Empty Coal Coast Pic's Saturday 7th July.

[surfanimals]

I would have taken more of surfers but it was that uncrowded, all I could find were empty breaks and sunrise shots !

Coal Coast doing what it just always seems to do....

[ex0duzjb]

6&7 for me .. sweet shots !

[cheesey101]

ahh mad stuf absolutely pristine

[surfanimals]

One thing i found funny about coalcliff was the amount of rocks and pebbles, even large(around 10cm accross) rocks getting washed around in the shorey.
I felt them paddling out but forgot about them.

Got a nice set all the way in from that outer left and pulled into the shorey closeout and starting freaking with all the rocks and crap getting thrown around.
Checked my newish board and couldnt see any dings though.

It is a spooky place for rocks...I've been surfing it on and off for years now when the banks favour it and there is always a rogue rock or 20 on the inside and the shore is always pebbly - maybe due to the creek and coal works above I'd say.

Awesome spot when everything is in place.

[Clif]

take these shots down!! these are secret spots! wtf!

hahahhahahha

just jokes btw ...

I love this turf ... thx animals.

[sean--]

Best waves I ever saw down that way was around 20 years back at Wombarra off the cemetary.
There had been plenty of NE swells and heaps of sand formed into the corner and way out past the point. Used to like Coalcliff too because it was semi protected in a southerly.

[Lucky Al]

speaking of empty, on a page of the wollongong city library website i just read that in 1820 there were an estimated 3,000 full-blooded aborigines in the illawarra and by 1899 the total was 33. when i look back now, i'm shocked to realise how white the area i grew up in was, as though we had some kind of apartheid thing going on. at austinmer primary there was one boy in my class, troy, whom we all called 'boong'. troy was our mate and we played footy and went bush-bashing and surfed together, but i have no idea what tribe he and his mum were from. in high school, he got into lots of fights - i don't know why, as he'd stopped surfing by then and we'd drifted apart. all my other mates were as white as white can be, except for one filipino boy. i remember the angriest our year six teacher dave martin ever got was when john called troy 'boong' in class. 'what did you say, john?!' - voice shaking, fists clenched. the blood left john's face in a second. even troy looked terrified. dave martin must have felt pretty strongly about that word.

[Beanpole]

Yeah Lucky Al I've thought the same thing about the Nth Coast. Apart from a few obvious places and hundreds of place names it was never mentioned in school. Since the place was originally occupied by timber getters who lived rough who would know what went down with the real locals as they moved in.

I must say after a walk past those new ritzy houses they've just built back from the point youd be be ripped off if you were west of the gigantic white windowless walled box that dominates the best bits of the development.
Living in harmony with the environment.

[Lucky Al]

well i hope the thirroul boys who stumble home blind-drunk after point parties these days are proudly fulfilling their duties as working-class grommets by pooing in the driveways and kung-fuing the letter boxes of those ritzy houses.

[surfanimals]

And too think, in 6 weeks I'll be moving too my new house at Coaly and leaving the crowds of Cronulla for good to surf it every day !

[sean--]

And too think, in 6 weeks I'll be moving too my new house at Coaly and leaving the crowds of Cronulla for good to surf it every day !

And will you be riding the mal most days ?

[surfanimals]

And too think, in 6 weeks I'll be moving too my new house at Coaly and leaving the crowds of Cronulla for good to surf it every day !

And will you be riding the mal most days ?

Geez, I hope not.....I'm hoping for lots of days over 2 foot so as to ride something a little more vertical BUT, sunny mal days every once and a while will be great too, well over riding potato chips on peeling days ....

[Hano]

speaking of empty, on a page of the wollongong city library website i just read that in 1820 there were an estimated 3,000 full-blooded aborigines in the illawarra and by 1899 the total was 33. when i look back now, i'm shocked to realise how white the area i grew up in was, as though we had some kind of apartheid thing going on. a

Interesting Al,
Makes me think about my earlier days when my parents moved from Manly to the South Coast. Whilst the oldies house was being built we lived at Port Kembla (great beach). I attended a school at Port where I was one of three kids in my whole year where the chosen language spoken at home was English. I would play at the park across the road (Coomaditchie) where there was a small indigenous set-up. I befriended a couple of chaps from Coomaditchie. Like most black fellas the lads had exceptional talent in everything sporting- footy, golf, surfing etc. Unfortunately there are still many white fellas’ in our society who find it hard to integrate, and use racism as a barrier to hide their intimidation. Growing up with a blackfella as my best mate (g’day Cunno) I saw it first hand.

On topic,
The coal coast is one of the most picturesque areas I’ve seen .Whenever I’ve made the trip up to the point and surroundin hot spot’s they’ve always been very busy.
That offshore bomby up that way looks heavy,i'd like 2 give it a go 1day

[bookster]

And too think, in 6 weeks I'll be moving too my new house at Coaly and leaving the crowds of Cronulla for good to surf it every day !

I just get scared of landslides down that way- they do have the odd one

[surfanimals]

And too think, in 6 weeks I'll be moving too my new house at Coaly and leaving the crowds of Cronulla for good to surf it every day !

I just get scared of landslides down that way- they do have the odd one

Funny you say that. Check the square rock to the left of the picture......it was not there last week and has rolled straight off the cliff and embedded on the sand !

Lucky it dod not happen on a sunny summers day as it would be right about where someone would have been sitting or we'd be walking to surf the bombie !!

So different to 2230 !

[puurri]

speaking of empty, on a page of the wollongong city library website i just read that in 1820 there were an estimated 3,000 full-blooded aborigines in the illawarra and by 1899 the total was 33. when i look back now, i'm shocked to realise how white the area i grew up in was, as though we had some kind of apartheid thing going on. at austinmer primary there was one boy in my class, troy, whom we all called 'boong'. troy was our mate and we played footy and went bush-bashing and surfed together, but i have no idea what tribe he and his mum were from. in high school, he got into lots of fights - i don't know why, as he'd stopped surfing by then and we'd drifted apart. all my other mates were as white as white can be, except for one filipino boy. i remember the angriest our year six teacher dave martin ever got was when john called troy 'boong' in class. 'what did you say, john?!' - voice shaking, fists clenched. the blood left john's face in a second. even troy looked terrified. dave martin must have felt pretty strongly about that

Around there Vic Chapman was Principal at Wenoona? primary school until abt mid 80's. He is a Gumilroi fella and a deadly ceramicist who exhibits at the Wollongong gallery etc.

As for "castes" then that is the role of colonial dispossession mantras:and my and many implied responses: but I put it to this couple

"Are you Jewish, funny you don't look Jewish?"

Funny, I ran this one past a pearls and twinset mob at a Mosman gig some months back, they were most discomforted.















Anyway there are good and true folk everywhere.

[tube5]

How fast things change...
only a few weeks ago "surfanimals" was raving about "2230"....& now ya gonna leave us .
Got admitt that even though I love surfin in 2230...I'd never live there cause it's a shit hole...much prefer the quiet / family life of 2232 & the "each way" option of surfing either 2230 or the coaly (if I feel like taking the extra drive),,
..hey SA...keep your beer fridge fully stocked...cause I'll be droppin' in for a few tubes...& I aint talking waves.
BTW I drink "Crownies".

[Lucky Al]

i guess 'white as white can be' doesn't make sense, unless taken metaphorically. maybe it makes more sense in relation to the area i grew up in if taken to mean 'full of hate and fear' - fear that the mines would soon close down and hate for the migrants coming to take all the jobs. junior soccer matches between thirroul and teams from figtree, unanderra, cringila and lake heights often ended in punch-ups.