No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face.

[alakaboo]

Freezing. Fun.
I made it out of about 3 of 25.

I got absolutely murdered by one wave. Pindrop out of the lip on a 3-footer into knee deep water. Picked up and bodyslammed into the sand so hard my knee and arm were fully buried, then my whole body got shaken like a Labrador with a rabbit.

Mercifully the sand was fluidised like a gritty chocolate mousse or I would've been joining the duck on the sidelines

[Trev]

How cold was the offshore this morning -

???
I was back in boardies and a rashie this morning.
One of the best surfs at my local in months. Shoulders, neck and thighs are all sore.
Hoping the westerly doesn't destroy it for tomorrow.

[alakaboo]

Not looking good for Braithwaite's meteorological overreach.

[steve shearer]

There was plenty of new S swell in the water here but I doubt much will get past Cape Byron.

[alakaboo]

He was going north, no?

[steve shearer]

that's what I mean.

[steve shearer]

Braithy will be up to his nuts in surf this morning.

[crabmeat thompson]

hey shep/ boo, what's this delicate little cotton wool-like weed that was everywhere ... up and down the whole stretch of beach. you cast out, and reel in and it would foul your line and eyes on the rod. took about 10-15 minutes after each cast to clear it all.

Been going to this spot since i was a teenager, and never seen it before. the place was full as sunday morning with campers, but not a soul fishing, because of the cotton wool weed. Got a fish in back near the river mouth y'day morning, and there was none there at all, which kinda debunked my theory it got washed out of the upper reaches of the river in the

what is it, and what causes it, and how long does it stick around for?

I'm just back in phone range for fuel, milk & ice & showers then back up there. surf is building, hopefully score the point this arvy uncrowded when the SE winds get up.

surfs been pumping. sunday bigger than yesty, but yesty was still a little overhead and kegging lefts & rights. sunday was a dud ... too big on the beachies and the point was being spoilt by 1 million ppl and a sideshore W wind.

back home late tonight or 1st thing tomorra ... depends on beach access. i'm complete cut off except for half an hour either side of low tide ... speaking of. i gotta start flying.

[steve shearer]

I know the weed, we call it cornflake weed. It's oceanic, don't know much more about it.
seems to be more on the sunny coast than down here.

[alakaboo]

Yeah cornflake weed. Happens as a bloom when it's been dry then you get a storm and it flushes out some nutrients.
You won't catch anything in it, and I have a theory it makes fish flesh a bit suss so don't eat dart etc. from nearby.
Lasts for weeks.

[crabmeat thompson]

it was different to cornflake weed (i think?). it was white/ colourless. was literally like sporadic little bits of cotton wool. it would bunch up on the fishing line and look like a bloodworm at the first rod eye.

anyway ... surfed that point up there. was pretty good. 2-3ft and clean as a whistle. parked on the open side and walked up over the headland. was more of a hike ... but we had a backpack full of bananas and water.

the open side was big and closing down for hundreds of metres at a time. hard to put a size on some of the sets i saw, but looked like it was nudging on 6ft sets, easily a consistently 4-5ft ... but apart from one left running off the rip off the rocks, not surfable.

that weed though ... that was a killer. usually catch our dinners up there. not this time.

[alakaboo]

I know the weed you mean. Don't know what it is called, but it sucks and there is no avoiding it.

[steve shearer]

yeah, me too. Used to get thick in pumicestone passage.

[crabmeat thompson]

yeah i didn't think it was cornflake weed. plus it got thinner the closer i got to the river mouth. almost looked like some sort of moss which might build up on a reef and dislodge for every 150 year storm. but we've had no such storm.

Not looking good for Braithwaite's meteorological overreach.

haha.i missed this little gem from our resident little scientist.

I looked at the wave data just now, and i'm not sure whats going on, because up there it was pumping sunday, super fun monday and tuesday was too solid to surf the open beaches, so bigger again. it felt every part of a solid 2m E swell. maybe even two swells in the water E & SE?

a far away 5-6ft E swell with a much longer interval and it was really powerful and wrapping for about 300 metres at 3ft down that super protected right hander, and a closer more localised SE swell with way less energy but making for some of the funnest open beachies i've surfed in years. just piping at 3-4ft.

So what were the forecaster's call? 2-3 ft ... and i said 4-5ft ... and other than a dip in size monday, if I was reporting it, i'd have called it 4-6ft open beachies. easy.

boo, what does a scientist do when the data doesn't correlate to what his eyes are seeing and his body is feeling? does he call that a miracle?

[alakaboo]

No he changes his theory.
That's the difference between science and religion

[ctd]

yeah i didn't think it was cornflake weed. plus it got thinner the closer i got to the river mouth. almost looked like some sort of moss which might build up on a reef and dislodge for every 150 year storm. but we've had no such storm.

snot weed?

[crabmeat thompson]

yeah i didn't think it was cornflake weed. plus it got thinner the closer i got to the river mouth. almost looked like some sort of moss which might build up on a reef and dislodge for every 150 year storm. but we've had no such storm.

snot weed?

maybe ... does it have a different name? i googled snot weed, but it came back with fresh water weed

[crabmeat thompson]

snotweed sunshine coast comes back with this.




annnnd that's enough internet for today.