Hello Friends

No need to contemplate a surf today in Sydney. At least not on the open beaches. Swell peaked overnight at 6 metres (+3 metres of seas) off Sydney. It’s dropped back to “just” 5 metres at around ll sec.

Wind is ESE 25-30 kts, so everywhere is blown out.

Here is the Bureau’s summary:

Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Strong wind warning.
Saturday until midnight: Wind: E 20/30 knots, easing to 15/20 knots by late afternoon/evening. Sea: 2 to 3 metres, abating to 1.5 to 2 metres by later.Swell: NE 4 to 5 metres, breaking dangerously close inshore. Abnormally high tides. Damaging surf.
Sunday: Wind: E/NE 15/20 knots, easing to 10/15 knots at night.Sea: 1.5 to 2 metres, abating to about 1 metre. Swell: E/NE 3 to 4 metres, breaking dangerously close inshore. Abnormally high tides.
Monday: Wind: N/NE 5/15 knots.

That wave spray's got to be a hundred foot in the old money...

No hope of a surfable wave at south Narra today.

Don talks surfin’ on ABC 702 Sydney radio with Simon Marnie of the Weekend show

Hello Friends

Wind is ESE around 15-25 kts but it looks as though we’re due for a break in the showers following the morning rush hour downpours.

Ocean is extremely messy and disorganised and pretty woofy looking too. Swell is averaging around 5 metres from the east. The period setting is ranging from 9 to 11 sec, so it’s damn big.

I’m really not too confident of finding waves worth picture taking today, but I’ll keep an eye on it for you.

Just saw this tweet from Ian Cairns who’s out in West Oz: “margaret River is 8-10′ with a brisk offshore blowing. Other waves around here will be good today.” If you want to follow him, he tweets as KangaCairns

Big, messy, raining, what can you say?

Nup, no hope for this joint.

No real protection from the wind at the 'roy either.

Can't see how you could surf out there this morning.

.

Here’s what the Bureau has to say:

Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Gale Warning.
Wednesday until midnight: Wind: E winds 25/35 knots, reaching 40 knots offshore early. Wind easing to E 20/30 knots by the afternoon, then to E/NE 15/20 knots tonight.Sea: 3 to 4 metres, abating to 2 to 3 metres this afternoon, 1.5 to 2 metres tonight. Swell: E 3 to 5 metres, breaking dangerously close inshore. Heavy showers/rain.
Thursday: Wind: NE 15/20 knots, easing to 10/15 metres later. Sea: 1.5 to 2 metres. Swell: E about 3 metres.
Friday: Wind: N/NE 10/20 knots.

Hello Friends

As promised I went out to see if I could grab a few pics for ya. Not the most photogenic conditions unfortunately. First stop was the Bower and it was looking just plain crazy out there. Lots of water in motion, sets in the 2x or bigger range and only a couple mad people tossing around in it. Saw them get a couple but mostly it was just maintaining through the choppy surface conditions on gradually diminishing shoulders.

A small group of equally demented surf persons were rocking off in front of that boat shed just north from the shops at Bower Lane. Some of the sets were doing some unpleasant looking things amongst the rocks too. The surfers would then paddle out and around to south Steyne where there were some very big and generally messy looking peaks. Again, as with the Bower, the main point seemed to be to get in the water and catch a few on a really big day. Not much in the way of performance surfing going on.

Headed north to see what was happening up at Collaroy. There were a couple folks battling their way out to Brownwater and I even got a picture of one bloke on a wave. Collaroy looked totally out of control, ditto the kick.

Then the rain really set in, so I decamped up to Mactier street for a squiz at the far southern end of Gardens. The rain was bucketing though and I had to wait awhile for it simply to lift enough to grab a snap of the seriously heavy stuff sweeping down the beach from the north. Not surfable by anyone in their right mind. But impressive power and I wonder how it’ll go for the beachfront places along that stretch tonight when the high tide and swell look set to peak around the same time…

If possible I’ll try to get out for one more look at things before close of play today…

Stormy and crazy at the south end of Manly.

Throwing seaweed and sand right up to the Bower lane cafe's doorstep.

Over the falls at south Steyne around noon.

The Bower was mostly a diabolical heaving mess at high tide.

Like name like nature. Near the chair at Brownwater 1300ish.

Those are a couple hundred metres away, so it ain't small at Mactier St.