Surfing Sydney Airport, early 1960s.

[Trev]

damn. that sounds like it was much more than just a novelty break. that'll give you something to contemplate over a shandy at the yarra bay sailing club.

here is Scott Dillon, First Wave, Bare Island Bombora, circa 1962.
Photograph : Jack Eden

The photo didn't quite work pp - here's a link that shows the same photo:-

http://blogs.hht.net.au/surfcity/?p=909

The Bare Island Bombie still breaks in large swells but I haven't seen anyone surfing it. Maybe they all go to "Ours" these days instead.

I've seen it break at a relatively small size. We were exploring the fortress one day when there was a decent easterly swell. Just big enough to see the potential.
Also I remember seeing that pic in an old book about surfing. Dug it out and it was "The Australian Surfrider" by Jack Pollard circa 1964. And actually it's a diferent pic. In the mag Scotty Dilllon is looking forward, not back over his shoulder at the wave. I can't work out whether it's taken slightly before or just after the one above. I suspect it's after and the wave has jacke dup a bit more. I'll try to scan it and post it up.

[alakaboo]

I asked him this evening and although he says he never surfed the Yarra Bay left he does remember other people surfing it.
He is as honest as the day is long and not prone to making things up. If he says it happened, I believe him.

I've ridden the yarra bay left, if it's the one I think you mean. It wrapped around the heads, went around the end of the breakwall and connected up to the reef in the middle of the bay near the cemetary.
But it wasn't breaking properly, just rolling, and I was on a 90s style windsurfer. You needed the wind assist to catch the wave, then you could depower and step back and surf it like an old mal.

The swell wasn't huge, but there was definite potential. The rebounds off the breakwall were big enough for some young boogs to catch and get some ludicrously heavy barrels.

[Jorgo]

Even though I grew up on the Northern Beaches - I had cousins that lived at Sans Souci and grandparents that lived on Cronulla Point - Tradewinds Apartments, I think they still there, the apartments that is - I'm 56 so the grandies are long gone. Anyway - I remember the punt that went to Taren Point and there was always ten of thousands of Jellies in the water. Plus I also recall surfing (well catching waves) on my coolite at Ramsgate on some 1-2 foot waves that came into the bay and broke on some sand banks off shore - seemed only novelty down that end of the bay though

[2000man]

My deceased grandfather used to tell yarns of walking waaaaaaaaaaaay out into the middle of Botany Bay as a kid, to fish off the sandbar at low tide – pre: dredge / reclamation /breakwall construction for the OS Container Terminal. He also said the waves would "break for miles" into the bay to Brighton le Sands... ?
sounds like a similar set-up to Windy Woppa (inc. the sharks).
We used to surf Bare Island, Yarra Bay (rebound) and a few 'secret' novelty spots within the bay back in the day... one memorable session at a certain abandoned ledge / boat-ramp springs to mind.
Have never seen if break since...
btw: cool thread!

[RickyG]

I grew up in the Shire and on countless journeys along General Holmes Drive I've looked at the BBay heads and wondered why swell doesn't seem to get in to the Brighton-Dolls pt stretch - I guess it just dissipates in the deep water? Pre-dredging there must have been some options out in the bay in the right conditions.
Dolls pt right near the bridge looks like a good set-up if the swell's there.

Someone above mentioned surfing it as a grommet, has anyone else surfed it or seen it surfed?

Something must have gone on there during that massive swell in '74 or so (waves washed over the Kurnell dunes and into the bay apparently).

[alakaboo]

forgot to mention, my experience was in mid-late 2009, not too long ago.

[2nd Reef]

As Marcus mentioned earlier wave action in the bay has changed since they dredged the heads. The intention was to redirect the wave energy away from the northern side of the bay (where the original surf spot would've been) to the south (Towra Point) side of the bay. It was done with little forethought and worked too well, the Towra Point wetlands began to erode under the wave energy. There was a freshwater lagoon behind the beach that was inundated with saltwater and the habitat of migratory birds was degraded.

