Will You Surf Alone and at First Light?

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pridmore
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Re: Will You Surf Alone and at First Light?

Post by pridmore » Sun Mar 20, 2011 7:07 am

as for the murky water, I try to avoid murky water near rivermouths coz thats where bull sharks lurk, they have bad eye sight and will go anything , even boats and stuff apparently, dumb and just looking for a feed. has been several attack near the clarence rivermouth where I surfed alot so always was aware of conditions and times to surf, tring to not surf early of if I was, it was not by myself except for a few occasions when it was really pumping but hard to relax and enjoy the waves coz always looking around, especially with fisherman telling me that I am crazy from the rock wall haha....
have surfed it really murky before and had dolphins pop up within 1 mtr of me and had no idea they were even there, pretty sharky place but in saying that, there's other places I surf by myself on Sunny Coast...also used to surf Anga's by myself a bit but had a shark incident there too one day....they are out there and I try to limit the chances of me being food and especially now my 12 yr old son surfs with me alot...told him, if you ever see something and not sure if it is a shark or not, get straight out...but its the one you dont see, they are ambush predators after all....aparently

alakaboo wrote:I surf at first light, but not in the evening any more.
I'm a bit more cautious at places with a known resident, like the big tiger that lives at Burleigh.

I'm more worried about tides and barometric pressure than time of day.
I try and avoid turbulent water next to a big dropoff.
bumfluff wrote:Also I reckon it's bullsh*t that there's more sharks in murky water, I think it's the opposite.
I reckon you're right.
There aren't many saltwater fish that hang out in murky water. It tends to have lower salinity, have less oxygen, have more parasites, and less food. Not a lot of reasons to stay there.

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Re: Will You Surf Alone and at First Light?

Post by Beanpole » Sun Mar 20, 2011 12:07 pm

I've never been an early riser unless I know its going to absolutely on so its rarely uncrowded. Can't see real good in twilight anyway so thats another disincentive. I've found over the years that you get more uncrowded surfs if you time it between the early birds and the party goers. Also friday arvos can be good cause everyones at the pub.

Theres one pop[ular "secret" spot in the middle of the entrance thats always crowded saturday morning and deserted saturday afternoon.
All the old mal riders are on the turps by then.
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Re: Will You Surf Alone and at First Light?

Post by brendo » Sun Mar 20, 2011 2:49 pm

personally ive always surfed at first light, especially in my late teens to mid twentys. nothin better than being one of the first guys in the water and even better when its gunna be one of those epic days. it also means you get 2 good solid surfs in before the onshores really hit late morn on a typical day. the only downside is that often, with lmited light and no one out to gauge size, ive fallen in to the trap of paddling out under gunned. usually days that look say 4 -6, but are really 6 plus or heavy long period swells. growing up surfing on the north coast, never really thought about sharks, except doing the paddle accross to south wall. now livin in syd, and surfing the national park a bit, i do get a bit spooked, compounded by the fact that ive seen a shitload of sharks brought in all caught off garie/watamolla. tigers, whites, bulls. you name it. the only other worry is injury. ive had some bad ones, luckily ive been with at least one mate at time. worst was snapped ankle ligs after a floater in waist deep water went wrong and needed to be carried out of the water. next was being ragdolled the entire lenght of the reef at cloud 9 in 6-8ft surf that resulted in bad rib damaged after paddling out on 6'6 banana board mid 90s, thinkin it was 5ft max. farken bad call that turned out to be :lol:

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Re: Will You Surf Alone and at First Light?

Post by Johnno » Sun Mar 20, 2011 8:16 pm

brendo wrote: the only downside is that often, with lmited light and no one out to gauge size, ive fallen in to the trap of paddling out under gunned. usually days that look say 4 -6, but are really 6 plus or heavy long period swells.


Had that happen to me quite a few times over the years........... :wink: :lol:

Just something about being in the line up with first light appearing on the horizon and feeling the calm as sun comes up. 8)

Feels pretty kool being the only one to surf somewhere on an epic day as well. :D

And brendo seen just as many sharks up here as I have when I used to live in Sydney ........ :wink:

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Re: Will You Surf Alone and at First Light?

Post by bumfluff » Sun Mar 20, 2011 10:54 pm

Johnno wrote:
Just something about being in the line up with first light appearing on the horizon and feeling the calm as sun comes up. 8)
For me this far outweighs the fear of sharks. I tend to get more spooked at sunset for some reason. Though often I'll stay out till I can't even see the sets anymore then paddle in. But usually I make sure I'm not the last one out.

