Latest Surfs...

[oldmansurfer]

I forgot to mention that the last time surfed there I smashed the nose of my board

[drowningbitbybit]

Gorgeous conditions out there this morning... clean, offshore, 3–5 ft on the point and 2–3 ft on the inside.

Just a shame that its school holidays and every small child on the Gold Coast was out there. Now, if they were wobbling their little way on big foamies towards the beach, I'd be all "aww, bless, look at them, yay small child!"...

...but the talented little b@rstards we're whipping my butt

[Jester]

Oms that's a funny nose! It's like a canoe..never seen that on a surfboard before with chamfered rails.

[oldmansurfer]

It's called a boat nose. It is supposed to help with pearling however I really couldn't tell since I was riding a 9'6" longboard before that and never had much of a problem with pearling

[drowningbitbybit]

Tiny this morning... flippin' miniscule... 1ft maybe, and 2ft on the sets... I'm almost embarrassed to admit how much fun I had

[Jester]

What did you ride in that? It sounds like my last month of surfing since getting my new board it's been essentially flat here.. I've killed the Irish waves

[drowningbitbybit]

What did you ride in that?

I rode (in a somewhat inelegant manner) my 5'10, which - despite being 2" shorter than me - is pretty high volume. The waves were tiny but peeling along nicely, so I got some quite long rides. You gotta love a point break

[Jester]

"Damn you Salazar!" *shakes fist at sky* - you try 1-2ft on a beach break, 12 guys all fighting for a shoredump closeout!

[IanCaio]

Took my motorcycle at night yesterday, faced a small rain, cold and fog to get here. I could think of a thousand reasons not to come, and just needed one to ignore them all.

It's winter here, and I still haven't sold my tight john to get a better fitting one. Which mean't I would have to face the cold on the flesh. I'm a skinny guy, so there's not much volume for heating .
When I got there it was 2ft, 3ft hawaiian on series. As my friend who was there said, "surf is like that, somedays you rip it, somedays it rips you" (or something like that, you get the point). I managed to make a nice drop on a left (backhand), but I got too far on the flats, before I made a nice bottom turn (it felt like those late bottom turns on tubular waves), but once I reached the face it was crumbling already.
Later I failed on a late drop (felt like a small air drop, cause the lip threw me forward). The good side is that I was on my feet when I wiped out, and not trying to get up, so it might mean my pop up isn't too slow. Not sure yet though, it was not fast enough for that wave .
I then was beside my friend when he started paddling sideways, a big set was coming. I dodged the first one, but was caught under the lip on the later. A unconfortable hold down (gotta practice my apnea again). My friend told me my face was priceless.
I then regreted not stretching my legs, cause the cold gave me cramps, and I had to leave water shaking a lot.
Later I went in again with my friend, wearing the tight john, but it was hurting my crotch, and I want to believe that was why I didn't catch a good one .

Despite it all, it was totally worth it, pretty images, two rainbows showing themselfs on the break, surfing with a friend. I really love this place, and can't wait to call it home.

[drowningbitbybit]

Sunday morning... checked the surf report, "2-3 ft, but smaller and clean on the points"... checked the surf cam, looking good in a small kind of way, but not too crowded... looking perfect for a relaxed sunday morning surf to blow away a few boozy cobwebs from the night before.
Got to the beach and watched it for 5 minutes, still looking good, a bit small, a bit inconsistent, but that's all I need on a Sunday morning.

Paddled out on my skatey 5'10 small wave board, thinking "there's a surprising amount of water moving about for such a small day". Got to the line-up, and sat there on glassy smooth water thinking that this is the way to spend a sunday morning...


...and then someone got the horizon and threw it at me
Set comes in, I duckdive the first one thinking "that wasn't 2-3 ft...", then the next one just detonates in front of me, swim for the bottom, "hang on, that was a good 4-6ft...".
Pop back up, make way back to the line-up... next set comes in, solid 6ft, steep and barrelling. By now, thinking that I perhaps shouldn't be out here with a small-wave board and a hangover. Paddle inside a little. Next set comes in... catch a 4ft wave, slide about all over face, do one big slidey bottom turn, back to the lip and totally fail to make the re-entry and wipe out...


...and that, ladies and gentlemen, is it. I'm outta here

[oldmansurfer]

Small waves again. I went out yesterday to a peak that looked like it had some waves worth riding. Waist to knee high waves......Oh well.....I caught a couple waves a left and a right that I am sure I went more distance sideshore than I traveled toward the shore. On the right I think maybe 3 times the 10 to 15 yards out that this wave was breaking. I got an arm tubed and a shoulder tubed and ankles tubed. There were some kids out at the rivermouth break so I didn't go out there but today there was no one out anywhere so I went out there. Oh yeah there were a couple SUP guys riding whitewater outside blackrock which is the break that is 500-600 yards out. I got a bunch of little shoulder tubes today. Gave a paddleboarder a ride home. Still waiting for some bigger waves to try my new board on but getting comfortable paddling it.

[Jester]

Went out today, 3ft impossible to read breaks, now it's a left, 2 seconds later it's a right, in exactly the same spot!! Strong sweep down the beach and fought the waves all afternoon like a Spartan.