Under huge conditions there is a very good left in the vicinity but you can only access it by boat or a seriously long mangrove bash. Taylor Bar, which sits off Dolls Point, also gets a few waves in big south swells.

Regarding the initial enquiry: before the third runway went in there used to be a hydraulic laboratory on the NW shore of the bay (where the runway now lays). It housed a scale model, about 30 metres in size, of Botany Bay and we visited it for a school excursion. The people running it turned it on recreating a 20 foot swell from the east. Great looking waves were breaking in nooks and crannies all around the bay.

Being a bit older and knowing how bathymetry works I doubt the accuracy of the model, but for a surf-stoked grom it was an eye opener.

[alakaboo]

The modelling done for the port expansion is apparently all dodgy too...

[oldman]

I've ridden the yarra bay left, if it's the one I think you mean.

I just called it the Yarra Bay left from a previous reference in this story, but it wouldn't have broken there since before the third runway, which was put in when, early 90's.

Of course swell can still get in wherever it can, but it won't be hitting the area where this forum is referring to. They have done some eye-popping work there dredging out the bay to make a huge sand bank which they are building monumental industrial works on, in particular port extensions. It is unbelievable what has occurred over the last 18 months.

As for Dolls point, well it's hard to imagine much swells geting in there at any time really. It's a long way from the heads, is roughly south west of the heads, which means some substantial wave refraction from anything other than a nor-easterly monster swell, and back in those days the wave energy as mostly dissipated in the middle of the bay. From comments on here, it must have been naturally a very shallow bay.

Cook didn't think much of it. Imagine sailing a gazillion kilometres from England, looking at Botany Bay and deciding it wasn't worth much, and somehow missing what was to become Sydney Harbour, 'one of the finest harbours in the world where a thousand ships of the sail could anchor', as Phillip would later say.

Although Cook was an amazing sailor, how he missed that one is quite a story.

[carvin marvin]

[/img]


I suspect that is the northeast side of Botany Bay in the background.

Regarding the massive swell of 1974, the swell peaked during the night, it was either Friday or Saturday, I remember going to Kurnell point which was about 5 feet, we then checked a bit further in the bay and ended up surfing on the western side of the oil tanker jetty. The waves were about 3-4 feet here, the water was brown, and it was a novel experience to be surfing good waves inside the bay.
I also remember that the wooden jetty between Kurnell Point and the oil tanker jetty got damaged during the night.

[carvin marvin]

Mick Kent appreciating the excellent dimensions of the waves, stalls just enough to let the curl fall inches behind.

[carvin marvin]

A very stylish goofy from Cronulla tears up one of Australias most exclusive waves.

[carvin marvin]

Mick Moylan takes a right which when it hit the bank, closed fast and was pretty hard to make.

[carvin marvin]

Here is the cover that the story and photos came from.

Surfing World
Volume 7
no. 3
Jan 1966
Price: Four Shillings.

[oldman]

Mick Moylan takes a right which when it hit the bank, closed fast and was pretty hard to make.

And I always thought the pub at Dolls Point was called Mick Moylan's because he was the owner. That was a good place to get drunk in the late 70's/early 80's.

Did he own the pub or was is just called Mick Moylan's because he surfed the occasional freak 2' sets there?

A very stylish goofy from Cronulla tears up one of Australias most exclusive waves.

Stylish????????????

You'd fit in with the old bastard mal and SUP crowd up Norah Head way.

[jimmy]

^^ ^^^^ Olds that was a different Mick Moylan... I was friends with Mick's (the surfer) son Mark and he wasn't a publican..

[oldman]

That's some effin coincidence!

[carvin marvin]

Oldman.
The words accompanying the photos are from the magazine.
Unfortunately I am not lyrical enough to come up with classic lines such as '' appreciating the excellent dimensions of the wave''.