I will admit lately I havn't been going at the crack of dawn and did so the other day at Dicky with just two others spread out and I was a little nervous and aware. This usually happens after someone's been on the news for a shark attack, doesnt matter where, it kinda brings the reality back a bit that at any time it could be you. Also I've seen 3 sharks in as many months so it's kinda on my mind at the moment, but it always passes.

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Re: Will You Surf Alone and at First Light?

Post by Trev » Sun Mar 20, 2011 11:28 pm

brendo wrote:personally ive always surfed at first light, especially in my late teens to mid twentys. nothin better than being one of the first guys in the water and even better when its gunna be one of those epic days. it also means you get 2 good solid surfs in before the onshores really hit late morn on a typical day. the only downside is that often, with lmited light and no one out to gauge size, ive fallen in to the trap of paddling out under gunned. usually days that look say 4 -6, but are really 6 plus or heavy long period swells. growing up surfing on the north coast, never really thought about sharks, except doing the paddle accross to south wall. now livin in syd, and surfing the national park a bit, i do get a bit spooked, compounded by the fact that ive seen a shitload of sharks brought in all caught off garie/watamolla. tigers, whites, bulls. you name it. the only other worry is injury. ive had some bad ones, luckily ive been with at least one mate at time. worst was snapped ankle ligs after a floater in waist deep water went wrong and needed to be carried out of the water. next was being ragdolled the entire lenght of the reef at cloud 9 in 6-8ft surf that resulted in bad rib damaged after paddling out on 6'6 banana board mid 90s, thinkin it was 5ft max. farken bad call that turned out to be :lol:
Got caught out like that at Freshwater (of all places) early one morning. First there, very large surf breaking nicely off the south wall. I thought). Jumped in the rip and made it out between sets without even getting my hair wet. Amazing! Then I realised how big it was and the current kept pulling me toward that big flat outcrop way out at the base of the cliff. Got caught inside a clean up set and just by pure luck steered to the northern edge of that rock and made it all the way back to shore. To this day I have no idea what possessed me to go out there alone. Drove around to Dee Why and suck rock didn't look at all scary for the first few take offs. :oops: Gotta admit it was one of the scariest few minutes in my surfing life. :shock:
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Re: Will You Surf Alone and at First Light?

Post by Skipper » Mon Mar 21, 2011 9:40 am

Pre dawn is almost peak hour at Bondi. Along with the scores of fitness freaks,  any hope of being the first out is thwarted by someone else who's got the jump on you. That said, I've found myself out till just after dusk and certainly if at the southern end, I can't help think of a professional fisherman/diver I know who's told me he often spots Bronzys and Bulls lurking about the point there. And the fact of there being an attack on someone, in the late afternoon a couple of years ago, doesn't rest easy.

Early 90's in Tassie, didn't think twice about surfing alone at the beach near where I lived in Southport. Despite the cold, I was often out very early and till almost dark sometimes. I knew there'd be Thresher's in the vicinity, Ab divers often spotted them. 
But the scariest incident was down at South Cape Bay.  I'd been there many times by foot and boat, with other surfers but one time walked in with some gals who didn't surf, and was out by myself on a gray still day in moderately big (overhead sets) on a very choice left off Lion Rock. It was a powerful wave, long fetch energy, and a few falls tested the legrope. Till it broke. I ended up in the channel between the rock and the break.  Set for a long swim back in. Half way in I saw the gals waving, pointing out behind me.  Now as well as having  a firm reputation for being Great White territory, this place had the last known fatal shark attack in the early 80's when a member of a church group was savaged after he was the unlucky one who's turn came up to use the one wetsuit they'd been sharing to spear some fish. Earlier attempts had left the water heavily stained with blood from the handful of fish they did manage to hit on target. This hapless victim was mauled in full view if his fellow Christians. 

So my mind was on this guy, as I freaked thinking my friends had spotted something. 

I swam very very quickly to shore to find they were pointing to my board out behind the break. 

I considered leaving it to get swept away, too cold and rattled to swim back out. but it got washed in eventually after a bomb set came through. 




  

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Re: Will You Surf Alone and at First Light?

