beach were at least getting glassy lumps.
After I ran out of memory cards, I headed for home to process the pics and get them online.
BTW, if you end up wanting to buy a pic or pics from any of my galleries, then be sure to enter the coupon code HAPPYSURF and it will take 33% off the bottom line for ya.
To get a picture from the gallery Go to the picture you like, click on it so that you see the big version, then look up top left for the button that says “Add to Cart” and click on that. Click on the size you want. And then, if you just want the one, click on “Add and Checkout” at the bottom of the window – or if you want another, click on “Add to Cart” and go back to select another.
Just for fun I thought I’d make a little gallery of surfer “portraits” from the surf pictures I shot at Curly on the weekend. I got the idea after being contacted by someone who wondered if a particular shot was of them or not. So, I went through the pictures from the session and manually cropped and copied the faces to make this collection.
Anyway, I didn’t grab portraits of absolutely everybody I photographed, but there are enough that I figure one or two of you may see someone you know – or maybe even spot yourself! If that gives you a reason to have a look through the pics, all the better! Clicking on the pics will take you to the main gallery (I haven’t figured out how to easily link individual portraits to the pictures they came from… yet!).
It was Saturday 20 Feb at around 330pm when I rocked up to see if anyone was having fun in the small conditions at Curly. Sure enough, there were heaps of weekend warriors chasing the cute little waist to chest high peaks. Light was perfect for picture taking, so I did my best to capture regular folks having fun. If you were out, you might want to click through to the bigger version of the slide show. I got over 100 pics, so if you were out, and catching anything, there’s a good chance you’re among the snaps!
What a good weekend for getting out and getting wet. And if size wasn’t an issue for you then you were rewarded with nice set waves forming on a couple of very obliging banks. We were blessed with a nice off-shore today which somehow managed to keep the dust at bay. The offshore held on until 130ish and right on queue the westerly was replaced with a beautifully cool southerly which was welcome relief for everyone.
The highlight of the weekend of course the Womens national final of the Jim Beam Surtag series where the ladies put on a great show.
And it looks like we’re in for a rather large uptick in swell over the next few days so let’s hope the wind doesn’t wreak too much havoc and rain on our parade.
Lumpy fun for everyone today! Made it to North Narra and Curly this morning and checked out all points in between. Size-wise Curly was best with waves breaking both out the back and closer to shore though Dee Why looked alright as well as I drove by. A bit crowded at Curly but everyone was getting their fair share of rides in.
This morning’s shots will be posted later on today.
I went shooting at mid Curly from about 1350 to 1415. The gallery below contains a few of samples of the conditions. I’ll publish all the pictures I took on my personal site very soon.
Conditions were pretty good with a metre and a half of 11 second SSE swell turning into shoulder to head high plus sets along the beach at Curl Curl.
I was stationed in the middle of the beach so that I could get shots across a reasonably wide arc. I was using the professional grade Nikon D3 with a 200-400mm zoom.
Working my way through the backlog. If you surfed the middle part of the beach at Curly around midday on Thursday 23 July, I might have taken your picture(s). I shot around a hundred between 1130 and noon.
Went shooting this morning and here are the results. The original pics are very high resolution so it is quite possible to get a clean looking pic out of a very small area in the image. Exposure kinda went off the rails, but it’s easily corrected if need be.
Matt Banting (Port MacQuarie) from the Ocean and Earth International Teenage Rampage. Photo: Kirstin Scholtz
CURL CURL, AUS — The 10th annual Ocean and Earth International Teenage Rampage opened in contestable 0.5 to one-meter surf at Sydney’s Curl Curl beach this morning with the U16 and U13 boys kick-starting their charge for an early lead in this year’s prestigious competition.
Boasting a unique ‘top scorer’ based format, the 2008 edition of the Ocean and Earth International Teenage Rampage will see all 220 surfers, representing ten countries, advance through the first three rounds of competition to determine the eight highest scorers, who will earn places into the Quarterfinals to be held later in the week.
Australian Pro Junior Champion and local surfer Cooper Chapman (North Narrabeen) lead the Australian charge against a talented international field by posting the top-scoring heat total of his division, a 12.5 (out of a possible 20.00).
Joining Chapman on the leader board was U14 surfer Matt Banting (Port Macquarie) who looked particularly impressive against his older rivals, winning his round 1 heat with a convincing 11.00 score.
“It was definitely a combination of luck and skill out there today,” Banting said. “I would say more luck than skill even, whoever got the waves was going to get through and I was lucky I got my two off the bat and was able to take the heat lead early on.”
Fellow NSW surfer Jake Sylvester (Bar Beach) was chomping at the bit behind his friends Banting and Chapman, securing a solid 10.00 to slip alongside the front runners and put himself in the running for the prestigious U16 title.
Joshua Hay (Copacabana), Billy Bain (Avalon) and Damien Norman (Casurina) were other progressive New South Wales performers who rose to the top of the prestigious field today.
The U13 division saw some impressive surfing from the Tahitian junior team with 12-year-old O’Neil Massin who posted the highest heat total of both the U13 and U16 divisions combined, during round 2.
Massin, who has travelled to Sydney as part of the 16-strong Tahitian junior team, many of whom will be competition in the ASP World Junior Championships in North Narrabeen next week, dominated his competition in the punchy beach break conditions.
“This is my second trip to Australia and I love competing here,” said Masson a former U11 Tahitian Junior Champion. “The waves are very different from the reef breaks I surf at home but the competition is strong and it is a great challenge for me to compete here against the world’s best.”
Sydney’s Chris Robertson (Cronulla) unleashed the type of surfing that has earned him success on the pro junior circuit this year and was the second highest scorer behind the Tahitian with a 12.5 heat score today.
Rising stars including Izak Clifford (Marcus Beach) and Eli Steele (Moffat Beach) were joined by Jordan Lawler (North Narrabeen) and Brendan Hay (Copocabana) other top performers in this division.
Sunday sees the continuation of world-class junior surfing at Curl Curl beach with the possibility of the premiere U20 division which includes many of the world’s elite pro junior competitors, expected to compete throughout the day.
Names to watch out for include Tahiti’s Tamaroa McComb, USA’s Nat Young and French star Maxine Huschenot while Australia’s top hopes include Queensland’s Julian Wilson and Northern NSW surfer Heath Joske.
Hello Friends,
