Surf's up

[Mitchell]

Anyone who is interested in some crazy big surf, and some crazy little men attempting to ride it - you should wander along to the shelf between Bondi and Tamarama.

I presume the surf is big along other parts of the coast as well...

3-4m swell with a couple of loonies out there having a go!

Photo op +++

[darb]

I paddled out once in solid 8ft+

Never again! I dont care what macho credibility i lose, im not made for heavy waves.

Funny thing is it never looks that heavy, but by god it is.

[Oneputt]

Whilst Wati was making it's way down the coast we had some truly great surf. Only for the experienced.

[darb]

from an aquaintance on another forum, not entirely sure of the spot. No kissing and telling, I suppose ;

One of those mornings where you pull up in the dark and wait for the light to slowly build. In the space of 5 mins there are 25 cars all peering through the mist at the walls of white breaking across the shelf. So as the light lifts and the first 3 guinea pigs paddle out and get swept down the beach ya think ... 6'6 or 7'2" and ... is Huey gonna let me out the easy way or the hard way. Briefly you check the rock off as there are a few lulls in the action but with the 1.9m high tide that looks doable but very, very sketchy. Okay ya grab the 6'6" as the face look workable and ya gamble on paddle in power vis carveability. Ya head down to the creek on the edge of the rocks and have a chat with the bloke that is having his second go at paddling out. In mid sentence ya plunge in and paddle ya guts out trying to stay cloes to the rocks and in the sweep going east knowing that when the sets come you will be washed south but ya want to be as far east as you can be before that happens to hit the channle square and fit between the lefts comeing off the shelf and the big old rolling right that links in from the otherside of the channel ... fork me the lull is hanging in and you are out with only two duckdives and a whole lot of thanks Huey. So ya paddle out to the takeoff zone and sit amongst the crew getting our bearings and waiting, watching for the sets to see how they go. A set looms on the horizon and you paddle a little wide and let it go and make a mental note ... "don't blow the takeoff". Ya have a bit of a chat and soak in the nervous energy and one looms up with you name on it. Ya turn and paddle with two others but they drop off because on days like this the man in the zone is the chosen one. So ya paddle like made and it starts to jack and little "ohs ohs" try to enter your clam place but you shut them out and feel the pitch and jump to your feet and plunge down the face with that tiny but critical space between you and the lip. Ya draw out the bottom turn and keep the board on a long smooth arc and drwa it out back up to the lip and down and up and cut back and stretch the section and down and slash and cut back and on and on into the beach.

Then ya paddle back out all buzzing and alive and catch another one. Then ya paddle back out all buzzing and alive and just when you are almost back in the line up a massive set looms up and breaks 5ft in front of you and you feel a little tug on your ankle and the weakest taiwanese crap legrope swivel link is severed and your floating 1.5km offshore in an 8ft + impact zone. swimming, swimming, swimming, swimming, swimming, swimming smashed on the shore, pummelled in the wash ya arrive back on the beach and go FORK IT!!!!!!

anyway thats what I did this morning.

Two hell waves and a bit of a swim. Gotta go to work now. Mentawis in 3.5 weeks.


A few other threads ;



http://forum.realsurf.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6464

http://forum.realsurf.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6462

http://forum.realsurf.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6465

http://forum.realsurf.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6459

[avkomp]

darb:

I went out in 5 metres twice now, still not quite sure why.

the first time I got more or less out the back but took the first wave which came because I felt I wasnt going over it.
closed out immediately and I managed to stay on the huge white water.
took me around 30mins to get out of the water because the beach was washed away and there was a wall of sand where the beach was.
went home vowing never again.

a few years later did it again. spent a while studying the surf, picked my spot and began paddling out. got to the takeoff zone of 5m stuff when I see a bigger set coming. the only problem with that is it was going to break further out so I start paddling seaward for all I was worth.

Really thought I was going to make it, right up till the moment it dropped me backwards down the face.
got almost knocked out when the board hit me above the right eye, but the wetsuit I had on gave me a bit of bouyancy.
so there I am 800metres out to see with no board and feeling groggy.

Remember panicking for a little while but then all I could think about was getting me board back so I see it 1 or 2 waves in front of where I am so I start after it. it got to the beach and someone grabbed it for me, I got back to the beach feeling fairly relieved. all I really suffered was a fright and a black eye.

That put the wind up me a fair bit and I havent tried the big stuff ever since. looking back I still cant believe I tried it.

Steve

[darb]

yeah , nah, you can stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

I remember watching a mate of mine paddle out at Indjinup, near margaret river ... 18feet and SOLID ... he was just about knocked out cold in the shorebreak *laugh* ... the break was a few hundred metres out, at least. I big fat "told you so" came his way when he stumbled back up to the carpark.

Just with "you fall, you die" ski runs ... no thanks. I take more risks in terms of skiing avalanche prone zones and off piste powder ... the lure is there, but not stuff where if you slide, you go over cliffs etc.

[avkomp]

with age comes wisdom.

I wouldnt think about it these days.

Steve