phillip island

had an ok day at phillip island today. it was very cold for summer - snow up on the mountains!! wind started off pretty cross shore with some logo high sets before turning onshore fast, kinda ruining it. still it was nice to be in the water.
ive had a few sessions at this spot now and it has potential to get seriously epic. most of the times ive sailed there it has just been junky wind swell. cant wait to score it with a powerful ground swell!





last time i was there the wind was light and we ended up getting swarmed by surfers who ended up just burning me every single wave...


when we came in there was a dead seal on the beach that been mangled up pretty nicely. there were some large teeth marks in it and it was missing its rear portion! seeing as this break is just around the corner from one of australia's largest seal colonies you'd expect there to be some big great whites hanging around... its a pretty popular surf spot and as far as i know no one has been attacked there so the best thing to do is avoid thinking about it!

doesnt look like any wind for the next week... hopefully get a surf though.

corona + geraldton + shq go pro competition

Been back in Melbourne for a few days after the Merimbula corona classic and a trip to Geraldton WA.
The conditions up at Merimbula are generally far from epic but this year in the week leading up to the contest we had good wind and some fun waves to play around in at Tathra. Most of the time it was pretty good with a 4.5 in some punchy 2-3ft beach break waves. Nothing amazing but definitely fun! The wind deteriorated somewhat for the actual event but that was made up for with a few good parties.



Getting back from Merimbula I was only home for about 12 hours before getting up at 4.30am for an early flight to Perth. After sorting out the travel car we hit the road and were in Geraldton by mid afternoon. Historically every time I have been to Geraldton there has been horrendous conditions, usually it is flat and there is barely a breath of wind. The first few days were pretty good with wind around 25-30 knots and some logo high ramps out the back at Coronation. I was feeling pretty retarded not jumping on port tack for at least 6 months so the best conditions of the trip largely went to waste!

After a couple of days it troughed out... Let's just say when there is no wind Geraldton doesn't have a lot going for it! Over the four windless days I was going insane from boredom. I think we went grocery shopping for 'fun' on one occasion.
Finally the wind came back and we had a few fun days at corros usually either on a 4.2 or 3.6. Unfortunately the swell was pretty tiny making it a bit frustrating to actually learn new moves but by the end of the trip I was getting some good pushloops. After 5 days or so of wind, it dropped out again, the call was made to head to Lancelin before flying out of Perth. Wasn't much swell or wind there but at least there are a few things to check out in the area.


Back in Melbourne I found my board had been smashed up pretty badly by the airlines... Definitely was not happy! No wind so far but should be something early next week.

SHQ Go-Pro comp
SHQ is running a competition where you upload a short clip of yourself sailing into different categories and then people vote to determine the winner. I have two clips under the wavesailing and wipeout sections.
Waves

Wipeouts

Vote for them here
http://www.shq.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=362&Itemid=57

PGD - post gnaraloo depression + cup weekend + corona aka mambo

being back in melbourne for the last month has sucked!!!! conditions have been horrible seeing there has pretty much been no wind and not much swell either.

i've had two sessions down at sandy point but the waves were pretty tiny so it wasnt anything special. one day I had it all to myself with not another person in sight, sunny and warm which was good. it was a nice day to just relax and sail, unfortunately i tweaked my back injury a bit which wasnt ideal, but its starting to feel better now.

Cup Weekend

we had the shq melbourne cup event two weeks ago. that was a bit of fun but the conditions didnt really deliver for the wavesailing series yet again... the wind started off cross shore with half mastish waves which was ok. it quickly swung onshore though by the time we were getting stuck into the heats. i came equal first in the expression session when the conditions were better before having an absolute shocker in the semis - crashing everything, getting dropped in on and consequently getting really angry!! so i didn't make it into the final but at least i won the super session for the biggest move with a large pushloop that went pretty wrong haha.
we didnt get anymore conditions to run another round of competition so i ended up in 5th which pretty much ruins my overall ranking for the year unless we get a discard.




Corona Classic aka Mambo

slim chance that we might finally get some real conditions with a big swell for thurs/fri and potentially a little bit of wind. fingers crossed!
after that the plan is to head up to merimbula for the mambo which is called the corona classic this year. its the 30th anniversary of the event so it should go off!

gnaraloo video + vic wave series round 1

here is the video from the gnaraloo trip.


there were a few issues with people learning how to use the camera! but it worked out ok...

had the first round of the victorian wavesailing series at point impossible today. the conditions were pretty horrible really... super up and down cross shore wind and bumpy, fat waves that were mostly closing out. it was very challenging to sail, i think most people spent 80% of the day bogging around. i ended up 4th which is an ok start to the series but hopefully we get some real conditions at the next event to get everything rolling! james ended up winning with a nice pushy and a few waverides - congrats!

