Saturday morning saw a couple metres of south swell with a period of about 10 seconds lighting up beaches around Sydney. South Narrabeen was looking tasty early with offshore conditions. I ended up shooting until the wind started to hack it up at mid-morning. As always, I tried to get shots of anyone who caught a wave – and to make them look good doing it!
And as usual, all pic sales go to my lens and camera upgrade fund – so I can take even better pictures in future!

South Narrabeen Sat 28 Aug 2010 0815-0945 – Images by Don Norris

Plenty of activity along the beach from Dee Why.

Pocketed at the point on a beautiful morning in Sydney.

Hello Friends,
If you can possibly manage it, I’d be hunting waves at your favourite south swell spots. Swell has bumped up overnight, both in size and in period. At Dee Why that means consistent waves along with sets comfortably into the head high range. Tide’s high around midday, and we’ll have light mainly offshore breezes this morning. I’ll try to get a few more pics for sharing later…

Go well!

Tides: 1140 H, 1813 L
Synoptic Situation
A deep low over the southwestern is moving slowly southeast. During Friday a high pressure system will develop over the western Tasman Sea.
Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Thursday until midnight: Wind: W/SW 10/15 knots reaching 15/20 knots offshore in the morning. Local inshore afternoon seabreezes. Sea: 1 to 1.5 metres. Swell: S/SE about 2 metres.
Friday: Wind: W 10/15 knots, tending E/NE 10/15 knots in the afternoon and N/NW 15/20 knots in the evening.Sea: 1 to 1.5 metres. Swell: SE 1.5 to 2 metres.
Saturday: Wind: N/NW freshening to 15/25 knots. N/NW 10/20 knots.

Hi all,

Wandered down for a late morning wave at the point and the beachy at Dee Why.  Some fun waves to be had with sets pushing into the head high range at the point and overhead in the beachy. There’s a heap of sand affecting the point though and so bigger sets were sectioning rather than wrapping around. Beachy had some good and intense lefts and rights for a sizable crowd. Lots of duck diving thanks to fairly frequents sets.

I had the Panasonic FT-1 along with again and grabbed a few snaps for y’all…

Setting a nice high line at the point.

Snapped a fin off on this one.

Dunno how that board got there...

In motion

Another wave keeps its appointment with the sand.

Hello Friends,

Did you get in amongst it yesterday? Not everywhere was surfable, but those spots that were served up some epic conditions. This morning looks smaller and less consistent, but not radically so. Sets are into the head high range at both the point and the beach. Once again the latter is more productive than the former.

The MHL Sydney buoy has gone off the air but looking at the conditions and with an eye on the other data, I think we’re looking at south swell at around the 2 metre mark and about 10 sec apart.

From the look of the models, we can expect the swell to stick around at reasonable size for as far ahead as they look (next weekend). Quality is likely to be variable though, particularly as we get out to Weds when the Bureau expects the generally SW’ly winds of the last few days to shift around to the SE.

I spent hours shooting hundreds of pics at Gardens and Dee Why yesterday (looked elsewhere too, but they were the best of what I saw). I’ll post the times and locations later when I get the last of the pics uploaded so that you can go see if I caught you stylin’.

Have yourself a top old day!

High tide was at 0740 and low will arrive at 1303.

Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Monday until midnight: Wind: W/SW 10/15 knots, tending S/SW 15/20 knots in the evening and reaching 20/25 knots offshore overnight.Sea: to 1 metre rising 1.5 to 2 metres in the evening. Swell: S 2 metres.
Tuesday: Wind: SW/SE 10/15 knots, grading to 15/20 knots offshore. Sea: about 1 metre. Swell: S about 2 metres.
Wednesday: Wind: SE/NE 10/15 knots.

Lully out there, but definitely a few sets around at 0715

Hello Friends,

Hi all,

Grabbed a few snaps on the way home from soccer. The executive summary is as follows: Manly is waist to chest high, crowded, give it a 7/10; Curly is chest to head high plus, crowded along pretty much the whole beach, 6/10; Dee Why very crowded, about shoulder to head high plus, 7/10; Longy, typical Sunday crowd, waist to head high plus, mals best, 7/10

And here are the pics…

Looping back on one of the better ones.

