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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 7:45 pm
by Johnno
You can froth some more as there's a spot tomorrow that's just going to be going off from sunrise all morning and their be me and the wildlife out.......... hahaha........ :wink: :lol:

Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 8:34 pm
by roosters
is it a grey nurse sanctuary bout 1-2 hrs north or syd?

Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 9:40 pm
by Johnno
No.............. a left hander on the east coast of Oz :wink:

Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 10:02 pm
by Johnno
More like Sydney- Gold Coast somewhere in that area....... those your thing about would be other options buy not mine :D

Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 10:02 am
by Johnno
I would be calling it around 10 foot............ bit like that up here today if you know where to look but around 6-8 foot :wink: :D

Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 10:19 am
by whitey
I class Double over head as being about 5-6 ft, with me standing about 5'6 ish... That being said the biggest surf i have ever been out in would have been 8-9ft Avoca Pines, because it was on the verry edge of being 3x over head... I definately had to clean out the wettie after that one....
.whitey.

Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 12:25 pm
by Hunter
im no charger and the biggest I ever had was dy point couple of weekends ago on that big southerly, I don't know how big people were calling it but **** me when the horison is filled with a wave about to dump on your head its damn scary. But the rush of actually catching some of them was insane. Its so relative to how heavy the wave is though, a 12ft wall is exhilarating, a 12ft barrel is heavy as.

Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 2:37 pm
by BB
yeh there were some pretty solid sets that day....a couple would have been triple O/H though there were a lot of smaller ones.

Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 2:52 pm
by Longygrom
10 ft Bar Beach Newcastle but 8ft Bells the scariest

Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 6:18 pm
by Nick Carroll
Look at wanto charging! Is that you in the photo wanto? Sii-iick!

BB, re your earlier comment abt Sunset etc, once I went surfing at Sunset on a channnel closeout day from the west, which is just totally wrong in every way, caught a few waves, could not believe how big it was! "Surely this is 20 feet!" said my brain. "Crap! It's GIGANTIC!" said my subconscious. I came in and there was Big Ken Bradshaw on the beach. "Not bad, huh?" he grunted. "Gotta be 12 feet!"

Anyway rather than boast about my Biggest Fricken Wave Ever Aren't I A Man, I'll tell you about the biggest wave I ever totally chickened out of. 2001 Hawaiian winter, December, macking Bay day, there's only about 15-20 guys out so you know it's big. Paddled out on a 10' Brewer, such a great board, big ol' single fin -- nothing better for that spot. A few guys out, Clark Abbey who's a classic underground charger (he trains Marines for a living!), Arnold Dowling, a Sarth Efrican called Andy. Fun vibe just like surfing Newport Peak except it's 20 foot. (Real 20 foot! Six-seven times overhead on the drop.) I catch a few then go and sit really deep and a wave comes, it's e-nor-mous and wedges up right on the part of the reef they call Eddie's Peak after you know who. I think, this is it. I've waited a large part of my life for a wave like this. 25 feet, square from behind the bowl. I know it's makeable. I'm like 80 metres inside everyone else. I turn, start paddling...

....then I realise I'm simply not ready to catch this wave. I'm in the spot but I ... am ... not ... ready!

I totally chicken out of it. Pull on the brakes, lift the nose of the Brewer and pull it back around. Feel incredibly humbled, small, aware of having touched a limit right there, on that day, at that moment.

As luck would have it the bloody thing shut down horribly, it would surely have been the worst wipeout of my life.

Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 6:48 pm
by Johnno
Thanks nick................ they are the sort of stories I like to here about as it really does take a special bread of person to venture out amongst giants.

Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 7:02 pm
by 2nd Reef
Nick,
Funny you mention those fellas cos I've got a similar story that involve the same crew and from the same season - 2001.
I paddled out the bay at sparrows with a Saffer mate called Bevan (who was a fair dinkum maniac, could hold his breathe for 4 minutes and would practice it just walking up to Foodland or sitting around watching TV) . We were ringing the buoys all night so we knew it would be coming out of the sky. Down on the beach the waves were washing all the way up to the tower and in the half-light you could see it was MASSIVE. We thought we'd be first out there but we were beaten by Tony Moniz. Didn't see him wearing a miners light but he sure needed one being out there that early. After about half an hour, and a good set to open my account with, we were joined by Clark Abbey and Saffir Andy (who I shared many early sessions at the Bay and Sunset with that season) and a couple of others. There was lots of 18'-20' sets hitting and about every 20 mins was a fair dinkum 20'+ set. After another wave, I found myself about half way out when I heard car horns from both sides of the Bay going off and saw the pack frantically paddling N West - none of them were holding their position.
Clark Abbey rode the wave just after me and so was further in. When I saw the first wave I was sure it was going to close out (which it did) about 20 meteres in front of me (yep, right again). I got the most awesome view from head high above sea level of a big fuggen wave (still the biggest I've seen), but didn't get hit as hard as I was expecting. Cause I had a 10' board that was 4" thick I got dragged about 50m and I think that was the worst thing, thinking I'm getting pulled back into the impact zone. As it was it wasn't too bad the next wave wasn't quite as big and the rest of the set didn't close out. I paddled back out with Clark both just buzzing with adrenalin and amping hard (and you would know Clark is a pretty cool cat). After getting panelled like that and surviving you're ten foot tall and bulletproof and that confidence helped me get a few more sets before they cleared the water for the Eddie. I grabbed food and drinks from home, parked my arse on the point and watched RCJ bring home the bacon. A memorable day
PS:One of my mates bolted to Honolua and only got 2 waves cause of the crowd.

Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 7:05 pm
by 2nd Reef
...and Wanto, that looks like No Toes to me