gnaraloo trip

just got back from a trip to gnaraloo. it was pretty good...
we had conditions ranging from 1ft ankle slappers to a consistent 6-8ft grinding down dry reef with the odd 10ft bomb to mix things up!

there were a lot of dramas along the way as you would expect with such a mission, none of my new 2011 gear arrived in time for the trip which resulted in a lot of running around. frustrating!! not to mention my new 400mm camera lens arrived the day after i left... speed demon spotty ended up stabbing himself in the arm! and then there was the usual story of hitting kangaroos, injuries and broken gear.



the sailing itself was fun. on the small days the wave was really quite soft - good to practise some aerial moves. the only problem was the crowds! there was a lot of dodgy behaviour going on with drop ins and snakings being a regular occurence especially when the wind was light. when the swell ended up cranking though it definitely separated the men from the boys as they say. the crowds went from 30 sailors and 5 kiters on one day to 3 sailors and 1 kite the next!




on the big day the conditions were probably the gnarliest i've seen. the waves were stupidly fast, you had to basically speedsail down the face to reach the bottom in time. also low tide was right in the middle of the afternoon meaning the wave was triple sucking with mutant steps appearing on the face before throwing into a heavy barrel. on occasion there were nice big bits of dry reef you had to negotiate during the bottom turn so mistakes could have been very costly. i got a couple of solid ones before going too deep, as i came through the bottom turn i looked up to see a mast high, very heavy lip throwing right over me! i straightened out and luckily made it out in front of the wave as white water exploded behind me. the amount of water ripping over the reef on the inside coupled with dry bits of rock everywhere made it a precarious matter of timing and luck to make it back outside. twice i ended up on the inside and after a few close calls i decided to call it a day and quit while i was ahead with a few solid waves under my belt. there was a lot of adrenalin going that day!








i've put together a video from the trip so that should be online in the next few days...

good to get back on the water

Finally!! After having some consistently good conditions recently it was pretty disappointing when forecasts failed to deliver for two weeks straight.
Yesterday it was looking pretty sketchy but it was worth risking driving 400km for nothing just to get out in some waves again.
Definitely wasn't epic but still fun at Sandy point.






Thanks to Phi for coming and taking to the photos.

gnarly winter session

yesterday was very cold with a very gusty offshore wind and solid swell.
it was only supposed to be 3-4ft but by afternoon the swell had doubled in size and the bombies at 13th beach would been easily in the 6-8ft range. after a quick, frustrating session at 13th the swell was just out of control turning the waves into a big soupy mess. making it out the back without getting cleaned up by a set was a mission. to make it worse when i came in after a few waves i somehow ended up locking myself out of my car for an hour in the freezing cold... not much fun.

when i finally got back into the car we headed up the road to poo point at the western end of the beach where it is much more sheltered from the swell. the waves were a lot cleaner here but the bigger ones were mostly really fat walls with only with one good section before closing out heavily on the inside (that section claimed quite a bit of broken gear). it wasn't really epic but still got some good photos, thanks to phi, which made it all worthwhile.

preeetty good wavesailing session

Another solid day down at Phillip Island. Over logo high sets, 25 knots cross shore and not that cold for winter!
Was a pretty fun session.










Thanks to Hector for coming and taking some photos.

The Windsurfing Movie II Premier

Forgot to mention that last Friday we had the Australian premier of the Windsurfing Movie 2. It was sick. Jason Polakow turned up and did a bit of talk which was good as well before jetting off to the Cocos Islands in time for a big swell.

The movie is awesome, pretty different to the first one with the story revolving mostly around Levi travelling to some epic spots. Again excellent music (not as good as the first one because that's one of the best soundtracks ever!)and sick action put together in more of cohesive story format than the first. The Jaws section of the movie was really cool, had me buzzing for the rest of the night to get some big swell!
Looks like Thursday should be pretty epic. Hopefully we can get some photos and video in some solid conditions.

sick winter wavesailing and injuries

Today I scored the best conditions I've ever had in Victoria, smooth logo high sets on a very nice reef break with 25 knots cross off. And also it was port tack! It was seriously good. The wind dropped off towards the end of the session otherwise I probably would've been out there till dark.


Other than today not much has been happening. Had one session at Sandy point in some fun conditions over a week ago but it only lasted an hour. Yesterday got out on bay for a little while but seeing as I'm not supposed be windsurfing, I've decided against jumping for a while, so it wasn't very exciting... This is because we found out that my recurring back injury from March is a bilateral stress fracture of my L5 vetebrae... Definitely not ideal. I'm supposed to be off the water for at least three months, but seeing it was holding up fine the whole time in Maui I will keep sailing and just be careful. Also started an exercise program to strengthen all my core/back muscles to reduce the chance of making it any worse.



Looks like we might get some more solid conditions over the next week so hopefully winter is starting to come good!