South Curly sort've not quite coming together late this morning.

Aiming for the lip at North Curly late this morning.

Definitely want the long one for the bombies at Longy late this morning.

Hello Friends,

Get on it if ya can this morning. And if ya can’t, this afternoon should still have some quality in semi-exposed south corners (see Bureau notes), however be warned that the peak of this little pulse seems to be this morning (if the profile from buoys down south plays out here too).

As of 0830 at goodly sized Sunday crew were tearing into Huey’s latest deep southern ocean treats. Size along the beach is head high to a touch overhead. The point is both less consistent and slightly smaller on average. Not that Dee Why is your only option on a day like this. I’d expect the beaches of Sydney to be waveland, but the spots that like their energy from the south will be firing most strongly.

This morning has an ideal mix of conditions: low tide at 0822 building to a moderate high at 1437, wind from the at 7-10 kts and swell with a power range of 10-12 seconds.

Kid soccer for me this am, so might try to grab a few snaps to add to the collection on my way home. Have a good one!

Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Sunday until midnight: Wind: W/SW 15/20 knots, tending S/SW 10/15 knots by the afternoon.Sea: 1 to 1.5 metres. Swell: S 2 to 3 metres.
Monday: Wind: E/SE 10/15 knots.Sea: about 1 metre.Swell: S 2 to 3 metres.
Tuesday: Wind: E/NE 15/20 knots.

At least a couple peaks visible from the crows nest at 0730

This is not a set wave, note crowd location...

Hello Friends,

Short version: still lots of waves to be had, but it is smaller on average. Skies were darkening and showers were visible off to the south of Dee Why when I climbed up into the crows nest to get a picture or two. The numbers are looking pretty good: south swell of a couple metres at 10s and light SSW winds.

Along the Dee Why stretch that means waist to chest on many of them, but a reasonable number into the head high range (if not a touch bigger). Crowds are well down over past days now that school has resumed and the workers have returned.

Maybe it’s the dark grey sky, but the 0745 temp of around 13 felt particularly chilly (surpress those smiles Viccos!). We’re set for showers along the coast and the high will gradually creep up to around the 17 mark.

Here’s the Bureau’s call.

Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Thursday until midnight: Wind: S/SE 10/15 knots, reaching 15/20 knots at times.Sea: 1 to 2 metres.Swell: S 2 to 3 metres. Waves breaking dangerously, close inshore. Isolated morning thunderstorms.
Friday: Wind: NW/SW 5/10 knots. Sea: less than 1 metre. Swell: S 1.5 to 2 metres.
Saturday: Wind: S/SW 10/20 knots, increasing to S 15/25 knots.

I plan to update with more later…

Hello Friends,

Appears that we still have a bit of swell and, as PB’s already noted, light offshore breezes to begin. The tide’s pretty high for now, so it’s probably going to be mid-morning before things get going at the spots exposed to the south. There are some fun looking waist to chest high sets happening up the beach from Dee Why SLSC.

Here’s the marine forecast:

Wednesday until midnight: Wind: S/SE 10/15 knots tending E/SE in the afternoon. SW 5/10 knots inshore early morning.Sea: to 1 metre. Swell: S/SE about 2 metres.
Thursday: Wind: S/SE 5/10 knots, tending E/NE 10/15 knots in the afternoon.Sea: to 1 metre. Swell: SE about 2 metres.
Friday: Wind: NW/NE 5/15 knots.

More later…

Dee Why about 0740 was looking plausible for a little beachy fun...

Hey late night fans!

I'd say we have a bit of swell folks!

Batemans Bay is showing 3 metres at 9+ sec right now…

I’d say it’d be worth the effor to be up for the early tomorrow…

Latest word from the Bureau for Monday:

SW 20/30 knots at first, easing to SW/SE 13/18 knots in the afternoon and S/SE 5/10 knots in the evening.Sea: 2 to 3 metres slowly abating to 1 to 1.5 metres.Swell: S 3 to 4 metres decreasing to 2 to 3 metres in the evening.

Sounds like Monday’s the day…

Catchya again tomorrow!