Extra time for Fantasy Surfer selections

The lay day at the Quiksilver Pro has been a blessing for Fantasy Surfer players. The new site wasn't ready in time for round 1 so they are allowing registration and team selection up until the first round of the women and round two for the men.

Fantasy Surfer is the official game of the ASP and is a fun way to 'interact" with proffesional surfing. You select up to eight surfers in each event within your $50 000 000 salary cap and you're not the kiss of death.

Tip : Winners of round one can finish no lower than 17th but half of round two will get a "dirty turd" (33rd)

Tsunami stops Quickie Pro

The Quikie Pro is on hold today despite there being waves due to an expected tsunami resulting from the earthquake in Chile.

QUIKSILVER PRO GOLD COAST ROUND 2 MATCH-UPS:
Heat 1: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. Garrett Parkes (AUS)
Heat 2: C.J. Hobgood (USA) vs. Blake Ainsworth (AUS)
Heat 3: Bobby Martinez (USA) vs. Craig Anderson (USA)
Heat 4: Damien Hobgood (USA) vs. Neco Padaratz (BRA)
Heat 5: Dane Reynolds (USA) vs. Blake Thornton (AUS)
Heat 6: Jordy Smith (ZAF) vs. Marco Polo (BRA)
Heat 7: Kieren Perrow (AUS) vs. Travis Logie (ZAF)
Heat 8: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) vs. Tanner Gudauskas (USA)
Heat 9: Dean Morrison (AUS) vs. Matt Wilkinson (AUS)
Heat 10: Kai Otton (AUS) vs. Nathan Yeomans (USA)
Heat 11: Kekoa Bacalso (HAW) vs. Jay Thompson (AUS)
Heat 12: Mick Campbell (AUS) vs. Adam Melling (AUS)
Heat 13: Michel Bourez (PYF) vs. Patrick Gudauskas (USA)
Heat 14: Ben Dunn (AUS) vs. Daniel Ross (AUS)
Heat 15: Roy Powers (HAW) vs. Andy Irons (HAW)
Heat 16: Drew Courtney (AUS) vs. Luke Stedman (AUS)

ROXY PRO GOLD COAST ROUND 1 MATCH-UPS:
Heat 1: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS), Paige Hareb (NZL), Carissa Moore (HAW)
Heat 2: Coco Ho (HAW), Rebecca Woods (AUS), Claire Bevilacqua (AUS)
Heat 3: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS), Bruna Schmitz (BRA), Tyler Wright (AUS)
Heat 4: Silvana Lima (BRA), Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS), Nikita Robb (ZAF)
Heat 5: Sofia Mulanovich (PER), Rosanne Hodge (ZAF), Lee Ann Curren (FRA)
Heat 6: Melanie Bartels (HAW), Chelsea Hedges (AUS), Amee Donohoe (AUS)

Howling gale

The offshore is smashing through. The yachts off the back beach are nearly lying on their side it is so strong .

No surf. What little swell there is (and there isn't much) can't compete with the wind.

Stay inside, crank on the air con, turn on FuelTV and pretend your on the Gold Coast !

Quikie Pro on

The pointless non-elimination round one is on and live on the webcast and FuelTV. Jake Patto is commentating in his employer's event.

The waves are contestable but not super. The tide is very low and a bit messy. Wave selection seems to be the most imporant factor.

The first question of each new ASP season has been answered. Slater did turn up and won his heat.

Didn't last long

The swell was gone when I hit a very low tide beach at sunrise this morning.

It is now officially back to summer flatness.

Some swell

There were finally some waves today. Didn't get down till this afternoon but it was worth a paddle despite the crowds and light onshore.

Juniors wasn't great but there were a couple. BP Reef was throwing up some nice lefts but the crowd was huddled around a very small take off point. One guy sat way out the back and got the best waves but weaving through the crowd was like dodgem cars. One grom now has a big ding from getting in the way as he paddled out.

Hopefully the swell will hang around for a few days. The forecast has it at 3 metres plus for tomorrow.

