tasmania preview + australian titles

got back last week from two weeks down at marrawah on tasmania's west coast. had a few good days down there. one day bluff was pumping with some good mast high sets coming in and 25 knots cross off. perfect with a 4.5. i've put together some stuff for a mag article so i'm saving all the best photos for that.

these are a couple of ok ones from bluff and greens over the two weeks.






the australian titles have officially started getting through the womens and juniors on saturday in gerroa, nsw. it's a pretty good spot up there. forecast looks promising for tomorrow and hopefully tuesday when a solid swell will show up. very high standard in the opens this year so should be interesting.

good wavesail

yesterday had the first good wavesailing ive had in months!
wind was bordering on nuclear for a while totally maxed on my 4.2 but dropped off slightly as the swell built and the tide dropped making for some fun punchy waves.
wouldve been nicer if the swell had come through bigger as forecast but if you waited out for the sets it was fun.
phoenix got some photos early in the session when the wind was strong and the waves were smaller before she had enough of the sand blasting. thanks for coming down and getting a few phi!

jumping session

first time back on the water after a few weeks. had a jumping session in 25 knots cross on conditions down at waratah bay.




looks like some proper down the line conditions in a few days. probably fairly small waves but anything would be nice!

fishing + van + sandy point

Possibly the worst summer ever for Victoria with no swell and no wind so I decided to head up to Cairns, QLD to go fishing for a few days.



Weather was awesome and we had a good time out on the Great Barrier Reef, it was perfect fishing conditions - the whole ocean was pretty much dead flat!


Back in Melbourne I finally got my van set up finished so I can go roadtripping in luxury with all my gear. Massive thanks to Lock for the help.


Now I am spending two weeks down at Sandy point, the world renowed speed sailing destination that can deliver some pretty fun wavesailing as well. So far no real swell or wind but hopefully will get some jumping tomorrow.

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!