RealSurf Surfers' Forum

naaaaww cute.

Guys if we keep talking about point breaks someone's going to draw loofy a diagram.

Jimmy it is due to the shape of the coastline, nature of the geology and the incident swell angle.

Swells up here are more oblique to the coast, and there aren't as many headlands breaking things up.
The headlands down south extend into deeper water and form pocket beaches which the water and sand don't move around.

Surfed Noosa in a cyclone swell at low tide once. The wife went for a dip at Little Cove, got swept around to first point before she even knew what happened. I jumped in at Boiling Pot and was down past Nationals before I manged to punch through and get out the back. Sweep was so strong you couldn't even stand in knee deep water in it.

Loofys quiver is built for point breaks . He should probably either sell all his boards, or just pack up and move to Queensland.

sweeps, worst ever was in a cyclone swell up north. Paddled out from deadmans and got washed all the way past cylinder point and ended up coming in half way down home beach. Didn't make it out the back at all. Rode the whitewash to the beach. That's gotta be easy a kilometre and a half of just getting swept.

Hatchnam wrote:

Drailed wrote:Breed em soft in Qld, what kind of soft cock can't paddle out through a river mouth. You blokes should be ashemed of yourselfs.

On average, a core QLD point break surfer would paddle circles around any Sydney surfer. The sweeps up there in big swells can be a total nightmare.

True, true. As I was reminded at Xmas. I was saying yesterday the pecking order up there at Kingscliff was based on paddle power as much as who you knew in the old days. Always put you in good condition for the Sth Quennsland points.

Jimmy if you thinking of hitting the thinking mans Byron come early, real early. Both to beat the wind and get the low tide jump off. Rock off today was just fcuked up and tomorrow will be worse. I'd love to buy you a beer but I'm at work most of the day , going to surf from 6-8 if I can get out.
Sunday I've got more free time if you're loitering.

building swell this arvo 6-10 feet

jimmy wrote:Even the "Don" as loofy calls it. Has a similar set up to a point up here but there is little to no sweep. When its big you can still get out but as I mentioned earlier, there was no way anyone was getting out at Burleigh this morning.
Looking forward to riding the Rich tomorrow Iggs. Not sure where that'll be but should be fun.

How far out does the sweep impact Jimmy? If you paddle wider, way wider, in deeper water, does it dissipate? You may paddle further but if the sweep hugs the break and you are way wide, can you avoid it and travel faster by not being in it? Does it dissipate considerably in deeper water or is it consistent through all water depths? Can't imagine it works strongly in deeper water. Curious about this.

Definitely less current out wide

yes BD. some points even have a sneaky reverse rip out wide which you can slot into and cruise back up the point.

steve shearer wrote:Definitely less current out wide

So then, why does everyone hug the break and winge about the sweep when it can be avoided by going wide and the total effort exerted is probably less overall?
And to pick up on Rancho's reverse rip, why aren't people taking advantage?

the assortment of craft out there this arvo was wild. hipsters on sub six foot keel fish, longboards, big ol MR step up which looked killer, few guns, a SUPer way out wide who was doing pretty well.

the most mental thing was watching local clubbies out past the shark drumlines on paddleboards taking 10 foot bombs.

Just remembering the Curren v Occy heat a couple (?) of years ago at J-Bay where Curren was paddling way wide between waves. Way, way wide, while Occy was hugging the break. No contest.

Good point BD. If you get a wave quickly then you're OK but I reckon the best waves at Snapper etc are the ones that draw off the bank and they are usually right in the middle of the sweep if that makes sense?
Thanks Steve. Might hold off til Sunday and bring my girl and daughter down for the day.

If you go wide enough, the sweep will largely disappear. But once you move into a position to be in range of actually catching a wave, you can be constantly paddling at about 50 to 60% power just so you will be only going backwards slowly.
If you catch a wave or not, you will eventually end up back to shore and generally you will be doing the walk around. You need the rest.

What they said.
No current means no sand transportation which means no bank. Gotta pay to play, paddle to stay in place.

the swell has dropped so anybody think it'll spike again or was yesterday the peak and the forecasts were wrong? I think the latter.

i think there's a new pulse late morning/ early arvo today from when winston retrograded back through our swell window on thursday.

steve will confirm or deny.