Virgin waves on the Great Barrier Reef

I have been in Cairns, North Queensland for the past week. The first few days I was here we spent most of the time out on Green Island which is a pretty awesome spot for general freeriding, freestyle and speedsailing. On one day there was some swell around which was enough for a little bit of jumping on some bombies out wide of the island but after that it was mostly flat water.

crusing off green island


For the last two days the wind had dropped down so we decided to go and check out some outer reefs about 50km offshore. I have been keen to do go exploring for some waves spots out here for over a year so had marked out a few locations that would have cross - cross off winds in the normal trade winds. We headed out with our windsurfing, surf and fishing gear for a recon mission.



The first day the weather was not great, with lots of cloud and gusty light wind. However it was cross off and there were waves! Pretty small, only around head high but I was not expecting much more as there is no real groundswell up here. The wind generates the swell so if it is light, it seemed logical the waves would be small. The potential was clear though, the wave is very fast with multiple sections so positioning was absolutely crucial - something that is difficult when it was so light. The wave breaks onto shallow reef between 2-3ft in depth and as there is no channel you have to work your way back over white water after most rides.



The next day we went out there was a bit more swell, mostly head high with occasional half mast high sets. With this increase in size the waves also got heavier with a few sections double sucking before the lip would throw in the space of a split second. One wave I was on bottomed out ridiculously fast and did a pretty good teahupoo impression! Even though it was only head high the lip projected forward as far as the wave was high and looked like it was nearly 2ft thick!



As before the wind was light again, mostly only 10-12 knots with slightly higher gusts so it was hard to position yourself to make most of the wave. At one point I got eaten by a very unanticipated wave that jacked up to nearly logo high and washed my gear all the way into the lagoon resulting in a large swim. I was pretty suprised by a wave that size generated by so little wind so it is probably going off out there today with 25knots cross off right now! Goes to show the potential of this place so hopefully I will score it with more wind and bigger swell in the next two weeks.

Winter is lame

So after being home for nearly a month there has been 4 times where promising conditions have developed. None have really delivered.

Yesterday was one of the best forecasts you are likely to see for this time of year - essentially it was 35-45 knots cross off swinging cross shore during the day. With those conditions on the cards I was expecting some crazy out of control waveriding session before some epic jumping. On a forecast like that you would expect at least 25 knots right??
Wrong.

Joel and I spent the day driving about 400km to score some epic 10 knot crosshore mush down at Sandy Point. To top it off it was absolutely freezing and started pissing down rain. We ended up flooring it back to the bay to try and get at least some kind of a sail - which we did - but it was still crap. Super underpowered and onshore it ended up with a 2km walk back upwind in the dark... It is amazing how a forecast like yesterdays can be so far off the mark.

Last week was a similar story - driving all the way to Torquay expecting a 30 knot front to hit ended with a frustratingly light session at Point Impossible spending most of the time balls deep in water. Apart from that there has been decent surf on a few days but again - even though this photo looks pretty sick. It really wasn't that good with 9/10 waves closing out.



So in conclusion: Victoria sucks pretty hard and I can't wait to get out of this cold and go on my next trip in a week or so to an unexplored wavesailing destination that I think has a lot of potential. More on that in a few days though...


Disclaimer: even though these photos look half decent they are the highlights of the last few weeks. Each photo has been taken from a different session usually in a freak gust above 15 knots where it is strong enough to actually do something. A lot of time and money has been spent to getting these three photos so when you put it into perspective they really aren't that great...

Winter Begins...

After being back in Australia for a week and a half we have only had decent wind twice. A bit different from Maui where it is windy pretty much every day! It has been pretty weird weather with nearly all of last week being an easterly wind pattern. This is usually what we get in summer so it was definitely strange this time of year.
Thankfully it makes for some excellent surf along the Mornington Peninsula where north easterlys blow offshore. Last Friday was light offshore, 4-5ft barrelling at Gunnamatta. Pretty damn good!



Anyway with these easterly patterns Sandy Point has worked twice since I've been back. I wasn't really expecting any port tack sailing for a few months so I was pretty stoked to get to sail in some waves the right way around. The first time was a total mission after driving halfway before realising James had forgot his wetsuit, fins, mast extensions and footstraps! We turned around and drove back to his house and then hit the road again... Luckily we were rewarded with a fun session in 20 knots cross off and head high waves.



On Sunday we had a strong south easterly forecast. I was keen to check out Woolamai on Phillip Island to score some bigger and much more powerful waves than Sandy Point but in the morning it just didn't look there was any wind down there.... So off to Sandy Point again. When we first got there it was cross shore and really mushy. The waves were shapeless just forming random peaks all down the beach. Initially it was pretty frustrating before it swung a bit more offshore later in the afternoon, cleaning up the building swell. The sun even came out for a while which was nice!



Now the forecast looks totally hopeless for any kind of in water activities with light onshore conditions and small swell for the next week... Fingers crossed
something materialises soon!