Afternoon (4.30)
Size                   2 foot but really chunky
Wind                 moderate ssw
Quality             6.8 out of 10 for Juniors 7+  for BP Reef
Crowd               Juniors 2, BP reef 10
Fun Factor        After the rest of the month this was super
Board                7'6" Yahoo mini-mal
Wave count      A few

Quikie Pro could be on tomorrow

The 2010 WCT is due to start anytime from tomorrow. The heat draw is out but the non-elimination round one format is in place. If the waves are ok there are very few heats without at least one ripper in long right point waves. The webcast can be seen by clicking here.
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QUIKSILVER PRO GOLD COAST ROUND 1 MATCH-UPS:

Heat 1: Dane Reynolds (USA), Roy Powers (HAW), Brett Simpson (USA)
Heat 2: Damien Hobgood (USA), Jeremy Flores (FRA), Matt Wilkinson (AUS)
Heat 3: Bobby Martinez (USA), Tiago Pires (PRT), Tanner Gudauskas (USA)
Heat 4: C.J. Hobgood (USA), Adrian Buchan (AUS), Travis Logie (ZAF)
Heat 5: Kelly Slater (USA), Ben Dunn (AUS), Marco Polo (BRA)
Heat 6: Adriano de Souza (BRA), Michel Bourez (PYF), Blake Thornton (AUS)
Heat 7: Taj Burrow (AUS), Chris Davidson (AUS), Neco Padaratz (BRA)
Heat 8: Mick Fanning (AUS), Kai Otton (AUS), TBA
Heat 9: Joel Parkinson (AUS), Kekoa Bacalso (HAW), TBA
Heat 10: Bede Durbidge (AUS), Mick Campbell (AUS), TBA
Heat 11: Jordy Smith (ZAF), Drew Courtney (AUS), Dusty Payne (HAW)
Heat 12: Taylor Knox (USA), Luke Stedman (AUS), Nathan Yeomans (USA)
Heat 13: Tom Whitaker (AUS), Andy Irons (HAW), Jay Thompson (AUS)
Heat 14: Kieren Perrow (AUS), Daniel Ross (AUS), Luke Munro (AUS)
Heat 15: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW), Patrick Gudauskas (USA), Owen Wright (AUS)
Heat 16: Dean Morrison (AUS), Jadson Andre (BRA), Adam Melling (AUS)

ROXY PRO GOLD COAST ROUND 1 MATCH-UPS:
Heat 1: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS), Paige Hareb (NZL), Carissa Moore (HAW)
Heat 2: Coco Ho (HAW), Rebecca Woods (AUS), Claire Bevilacqua (AUS)
Heat 3: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS), Bruna Schmitz (BRA), TBA
Heat 4: Silvana Lima (BRA), Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS), Nikita Robb (ZAF)
Heat 5: Sofia Mulanovich (PER), Rosanne Hodge (ZAF), Lee Ann Curren (FRA)
Heat 6: Melanie Bartels (HAW), Chelsea Hedges (AUS), Amee Donohoe (AUS)

Swells up

The predicted swell has started to arrive. The harbour buoy is over 0.4 metres for the first time in ages. Coastalwatch is calling it 4 - 6'+ down south. With an all day offshore might be worth a sickie !!!

Taj wins Burleigh Pro

Taj has beaten Josh Kerr and WCT rookies Owen Wright and Dusty Payne to win the Burleigh Pro.

Taj was a step above everyone else with a 9+ and a high 18 for 17.30 out of 20, bearly 2 points higher than Kerr in second. Taj has been surfing great all day and throughly deserved to win.

Second win in his last two comps (Pipe and Burleigh) for TB. Maybe this is a good omen for his WCT year and the Quiksilver Pro starting in a couple of weeks.

WQS Breaka Burleigh Pro is live

The real pros are due next round but there is plenty of good surfers still surfing. Current heat includes Occy and Nicky Wood.

Watch the webcast at http://www.breakaburleighsurfpro.com.au/live.php

Dawn report

Gloomy and humid. The cloud are really low but the surfing conditions are nice. Light offshore and 0.4 on the swell buoy. But like the song goes two out of three ain't bad but it ain't surfable either.

