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

Had not intended to get wet this morning, but it ended up happening. It’s not my fault I tell you. I was just checking it out and there was this guy I know from, from, er, the industry (I think he was supposed to be at work too) and he said ‘aw c’mon, you gotta at least get wet for three waves…’ So, what could I do? The gear was in the car, what could half an hour do to the day…

It was very cold changing in the carpark at Longy, I can tell you that. Grey, drizzly skies weren’t improving the situation either. But the water I’m happy to report is still absurdly mild for this time of year. Felt like it was 10 degrees warmer than the air.

Sets were chest high and reasonably frequent for the small crew scattered along the peaks toward No Man’s. Got my micro quota and then headed back to the world of urgent calls and overdue stories…

BTW, a small boast on behalf of Surfrider Northern Beaches. Some time ago, our convenor Brendon Donohoe happened to notice a big new development getting underway just north of the Sands hotel. Beach nourishment is one of the key strategies Surfrider has been proposing as an alternative to beach destroying seawalls at South Narrabeen, so Brendon rang the developers to see if they would be willing to let Council have the sand for the beach. It was a fortuitous call and the catalyst for an agreement that now sees 30,000 tonnes of sand moving from the prehistoric dune down to the shoreline at Mactier and Wetherill Street. (And this morning I was a last minute ring in to represent Surfrider in a picture for a story in the Manly Daily.)

Late Sunday morning I stopped by south Narrabeen and caught a few snaps of the crew out lacerating a peak under stormy skies. You can see all the pics here.

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The entire gallery of shots is here.

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Check out the complete collection of 62 shots from this magic morning by clicking here

Hello to all the teatime crew,

You’re an elite (ie small) group kids. Most of the traffic at the site has now simmered down, but your webmaster hasn’t backed off ’cause we got waves and it just wouldn’t be right!

Latest data from the MHL Sydney buoy is showing a couple metres of SE swell with an average period just nudging up to 10 seconds. There are some 12 sec sets in the mix as well. The good news is that the Batemans Bay buoy is showing a couple metres out of the SE as well, but the average period is pushing up to 11 sec.

We’re set for light SE wind again tomorrow morning, so with luck there will be a few waves around the place for Sunday. Could be cloudy though, as there are showers in the forecast.

Just on dusk, I headed down to the beach again, just to see how the swell was going. The wind had backed off, so I thought there might be a little something along the Collaroy-Narrabeen stretch. And sure enough, there were still people in catching the lumpy bumpy not so little waves pushing into the stretch. After grabbing a few snaps, I went around to Long Reef for another look as well. No one in the water at the bombies that I could see, but some bodyboarders were messing around in the little surge at Fishermans.

About 10cm deep where he is...(Fishermans)

Last rays of Saturday illuminate a moment of acceleration.

There's a person in that ball of whitewater...

At least you could surf 'em at far nth Collaroy.

Dusk entertainment.

0920: tough to catch the little weak ones at south Narrabeen

Went for a little wander to check out the conditions. The dominant feature at 0900 was the chop. The SSE wind was chewing up pretty much everywhere I looked. Far South Narra was probably the least affected, but the waves were weak and around waist high at best. Dee Why was lumpy and junky looking, so I didn’t even bother grabbing a snap.

Around 0900 there were a few fat sets rolling into the north end of the beach.

Over the hill at Curly, the swell was much more evident, but frustratingly for the very few people in the water, it was just as weak, slow and junky as everywhere else. The north end seemed to be a touch smaller than the south. But we aren’t talking a huge variation in size. Figure on waist high with the odd shoulder high set, and you’d be about right.

About the biggest waves seemed to be at Sth Curl Curl, but junk city too.

Next tide is a low around 1:16 this afternoon and by then, the wind could be around to the E-NE at 10-15kts and that might be a good thing for the northern ends.

Go well with your Sunday!

Hello Friends,

Spent a fair amount of time driving around this morning to get a good sense of the conditions. As I’ve already noted below, the conditions are pretty similar to yesterday, but maybe a touch better. There just seem to be a few more waist high sets, and it looks like slightly more of them are standing up on the inside.

The Collaroy-Narrabeen stretch is about where it was yesterday afternoon, ie sort of rideable at Northy and less consistent but not much smaller down the beach where the NE’r is getting into it more.

The call is for the wind to build up to 20-30 kts by the close of play and I reckon that should mean that your fave NE windswell spot should be showing a little more than this morning. Could be a plan…

If you're gonna ride 'em at Dee Why, you'll need the right gear.

Hello Friends,

From my excellent vantage point at South Curly, I can see the little east south east swell angling in. It’s pretty listless though. Kinda like my notebook battery which seems to be on the point of fading out. The MHL buoy is telling us that we have about a metre on average of 7sec period windswell. What this means, as the pictures I’ve posted illustrate, is that we’re facing marginal conditions, to put it mildly. 

The biggest wave I’ve seen this morning was in the middle of Curly. It was maybe waist high for four or five seconds before it sank away to nothing. Still, the guy on it was doing better than yours truly has since returning from Cali, so I’m not feeling in the slightest bit superior.

(battery died, so now somewhat later…)

It looks to me from the data that one has to travel a long way north from Sydney to get a chance at a reasonable wave.  And even then, I’m not sure how spectacular the options will be. Might have a look at some cams later to see if I can find anything of interest on that front. 

Outlook through the rest of the work week seems to be pretty much more of the same, ie a metre or so at sea and 6-7 sec from the ESE to ENE. Wind today is set to be 8/13 kts SE, swinging NE in the arvo, but not picking up much. Tomorrow the NE should kick in harder in the afternoon and maybe drive up something at NE windswell spots toward late afternoon. 

Go well with your plans!

...by a palm tree in the sand, oh I wish they all could be...

No one out, but certainly no worse than most other spots this morning.

The Collaroy to Narrabeen stretch is distinguished by two features: a lack of any crowd and a lack of anything much in the way of a wave. But… while it’s damn small, there are a few little things to be had if you are extra keen. Just figure you’ll be catching them in really, really close to the beach at southy and that they’ll be soft, gentle rollers in the knee to waist high range up at Northy.