RealSurf Surfers' Forum

went down yesterday afternoon, expecting it to be flat, so just took the mat. the place was a washing machine. couldn't get out the back on the mat. so played on the reform waves. the mat went quite well. the cripple stick wouldn't have been much use yesterday. until then i hadn't been too impressed with the mat.

Ringmaster wrote:Blast of Summer today down in SW Vicco. 27 degrees, blue sky and light offshore fanning 2 - 3 foot of clean groundswell. Had a pretty fun (but fairly crowded) surf at a local reef break.

It was all put into perspective when I saw the photos of Manly on the home page of this website. Seriously, how the f.c..k do you people who live in that part of the world find the motivation to go out in those crowds?

Especially seeing as it's bloody average conditions at best..........

Extremely difficult to find motivation to deal with the zoo that is known as Manly Ringo. I steer clear of the joint on weekends & if I bother surfing then I'll jump in the car & head further up the beaches where you can actually find much smaller crowds, sometimes even uncrowded conditions.

SEQ pointbreak. Wasn't really doing it, tide and wind were messing with things, but there were some nice sections. A lined up wall is a thing of beauty, pity every time I had one 2 of my closest friends decided to join me, or at least paddle enough to collapse the wave and ruin everything.
New board is a rocket.

Surfed Avalon today...fun waves....cept for clueless gumbies floating around getting in the way and stealing oxygen.

I surprisingly had Flat Rock to myself this morning, save for a few dolphins. Knowing there were 40 guys jostling for average shoreys only 200m away made it even more enjoyable!

Got a dawn surf in at Gunnamatta this morning. It was a pretty small small but decent enough.

There has been massive erosion there recently. The steps leading down to the beach at the second carpark have been washed away and so has a decent few metres off the top sand covering of the beach. The track leading to the beach around from the SLSC Clubhouse now has a 6 metre drop on the edge down to the beach as the sand dunes have been completed eaten away.

End result is that the banks have changed a little and I dare say will change a lot more given another big swell event when more sand washes out when the dunes collapse - if they do.

We may be seeing a return to the good days of Gunna (when I remember them) around the early nineties when the banks where a heck of a lot better.

Got a few waves early at my local. From about 4.45 till 6.00. Then it got a bit crowded and the wind got stronger.
Nice to have a few though. Yesterday was the first surf in ages. Hopefully there'll be more tomorrow before this swell goes away.

Trev wrote:Nice to have a few though. Yesterday was the first surf in ages. Hopefully there'll be more tomorrow before this swell goes away.

You should have some good waves tomorrow Trev. And even Friday should be smaller but still fun.....although your local might not like the local wind direction come Friday so you might have to head around the corner!!!

Donweather wrote:

Trev wrote:Nice to have a few though. Yesterday was the first surf in ages. Hopefully there'll be more tomorrow before this swell goes away.

You should have some good waves tomorrow Trev. And even Friday should be smaller but still fun.....although your local might not like the local wind direction come Friday so you might have to head around the corner!!!

Thanks Don. "Round the corner" is actually closer to home.

Grooter wrote:Got a dawn surf in at Gunnamatta this morning. It was a pretty small small but decent enough.

There has been massive erosion there recently. The steps leading down to the beach at the second carpark have been washed away and so has a decent few metres off the top sand covering of the beach. The track leading to the beach around from the SLSC Clubhouse now has a 6 metre drop on the edge down to the beach as the sand dunes have been completed eaten away.

End result is that the banks have changed a little and I dare say will change a lot more given another big swell event when more sand washes out when the dunes collapse - if they do.

We may be seeing a return to the good days of Gunna (when I remember them) around the early nineties when the banks where a heck of a lot better.

The marram grass is a big problem. Not just at Gunna, all exposed beaches that have it planted. It causes dunes to become steeper so more sand slumps when big swells get into it. It only acts to stabilise the surface. As sand builds up, the grass continues to grow upward. The deeper roots die and leave unstable sand. Stupid fcuken humans trying to control nature to the last. Worst thing about this is, it's been known for ages and it is still being done

Late 80s, a few of my mates were actually planting the stuff at Gunna. Some govt. scheme for the long-term unemployed. Their supervisor was a top bloke and let them surf whenever the waves were on. Biggest lark was that some of them weren't even long-term unemployed. Brickies, landscapers and other assorted labourers mostly working for cash. They new when the next round of planting would start, so made sure they were registered at Centrelink (called something else then) for the required 6 months. Crustt might like to know that John Clatworthy was in on it

Idiots. They should use bitou bush.

