Blistering conditions East Coast of Australia

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3-4m swell with 35 knot southerly, conditions that separates boys from men and there were a few out there. I was lucky to see some serious paddlers in action, let me just say that it was exhilerating and a priviledge for me to witness it, I wish that I was there but I did not think it was wise to venture there after 2 glasses of Barossa Merlot! Enjoy!

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No photo.

Apparently we don't get anything but slight conditions here, so you must be mistaken.
All those rolling whitecaps are just an illusion.

So how was it out there RAB.

Sorry photo did not upload yesterday, I tried to upload the original, it must have been too big a file.

Enjoy! Conditions today as messy not as clean and wild as yesterday.

SE swell with SW winds, keeps drawing the boat out to sea if you follow the holes created by the wind cross swell.
Pain in the arse really and the wind here is only around 18kmh with gusts in the high twenties.

There must be something special happening elsewhere, it ain't here.
The swell is getting bigger but is well spaced sets and going way too fast to catch anyways.

I'm waiting for the wind to go SE and pick up a bit.

Although, I was out on the bike this morning and looking at the coast further down south looks pretty promising.

When the winds go SW anywhere south of PT Danger starts to rock.
I see the reefs far out are breaking, so it might be worth a drive and do a one way run home.

I'm going to check later.

But really, it's nothing out of the ordinary here.

Rightarmbad wrote: The swell is getting bigger but is well spaced sets and going way too fast to catch anyways.

I'm waiting for the wind to go SE and pick up a bit.

Chance to go for a new PB perhaps

Rightarmbad wrote: There was quite a large groundswell coming over my left shoulder but I was following the windswell that was headed my way.....The final teller was looking at the data and seeing three peaks,
the first 28km/h, the second 39km/h and the last 49km/h.

Wind has turned Southerly but is now starting to drop.
SSE swell, plenty of whitecaps.

Might be worth a run after the wind swell gets time to develop.

Swell is around 11 secs period, so pretty bloody fast.
Usually hangs around 10 here.

Monday arve will be the go, weather man says swell will come back to 9 secs and the wind and waves will all line up from the SSE.

it just occurred to me, while looking at the photos that I took, that the conditions were simply too dangerous to paddle... sure the mere adrenaline rush of surfing at 20+km/hr joining the runs is certainly something to be experienced. What struck me was the fact that none of them had a leg leash or life vest!? looking at the size of the swell (3-4m+) and the fact that the wind was probably over 70km/hr, I was thinking to myself, in horror, what if they fall off and the ski and they get separated from their skis, it would have been a long swim... if they made it back to shore. I am not sure why people put themselves in such great danger in the search for exhilerating sensations of surfing big waves... then again who am I to ask these questions. I have seen myself, waiting like a child for the southerly to hit at a certain time one saturday afternoon... battling 50+km/hr not even making it pas 4 km/hr on my ski and after a few kms, turning the ski and instantly reaching over 20km/hr surfing over the chop... the roar in your ears created by the wind is deafening, the spray of water into your eyes blinds you, and we are surfing... maybe it is temporarily a way for us to leave the mundane things of this world, forget all our worries, regenerate in order to battle on the next day. I do remember that I was on a high for a few days, with a tingling sensation in my feet. The other particular memorable experience was surfing down 4+m wave created by another blistering easterly... I was on that wave for more than 200m, it was so fast and as I was moving with a large body of water I had the impression og being still for a long time until I saw a yatch coming in the opposite direction. That was my first and only real experience of true surfing on a surf ski and let me tell you that I will never forget that experience, I can still see the images in my head years after... the Manly ferries were cancelled that day, there was just 2 silly paddlers in the water, a bloke I met on the water and he showed me the way. We could not talk to each other, just signs, the roar of the wind and the slapping of the waves were deafening. Going over each wave was an wiping experience in itself as each wave zooms past your craft. You feel every bone and muscle in your body, you even get a loosening of the hips as the craft shakes underneath you. I could not believe that this other guy went past the Heads (of Sydney Harbour)... I turned around there and that's where I surfed this massive wave... the swell was moving so fast with the wind that most of them were in fact starting to break... my buddy has had 3 goes already... one was enough for me and I will never forget... I am still waiting for these conditions to return again! I think that this is what surfers are looking for, that special wave, that they can talk about for years to come... I also just remembered that I too, was not wearing a life vest nor leg rope that day... silly! I just love to watch the look on a surfer's face as they scrutinize the waves running to the sea with their board in their hands. There is something about the sea that makes grown men and women turn to kids in an instant. That's what I witnessed, grown up kids having fun... probably their mums, wives were not there to tell them to wear a life vest and leg rope... naughty! The bay is peaceful again, no one is playing, they must be tired...

It is time for all of us to systematically grab the life vest in much the same way as we grab the paddle each time we hit the water and why not have a leg rope and a day flare permanently attached to your surf ski?!! It does not look macho... I know ... but I don't think you would look macho in a wooden box six feet under the ground!

Take care on the water and respect it!

JDF

Actually, I feel safer with a paddle leash than a boat leash.
And having both can be an exercise of detangling.

Might be something to do with having long arms that can wrap around a ski so that I can not imagine the ski getting away from me.

And I still need to run into a life jacket I like.
But in that regard, I haven't tried more than three because it is so hard to find them in the flesh.

I rarely see anybody around here wearing them, so it is hard to get to see or try the market.



Jeande, I'll give you 50 bucks if you start to use paragraphs, or even new lines.
I took one look at your post and thought,'I'm not reading that!'.

Even though I tried to read it all, I still ended up just skimming the the last third or so.

Long posts can be intimidating/pain in the arse, to read at the best of times, even harder if you don't break it up a little.

Try and separate thoughts and topics a little and give the reader smaller goals to achieve.

Because of the way pages are displayed, you have to use way more paragraphs and new lines than you normally would, otherwise it just looks a schamozzle.



Oh, and every board like this has it's forbidden topics.
For surfski.info, life jackets/leashes is one of them.
Say anything about the topic and a ton of bricks will fall upon you from either side of the debate.

Pity really, as it would be good to see a community mature enough to have robust discussion and development in this area without a shitfight ensuing.

RAB, I think that what you are referring to is called "ego", I not convinced that it's really a macho mentality as in Oz it is now compulsory to wear a vest if you are more than 100m from shore, however, race organisers/directors decide on race day and don't check that you have a leg or paddle leash, they trust you. I have never seen any race in South Africa without a vest for quite some time now. It gets pretty lonely in races if you are a mid to back packer as there are so few RIB's, they usually follow the leaders, mid packers and there's usually with the last competitor. I have done many races without seeing one RIB the whole way.

Thanks for the advice on paragraph tip, that was just some thought about matters people don't talk about much in places where they should be!

Time will tell... for now I'm enjoying my paddles with my life vest (it breaks the wind and keeps my upper body warm in winter) and most of the time the leash on. There are quite a few good suppliers of PFD's for paddlers both ocally and internationally, Ultra (from Oz), Gill (UK)and Mocke (SA) are 3 I have tried that I recommend.