Day Seven - 31/12/10

Last day of the year.

I wS so disgusted this morning to find the swell had dropped to 0…11 that I didn't even bother looking. Imagine my surprise at about 3 when I found that the swell had jumped to 0.4 and was rising. The wind was even sse.

As I got my first glimps of Juniors a set was closing out across the reef and the beach. What was left was a mass of boils and sand clouds. Juts off shore the southerly change was marching in.

As I had a board still in the car I rushed out to see if I could snag something. The swell was very inconsistent but seems to be building. The wind is messing it up and most waves are close outs but every now and then there was something that made the effort worthy. And it is the last chance to surf in 2010.

Friday 31/12/10 (3.30PM)
Waves - 2'+
Wind - Southerly
Quality - 4.5 out of 10 (size but no shape)

Day Six - Part Two

Little ripples this afternoon. The wind swung south west but the moved back southerly leaving small but pretty clean waves.

However the size dropped away very quickly and in the ten minutes it took me to get a board and suit up it changed drastically. I ended up sitting for a long time for a handful of takeover.

30/12/10 PM (5.00)
Waves - 1 foot
Wind - SSW
Quality - 4.5 out of 10 (would have been better if I went with my first instinct and rode a mal)
Fun factor - 3

Day Six - 30/12/10

The swell "event" was pretty short lived. The harbour buoy has dropped to below 0.2 and is on the slide. No waves down the beach with a southerly drift.

Looks like the wind is starting to move onshore.

30/12/10 AM (10.00)
Waves - none
Wind - southerly and swinging
Quality - 0.0001 out of 10

Day Five - 29/12/10

Swell !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The harbour buoy was registering a swell just over 0.3 metres this morning but with a very long period. A check of the beach found little lines rolling in but they were that frustrating size that looked like they could break but didn't. If there was another 10 centimetres of swell I could have been reporting on a surf.

The wind swung into the south and then south west about lunch time and strengthened. By four there was a wind wave at BP and Juniors. Didn't look great but when your desperate you'll try just about anything. Juniors was all over the shop and a paddle battle to try to find a take off spot. Giving it up as a bad joke I caught a couple of quick ones at BP. Nothing much more than a take off, bottom turn or a wiggle but better than nothing.



Morning (9.00 am)
Waves - 1 foot
Wind - offshore
Quality - potentially a 5 instead a 1.5 out of 10

Arvo (4.00 pm)
Waves - 2 foot
Wind - onshore
Quality - 4 out of 10
Fun factor - 4 because I'm desperate otherwise it would have been lower due to the difficulty in finding take offs

Day Four - 28/12/10

Southerly winds early but a swell still in single figures. It looked like a chance of a wind wave in the afternoon but the wind stayed in the south. There was a little ripple to give the ocean some motion but not much.

The afternoon was no better. Very flat with a southerly cross shore drift but no waves.

Tuesday 28/12/10 AM
Waves - 3 inches
Wind - strong southerly
Quality - 0.3 out of 10

PM
Waves - none
Wind - still southerly
Quality - 0.01 out of 10

Day 3 - 27th December 2010

Unbelievably flat. The harbour buoy was showing six centimetres and the Naturaliste buoy was only 0.6. I can't remember it ever being that flat. The wind was lighter with a touch of north in the east.

I had to work and drive to Augusta and back. It was flat everywhere, including the easy to get to swell magnets. The only waves I saw were in Augusta. They were onshore, dribbly and about gut height but after the last few weeks I was spewing I didn't have a mal with me.

Marges was dead flat. I have never been there when there have been no waves at all. The river mouth looked like Bunbury, Smith light Diamond pool and Yallingup suitable for water skiing only.

This afternoon the wind was a  little onshore southerly but it hasn't brought up the swell.

7 Waves in 7 Days 2010

For the last few years I have copied an idea from Australian Surfing Life where they recorded the same spot every day for a month. My documentary isn't as comprehensive but it does give a bit of a snap shot.

Today is day two. Yesterday was flat and today is even flatter. At the time of taking the photos the swell buoy was showing 0.12 and the wind was a howling easterly at 52 kmh. Koombana Bay is a sea of chop and whitecaps.

Day One - Christmas Day
Waves - flat. Biggest ripple is about calf height
Wind - strong offshore
Quality - 0.1 out of 10

Day Two - Boxing Day (morning 10.00 am)
Waves - nil
Wind - howling offshore easterly
Quality - 0 out of 10

Last years post
Intro
Day One
Day Two
Day Three
Day Four
Day Five
New Years Eve


2008 Video Diary

Merry Christmas Everyone

Hope you all got something fun for Chrissie.

As usual a decent swell was not in Father Christmas' sack again. The harbour buoy has returned to 0.15 and under levels.

I did go to the beach for a swim and was excited to get two body surfing waves. Both were scratching to be calf height and rolled for about 20 metres. Sad !

Over it

The harbor buoy has hit 20 centimetres,it's highest reading in the last two weeks. Hopefully this is the start of an increase to a surf able size but with strong off shores scheduled for the next few days I'm not confident that I'll be getting wet on Chrissie Day or in the days afterwards.

Hope you all have a good Christmas and that a new surf craft is under your tree.

Waves

The wind is so strong the biggest waves are in the inlet !!!!!!

The harbor buoy is around 0.15, which is as close to completely flat as you can get. The biggest issue is that it has been around that level for about a week.

Maybe a swell for Christmas ?

Pipe Masters is over

The Pipe Masters and the ASP Championship Tour for 2010 is over. Jeremy Flores won in small (by Hawaiian standards anyway) and inconsistent Backdoor.

Flores beat a red hot Slater in the semis by point something as both got a nine and a seven.

Parko won the Triple Crown for the third time despite losing in the mid event rounds. Taj made yet another finals round before going down to Flores.

The 2011 season sees the full implementation of the new world ranking and the change over of surfers a couple of times during the year. It will be interesting to see who can keep their spots for the whole year and which gumbbies will find themselves yo yoing between the two tours. It is likely that the top surfers will do more prime events making it harder for Braziliians to use their butt wiggling styles in their local QS events to make the dream tour.

Interestingly it appears that lots of pros are rushing to the airport to leave the islands. Not that long ago everyone stayed well into January with February still crowded and turning it on. Maybe Hawaii isn't big enough anymore.

Ironing board

Flatness is contagious. It has been flat for what feels like forever. The closest I have gotten is a fun onshore bash on Monday arvo.

The wind is howling every night but from the wrong direction. It will be interesting to see if there is any swell spun off the tropical low up north. It seems to have dropped a lot of rain but not much mention of the wind.

Hard

It's hard to find the energy to blog about surfing when it is so flat. Today the harbour buoy was reading a massive 12 centimetres, that not even half a primary school ruler!

The Pipe Master has started. They run this weird double heat format with two heats in the water at once. On one hand it is good because heaps of waves get ridden but it can be a confusing.

The top half of the 'CT surf in the next round. Even though Slater has already one the world title there is still plenty of interest as people scramble to make next years tour.

The waves were ok today. No real Pipe bombs, more Backdoor rights. The rip and the wind made it difficult but there were still plenty of decent waves.

Fuel TV are broadcasting live or you can catch a webcast via either the Triple Crown, Billabong or ASP website or on you IPhone or IPad using the ASP or Vans apps. I set my iPad up next to my work computer and watched a few heats this morning.

Cool summer

Been summer like this week. It's totally flat today with almost no swell but an onshore wind.

There has been a few wind waves in the afternoons but not many takers.

It's meant to have been raining for the last few days and isn't so who knows what it will be like next week.