Had to google it to determine whether my suspicion of sarcasm was warranted

Just assume sarcasm as the default.

Will do

This morning was hella fun.
2-4ft pointbreak, light to no wind, sunny and warm, long walls. Rode a single fin, as god intended.

Then when the crowd started to get a bit much I drifted down the beach and got some Peniche style barrels, including one left that'll be etched in the memory for quite some time. Didn't make it out, but I even got a hoot from a young pup on the next peak..

Christ, what a treat that was.

Fcuken daylight savings scratched the dawnie but the dropping tide was always going to be money at the point. After I saw the lines and offshore this morning when the cock crew i was sort of hyper-ventilating with surf panic.

I had to get to the Farmers market, drop daughter off at school then son at daycare whilst trying to breathe and freaking about the impending nor-easter.

I saw a solid 8ft+ set clean up the line-up on the way down the track and immediately decided the deep rock-off wasn't an option.....the paddle-out seemed to take forever and I went straight out, and deep on the furtherest back button hoping another one of those sets would come in.

There was no-one around me for fifty yards at least, the water was tropical blue and so, so warm. The surface of the ocean was glassy with the faintest zephyrs of wind swinging around the compass. It felt kind of dreamy, like I was drifting off to sleep.
I sat there for twenty minutes, then picked up a minor set that just broke on the back button.
The angle of the dangle was perfect, ESE.....the outside pinnacle gathered up the sets and swung them on the button or on the wide wedge corner section, which was barelling. It had an Indonesian Sunset beach feel to it.

Time passed, the wind started to puff from the nor-east, A few local blokes came and sat out with me. The mood was relaxed.

Maybe the set wasn't going to come. Maybe that big horrie bomb set was it. Finally the far outside pinnacle indicated something solid and sets appeared. I went deep and the set came wide. Cliffie was beside me. The next set drew up solid 8ft on the wide button and I was scrambling to get it. I turned under the lip and a big wobble made the lip double up underneath me and a second lip form.....I would've been pitched from crest to trough and I pulled back, just avoiding getting sucked over the falls.
Cliffie was beside me and said "chickenman.....bok, bok, bok".

Then he told a story about how he punched someone out at N.Wall. Some young punk who mouthed off at him. It was pretty funny.

Luckily almost immediately another set popped on the back button and I got in right at the apex of a wave that felt fcuking unreal.

I got two more before the wind came up proper.

It was real surf.

not quite the epic that steve had...
started out at tama on low tide and pulled into a few close-outs. on the last one, i was swept quite a way and got a surprise when i came up a few metres in front of the rocks. decided it wasn't worth the effort paddling back out and so continued around to bronte for some fatter close-outs. clubbies rescued a swimmer way out the back and a towed a young surfer back in.
at least there were dolphins yesterday.

swvic wrote:

Grooter wrote:Got a dawn surf in at Gunnamatta this morning. It was a pretty small small but decent enough.

There has been massive erosion there recently. The steps leading down to the beach at the second carpark have been washed away and so has a decent few metres off the top sand covering of the beach. The track leading to the beach around from the SLSC Clubhouse now has a 6 metre drop on the edge down to the beach as the sand dunes have been completed eaten away.

End result is that the banks have changed a little and I dare say will change a lot more given another big swell event when more sand washes out when the dunes collapse - if they do.

We may be seeing a return to the good days of Gunna (when I remember them) around the early nineties when the banks where a heck of a lot better.

The marram grass is a big problem. Not just at Gunna, all exposed beaches that have it planted. It causes dunes to become steeper so more sand slumps when big swells get into it. It only acts to stabilise the surface. As sand builds up, the grass continues to grow upward. The deeper roots die and leave unstable sand. Stupid fcuken humans trying to control nature to the last. Worst thing about this is, it's been known for ages and it is still being done

Late 80s, a few of my mates were actually planting the stuff at Gunna. Some govt. scheme for the long-term unemployed. Their supervisor was a top bloke and let them surf whenever the waves were on. Biggest lark was that some of them weren't even long-term unemployed. Brickies, landscapers and other assorted labourers mostly working for cash. They new when the next round of planting would start, so made sure they were registered at Centrelink (called something else then) for the required 6 months. Crustt might like to know that John Clatworthy was in on it

Do you reckon the banks could then collapse because of this? The idea of walking past 6 metre dead-straight high sand banks makes me rather nervous, especially at high tide when the waves are reaching the base of them.