Had one honest to goodness good wave, boy was it fast, got up, hung a bottom turn, closed out in front of me but rode the foam ball high and dropped down, swooped on round to a clean section, pull up high and swooped down at SPEEEED! felt amazing, closed out again and I rode it out for what it was worth. Fun though!!

Jumped up on one decent one, a left closing out to a right towards me only to see a guy on the right and our point of intersection approaching in a classy V so I quickly attempted a wobbly cutback and fell off, turned enough to avoid him though.

It was a fun day! First proper sized waves for my lovely lively board and she loved it, damn she's quick! Gotta work on my pop up though, I'm not catching and popping up early enough and I blame the tiredness after the relentless whitewater of my beachie but there was a shameful goating episode at one point (hey I was knackered) so I gotta work on picking my wave better, paddling better and popping better.

Damn I'm tired but happy

[oldmansurfer]

Days like that are not impossible to read but you have to realize there are more than on swell coming in at differing angles so each wave doesn't behave the same. With time you can probably learn to pick out the various swells

[dtc]

Hey Jester, had a session like that a few ago. Was a messy storm swell with a lot of shifty wind/gusts (storm was approaching); at the beach I often surf at there are usually about 2 major take off points in most conditions, so most people congregate in those two spots. However, on this day there were about 6 or 7 of us in the water (busy... was a holiday weekend) and we were all spread across about 100m. Every now and then a wave would break where you were and it might go left or right or peter out. Then you would paddle back and the next wave would break 10m to your left or 5m further in (or 5m further out) or there would be a bomb for the guy 2 down from you and you wouldnt even have a ripple. Lots of paddling for not much reward. As OMS, after a while you could pick the 'most likely' spots, but they were only 'more likely' not 'you can sit here and the wave will always break for you'

Somedays you just do the best you can

[oldmansurfer]

When I surf it is often like that and I pay close attention to the size and shape of the waves coming in. After a while you can learn which shape and size you want to be on (each time is different). But before I go out I watch the waves break for a while and figure out my aproximate lineups so I end up in an area with a wave I want to ride and I often figure out more than one aproximate lineup. When I get out in the waves I figure out more exact lineups but it's not just the lineup it is picking that wave that has the size and shape of the ones that are good to ride.

[oldmansurfer]

Thank goodness there were some small waves at the sandbar by the rivermouth. I had one really fun wave and you know what they say .......one fun wave is a good day surfing, two is a great day and a few and it's epic Managed on that one wave to do an off the lip and a foam climb. I am starting to surf smaller waves better

[drowningbitbybit]

7am Sunday morning – glassy smooth 2-3ft gentle barrelling perfection on the incoming tide...


...but it was 7am on Sunday morning and therefore I was fast asleep

By the time this lazy hungover slacker got his butt in gear and hit the water at 11am, it was full tide and onshore
The onshores, however, made the waves nice and easy to catch, which is ideal after a couple too many the night before, and I caught a few good ones.

[oldmansurfer]

I went out today and while there were some waves worth writing about if I caught them I didn't manage to catch any. My best wave was a late drop to a bottom turn to a cutback which I brought around all the ways to cut out since the wave had died completely. Oh well I paddled a lot so it will help to keep me in shape

[oldmansurfer]

I went out today and it was so tiny. I think learning to read messy tiny wind swell is even more difficult than bigger wind swell. Oh well I caught a few and the weather was great

[Tudeo]

I had a great surf in a newly found uncrowded spot yesterday. The day before I checked out the reef at 10cm lowtide, there was one dangerous rock sticking out in that beach. I didn't know where the surfspot was at that time cos nothing was working, but I could see the potential of the place.
Next day I was there at upcoming tide it was about 2m going to 2.5m, the surfspot was about where i saw the big rock the other day
Only 4 guys out on a nice peak riding the left. So I thought maybe that rock is where the right goes..
The waves were heavy and surprisingly big with only 3ft swell prediction. The wave was not far outside, I'm used to paddle out far on my homebreak at Batu Bolong. There was a channel next the left, but most waves ended in a shoredump.
I had to get used to the dynamics of this new wave, missed some and hesitated a couple of times confronted with an unexpected steep drop. Wipeout! Finally I got a great left, a good ride, and jumped out in time not to be smashed into the beach.
Then the right started to get really good. I hadn't seen any strange turbulance in the water, I had seen a big boiler further out that must have been the rock I'd seen, so I went for it.
I had a delightful takeoff, the one where u automatically get to ur feet without doing anything it seems, then a great ride looking breathless at the deep blue of the overhead wall in front of my face. Without thinking I did a cutback and turned back down the line to make speed until I ended in a big shoredump. In front of me the dump was already closed, it was like time stood still, I looked at the foamed up wall barreling around me and just dived thru it kicking hard on the inside rail of my board.
It all went incredibly smooth, I went thru the wall and I was safe outside the impact zone and the moving water brought me nicely to the beach where I sat down in utter amazement and watched the waves for about 10 minutes before starting my cooldown.