No banks anywhere so what is coming in is just closing out.

Might be one of those check later days.

Towner win big wave award in WA

A WA surfer may not have won the ASL Big Wave Award but a WA wave did. Big wave charger Laurie Towner has won for surfing Cow Bombie.

Hard to believe that there is surf like that anywhere if you'd been watching the ocean for the last few weeks.

Click on the below link for the story and some pics of another break.

Laurie Towner wins Surfing Life biggest wave award |  Perth Now

Can you tell ?

The forecast rise in swell has hit. It has gone up to 0.2 metres and will be dropping till at least Friday apparently.

I hate summer

Sad

Is it sad when barely 6 inches of windchop almost breaking has you mind surfing and almost convincing yourself that it is big enough to get wet ??????

Flat today. There forecasts all have a bump tommorrow. Instead of being really flat it will just be flat.

I hate summer

F for February

and F for flat.

Feb is always the worst summer month for waves but this one is tacked onto a terrible Jan and a below par December, making it worse than ever.

The swell forecasts are abysmal and you can't even escape by heading south because its shocking there as well.

Makes your want to move to America where the Mavericks contest was held last night in 30 to 40 foot surf and the crowd on the beach got smashed by a freak wave ! Take the zeros of those sizes and I'd be happy. In fact just put 0. in front on the swell buoy readings and I'd be frothing.

I hate summer.

No more surf cam

The Bunbury surf-cam has been removed (with a pile of others like Denmark) from Coastalwatch. Apparently there is an issue with costs between Surf Lifesaving Clubs and Coastalwatch. Hopefully it will all be sorted out and the cameras (including a new cam at Binningup) will come back on line.

If the Bunbury surf-cam was working it would show you that it is dead flat !

Shark sighting but is too flat to care

A shark was sighted at Back Beach this arvo but it doesn't really matter because there is no reason to get in the water anyway.

The dismal run of waves continues. It is flat now and looks like it will be flat forever, well at least as long as most forecasts can predict.

And it will be hot so I'm cranking on the air con, pressing play on my DVD player and watching surfing vids until Autumn.

Nearly

Maybe it is just because I want to get wet but we are so close to having a rideable wave today ..... but we don't. The swell is very small and the wind light onshore. The cloud and mist should burn off soon and it looks like another hot day. The reports from down south aren't any better.

Might have to make do with this high def video of Slater -

Surprise !!!!!

There are waves !

Juniors has some fun surf, the reef has the odd set that breaks ok and the beachie is ideal for the boogie groms. Its not top quality, far from it, but nice surprise considering the swell buoy is still less than 0.3.

Juniors is difficult to catch and not linking from the reef to the beachie very well but every now and then you do get one all the way through. Sets are around chest height at take off and waves are rolling through pretty consistently. The wind is picking up so how long it will last is anyones guess.

Mid morning (9.30)
Waves : 2' out of the north
Wind :  light nw
Quality : 5.7 out of 10
Fun factor : unexpected and worthwhile
Crowd : me
Board : Dhuie as a twin fin and a few on the mal
Wave count : lots

Get out the ruler

and see just how small nine centimetres is. That how much swell was hitting the harbour buoy early this morning.

The wind is from the north west and it has cranked the swell to 13 centimetres !!!!

Hopefully it will rain tonight.

Southerly

Been blowing southerly for two days and the afternoons have been fierce.

Today produced some small but punchy shorebreakers at BP late. The waves were breaking close to shore but at an angle due to the wind direction. Pick the right one and you got a sucky little runner but make sure you kick out before you get stranded on the beach.

A big dolphin decided to jump out of a wave straight at me before zipping off. One of the groms out wasn't too confident that his mate knew the difference between a dolphin and a shark so he asked me to just to check !

Late Afternoon (5.30)
Waves : 2'
Wind : howling southerly
Quality : 5.5 out of 10
Fun factor : worth the paddle
Crowd : max of 3
Board : Dhuie as a twin fin
Wave count : 10