Hello Friends,

Had to drop my old tractor, er, car, in at mechanic’s for rego, so found myself fetched up in lovely Brookvale. Happily mate PB was free to give me a ride home, so we took the long way and checked the beach.

There were a few bods in the water up toward the Queenscliff end of Manly. Seemed to be a bit of a wait for waves, but every now and then a little mal-able option rolled gently in from the sparkling horizon.

Over at Freshy there were similar numbers in the water and the waves were about the same size if not a touch bigger on the sets. The only problem is that there are just no banks there at the moment, so every single one of them was shutting down, including the set wave in the picture below…

Last spot we checked out was Curly. It was around the same size as Manly and showing the same weakness. Looked like you could maybe get a fish up to speed for a few moments as the wave stood up, but that’s about it. Again, water looked inviting and the wind wasn’t into it. There are worse ways to kick off a week…

Finally, I just had a call from Brian up in Ooffs who reports that at long last they have a little something to play on. Wave faces are into the three foot range on what looks to him to be a mainly east swell.

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.

Hello Friends,

Did you get waves there yesterday? I’d go have another look at it today then. It’s dropped overnight, but if Dee Why’s any guide, you should still be able to extract a bit of juice from the longer period sets. Average size at sea is around the 1.5 metre mark. Sadly, the average period has dropped to 8 seconds (from about 10 yesterday). Some of the 10 sec component is still showing in the MHL data, so I expect that accounts for the chest high sets I saw at Dee Why when I grabbed this morning’s snaps.

Tide was low enough to get the peaks working, but it’s been headed toward the 1130 high since 0533. As it fills in, I’d expect conditions to go ordinary most places.

Here’s the Bureau’s call:

Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Thursday until midnight: Wind: S/SW 10/15 knots increasing to 15/20 knots during the morning. Sea: around 1 metre, rising to 1.5 to 2.5 metres. Swell: SE 1 to 1.5 metres.
Friday: Wind: S 15/20 knots, increasing to 20/30 knots in the morning. Sea: rising to 2 to 3 metres. Swell: S/SE 1 to 2 metres.
Saturday: Wind: S 20/30 knots.

Chilly morning didn't deter the early morning shift from grabbing a few sets like this.

Dee Why looking glassy on the incoming tide.

Hello Friends

Climbed up into the crows nest and pointed my binocs in the direction of Dee Why. As expected, the scene was not particularly inspiring. As of this writing, we have 15-20 kts or thereabouts of ENE wind chopping up about 1.5 metres of SE windswell. The power setting has crept up slightly and is currently sitting on 8 seconds.  Not too fabulous it has to be said. Throw in the dull grey skies and all and all it’s looking good for doing something else.

Looks as though it’ll fade a little more overnight.

Here’s the Bureau’s call for tomorrow:

Tuesday: Wind: E/SE 10/15 knots.Sea: about 1 metre.Swell: SE about 1.5 to 2 metres.
Wednesday: Wind: E/SE 10/20 knots.
Thursday: Wind: E/NE 10/20 knots.

Surf outlook according to the latest models is for small ESE windswell through Thursday.  Then we might get a small longer period south pulse Wed pm to Thr midday. Friday and Saturday look like being small (2m)  E – NE windswell.

So not going flat, but not going off either.

Currently no real prospect of a Hamish pulse that I can see…

Hello Friends,

As promised, went out and about with the lens to see if I could get a few extra pics from this morning’s beach activity.

First stop was Freshy where one guy was waiting a very long time for knee to waist high sets. He finally jagged one and I got the shot below:

Set wave gets under foot.

Heading north, I stopped for a squiz at the Curl Curl action. It looked as though it might be a bit bigger up the north end, but the south end was not too dissimilar to the conditions at Freshwater. Only a couple folks in the water and after a wait, one of them obliged by catching a little one for me to take a picture of.

Not too dramatic, but at least you can sort of catch 'em.

Dee Why looked pretty much the same as this morning, only a touch brighter. Again, quite marginal conditions, but not flat. If you were keen…

Last stop on the run was at the southern end of the Gardens where the waves had been so tasty yesterday morning. Lots smaller and much weaker, but I’d say they were about the best of the bunch I saw. Not too many people out and though they were 90% shutdowns, the odd little section was still appearing from time to time…

Not really a patch on yesterday, but some actual sections to be had.

Grey skies and a weird intermittent problem on the server this morning. Perfect Monday combo… not!

So, what’s the situation this am? Well, since yesterday morning when we ran all those great pictures, Huey’s turned down the swell machine. The average height of the SE swell has only dropped marginally from around 2 metres to maybe 1.5. But, the juice setting has gone from about 10 seconds to under 8 seconds.

So, Dee Why, which had reasonable size waves yesterday, looks like this today:

0940: not looking too interesting

I don’t like my chances of finding anything dramatically better than this, but I shall go out with my camera shortly to see what else I may be able to find…

Here’s the latest (rather unlovely) marine forecast from the Bureau:

Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Monday until midnight: Wind: E/SE 15/20 knots easing to 10/15 knots later. Sea: about 1.5 metres.Swell: SE about 2 metres.
Tuesday: Wind: E/SE 10/15 knots.Sea: about 1 metre.Swell: SE about 1.5 metres.
Wednesday: Wind: E/SE 10/20 knots.

Hello Friends,

Weak and small everywhere I looked this morning along the southern extent of the Northern Beaches.

I started my run with a stop in at Long Reef to see what was doing. Not much, as it turned out. There were a couple bods in the water just south  from the lifeguard hut, but I lost patience waiting for them to catch something and instead grabbed a picture of an empty little thing scudding listlessly in near the lugga entrance.

Um, yeah... I guess you could if you had a mal - or something bigger.

From Long Reef it sort of looked like there might possibly be something down at the Dee Why end.

It turned out to be a slightly curious scene. Only two or three people in the water at a little before 0800 and there did seem to be a few peaks sliding weakly in. But as I watched, it became apparent that there just wasn’t enough energy in the waist high lumps to really get any speed happening.

Not the most amazing looking wave you'll see, but hey, he's riding something and the photographer wasn't.

After grabbing my Dee Why snap, it was back into the soob for the next exciting stage in my surf assessment process – namely driving up over the hill to the lovely expanse of sand currently known as Curl Curl.

Well, what can I say that hasn’t already been said about today? Not much actually. The light SE wind had begun its work on the surface conditions, but the swell was a little bit more in evidence than at Dee Why (emphasis on little). One person in the water at the north end who was doing a lot of waiting for not much at all, and a small crowd at the south end making what they could of the waist high stuff flopping over just off the beach.

Well, you could sorta ride 'em...

Impressed at the enthusiasm of the Curly water players, I made for the headland separating Curl Curl and Freshie. It’s an okay vantage point for those occasions when one wishes to drink in the seascape – while also checking the surf. The term “surf” is maybe not exactly the right word for what was happening at Freshy, but it’ll do. There were half a dozen folks scattered from the middle to right over next to the southern headland rocks. Indeed, the only wave I saw ridden was one that probably broke about two metres from said rocks (see below).

Cutting it as fine as you can at lovely Freshwater on such a morning.

Although I decided to turn around and head back to the home office at this point, I did grab one more snap of the action around the corner at Queensie. Looked rather tepid I’d have to say. A largeish crew on largeish boards having a nice yarn while waiting for Huey to send in something semi-catchable…

The crew out for a morning fitness maintenance paddle along Manly's wide strand.