Post by WANDERER » Mon Mar 21, 2011 3:38 pm

Due to the fact that I hate crowds and sydney has not only big crowds, but crowds full of idiots who get in the way, I do a lot of my surfing up the north end of the cenny coast (when time permits), plenty of Noahs up that way and no shortage of fishos to tell me about em, I do my best not to surf by myself up there at any time of the day, quite often i'd be the first out on good days on my favourite stretch and that first 15 minutes to half an hour before others paddle out is bloody freaky, plenty of spottings and a few atacks in the area so the risk is real, but when those banks line up it's easy to forget about them biteys, 'specially knowin that back down on Sydneys northern beaches there's bastards climbin over each other shoulder shoulder and here I am gettin worried about how long it'll be before the next surfer shows up!

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Re: Will You Surf Alone and at First Light?

Post by chrisb » Mon Mar 21, 2011 7:47 pm

I have only been the first in once at North Narrabeen :o in the '70's. It was so foggy at 6.30am you couldn't see the waves from the shore. The waves were Ok when I got out the back and no-one else turned up for 15 minutes.
As for nighttime, many times I have been out at The Pass after dark but I am never the last out.

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Re: Will You Surf Alone and at First Light?

Post by marcus » Tue Mar 22, 2011 4:21 pm

i think most know my thoughts on crowds and surfing in the dark.
depends on how comfortable you are with the spot.
someone in cronulla once said to me that i surf in weird places.
its really because i hate crowds.
ie a months or so ago i surfed around the winky / deadmans area at low tide becuase fairybower was a zoo. i didnt realise those rocks get in the way though so learnt a lesson.
night sessions rule.
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Re: Will You Surf Alone and at First Light?

Post by Chillin » Tue Mar 22, 2011 8:02 pm

Pretty much do most days, I draw the line at dangerous and weird iffy surf rather than the sharks at dawn thing. I'v sat out there probly 300 morns out of 365, never seen a yakka, but i'm pretty sure they are there. Had schools of pilchards fleeing who knows what all around me on occasions.
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Re: Will You Surf Alone and at First Light?

Post by sandfly » Thu Mar 24, 2011 2:31 pm

Surfing the early doesn't seem to worry me, whether there are other surfers out or not, but surfing at sunset really puts the spooks up me at times.

Think it is beacuse in the morning everything is slowly getting lighter while at sunset it is only getting darker.

Was the last one out down at a reef on the south coast a couple of years ago, my other mates had all got their last waves and it was only me out. There were fish (taylor I think?) chopping in the water all around me and it was getting quite dark. All I could think of was that there must be some other bigger fish around as well! The more fish that chopped around me the scarier it got, the only time I have ever felt the hair on the back of my neck start to rise.

Caught the first shitty wave that came through and got the hell out of there fast.

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Re: Will You Surf Alone and at First Light?

Post by Rustt » Mon Aug 10, 2015 8:17 am

Well that's the whole idea of surfing at first light isn't it?

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Re: Will You Surf Alone and at First Light?

Post by diggerdickson » Tue Aug 11, 2015 11:05 pm

I have to admit that one of the problems with travelling like I do is that I don't get to really know the spots, im never local. So in that regard I don't go out for the early first one in the water, specially at places like cactus and W.A. I use to go for the early solo sessions around Crescent Head when I was up there in the national park. Awesome place.

Im spooked a bit over here cause im not local and wont go out unless someone else is in the water. It just aint worth it to me anymore.
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Re: Will You Surf Alone and at First Light?

Post by Hatchnam » Wed Aug 12, 2015 9:32 am

Until people start getting chomped down here, frequently, then absolutely I'll continue either surfing solo or at first light.

Seen plenty sharks before in SEQ and far northern NSW, but not a single one down here yet.
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Re: Will You Surf Alone and at First Light?

Post by philw » Wed Aug 12, 2015 12:56 pm

couple of spooky reefs on central coast / newcastle area i wouldn't surf alone at any time of day now.

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Re: Will You Surf Alone and at First Light?

Post by philw » Wed Aug 12, 2015 12:58 pm

i've seen small sharks in yr surf zone iggy.
bondi included.

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Re: Will You Surf Alone and at First Light?

Post by Drailed » Wed Aug 12, 2015 1:01 pm

Only shark I ever saw was at Tamarama at first light, just its fin cruising in front of the headland between Tama and Bronte. So surreal.. Had to paddle right up to north end of the beach to paddle in. Completely uninterested in us, still, I was pretty relieved to get on the beach.
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