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Indigenous people say the central NSW coast has six seasons, not four.
You surf for a while and you see the sense in that idea. Three days ago, Monday August 23, it was 26 degrees C with a light nor-east seabreeze. Two days ago, the coast pretty much froze over.
Late afternoon on Tuesday, it was 10 degrees and felt much colder. A howling bitter westerly offshore sent spray whirling and spinning off the tops of long southerly lines. If you had a 4/3, this was the time to use it. As one surfer put it, as we peered through the spray at the next set: “It’s like we’re surfing in snow.”
You never feel a temperature switch like that without something crazy in the offing. This wasn’t seasonal, this was something else: a deep low gathering force just off the coast, dropping weather and swell on us all at once.
Casey Twight, Tuesday afternoon’s Frozen Tundra Experience, Northy. Photo: Matt Dunbar
As the swell built that arvo, lots of people got amongst it, possibly to realise they were under-rubbered. South Avalon. Photo: Fabio Silvestre
The early pulse was pure enough to make South Narrabeen appear to be a Queensland point break. Photo: Silvestre
Kobi’s backside barrel (see story below). Cold or not, if you got one, you got one. Photo: Dunbar
Wednesday morning, Kobi Clements went down to check South Narrabeen with Dad Steve. Kobi sounds like he was still a bit cold after the evening session prior. “I wasn’t prepared for the cold that afternoon,” he says. “I had a 2/2 steamer and I was freezing.” Regardless: “It looked rough and windy but my first wave, I got the best backhand barrel I’ve ever got at Northy.”
Looking at South Narra, the Clementses saw these huge whitewater mounds out of the corners of their eyes, off to the left, and realised they were not where it was happening. “We didn’t check it at all, just went home and got my gun. I’ve got this new 8’0” Chilli, it’s a quad and I’ve never ridden a quad before. First wave I got I thought, wow, it does nice carves!”
The whole event had an ominous tone. Not that the dog minded. Surf check on Wednesday. Photo: Mark Onorati
Above and below: Two angles of Dylan Moffat’s bomb. You’d wait all morning for one of these, and when it came, it’d probably catch you inside. Above photo: Silvestre. Below photo: Ian Bird
Sometimes the magnitude of a swell is best observed from on high. Dylan, changing angles to go left. Photo: Dunbar
Two surfers had beaten Kobi out to Northy Bombie. Matt and Ben Dunsmore took different roads out through the very tricky entry, Matt through the Alley, Ben the other side. Dylan Moffat hit it about the same time, then over an hour or so out came a bunch of the Narrabeen crew. “You see similar faces out on days like this,” says Kobi, “it’s a good feeling, you’re becoming friends.”
First out. Dunsmore brothers, Ben (near) and Matt (far), going different paths on Wednesday morning. “We checked it on dark,” says Matt. “Ben walked up from his place and we met up down the beach. We were standing there, then we saw ten 8′ dredgers landing on dry sand and I thought, nah I’ll try my luck at the Alley.” Photo: Bird
Out the back, Matt going down and Ben going up. “Ben went over the falls on one, and I got held up on one, then we both got a good one or two,” says Matt. “Then it went dead for a while. About 20 people were out! I’d never seen the Bombie with so many people. Then a wash-through came and got about a dozen and they didn’t come back out.” Photo: Onorati
Matt and the “one that held me up”. Photo: Onorati
Victory! One of the ones Matt got. Photo: Onorati
Maybe there were a few people out, but when this happens, you feel like you’re the only one. Matt Chojnacki, wearing it. Photo: Bird
Above and clip below: Kobi tests his 8’0″. It’s a tricky joint, like all bombies: you gotta take what it gives you. Photo: Bird. Clip: Dunbar
The Bombie pumped for a couple of hours, then switched off. Maybe the tide? The wind went across it as well. “It stopped for about two hours,” says Kobi. “We all just sat there freezing.”
The swell had a real rhythm. Even as it declined slightly through the day, the pulse from this phase of the low was clear: bigger sets every six or seven minutes, one or two smaller sets in between, brief periods of near-flatness when you could have been tricked into thinking it was just another head high day.
Just think, it’s all within sight of Sydney’s much coveted real estate. Matt Chojnacki, trying to push down one. Photo: Dunbar
Northy’s like a family, in this case, literally. Chris and Laura Enever on the way down to the jump-off. Photo: Silvestre
It’s way easier to get in at Northy than it is to paddle out. You just go down the beach a way and get one of these kegs. Ben Short in the sand grinder. Photo: Onorati
There was mad variation — a weird combination of swell angle and interval. Deadman’s wasn’t even breaking. Avalon was 10-15’ for a little while in the morning. Cronulla Point was six feet.
Overnight it shifted again, looking a lot more like a normal beast of a thing. Kobi Clements went down to Southy and found it was good this time. The weather was a fraction warmer. Four seasons or six, this cracking time of year is almost at an end.
It’s so easy to find yourself in this spot on a big Sydney day, and it doesn’t care who you are. Ben Dunsmore on his trip over the falls. Photo: Dunbar
Who doesn’t want one? The barrel that is. Home sweet home. Photo: Onorati
Check Wedding Cake yesterday. Way more to come from this session and others.
STORM LOCATION/MOVEMENT: Intense, slow moving Tasman low 200-300 kilometres off the southern NSW coast, east of Jervis Bay.
STRONGEST STORM WIND/SEAS: Compact S/SSW fetch of 50 knots, embedded within a broader area of 30-40 knot gales. Maximum significant wave height of 11.5m (37-38ft) recorded by the Batemans Bay Waverider Buoy early on Wednesday morning, August 25.
PEAK STORM INTENSITY: 987 hPa low on Wednesday morning.
SWELL TRAVEL TIME: 12-24 hours.
SWELL PEAK: Southerly swell from 186 degrees, modelled by Lotus as 21ft at 13 seconds on Wednesday morning.
Really good waves still on tap for days. Check the forecast: Sydney | NSW South Coast | Newcastle | Goldie
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