Travelling the Desert Coastline…
Its that time of year where before the silly season kicks off we have Spring jamming itself in Winter. This equals in big swell events & the best of your football code coming down to the Grand Final.
The end of September is famous for the AFL & Rugby League Grand Finals. And the best thing is my beloved Swannies are still in there, but only just.
Either-way, we are full blooded members & if the Swannies end up beating Fremantle this Saturday night well we are heading to Melbourne AGAIN for the GRAND FINAL!
Meanwhile, I mentioned this time of year is always good for swells in the southern hemisphere. Western Australia & South Australia consistently offers a couple of golden moments around September. There was a very big swell that generated between South Africa & Australia. We eyed it off for days trying to decide which place we were going to lock in, The RIGHT in WA or some secret slabs in South Australia.
The forecast was looking huge for the RIGHT with 30-foot seas predicted & the right winds. But at the moment we were about to book our air-tickets the winds in the forecast went around to the wrong direction. So we (Mark Mathews, Richie Vass & Ryan Hipwood) booked our tickets to South Australia.
Our plan was to leave the know spots alone & head to places that are
dangerous, VERY SHARKY and no crowd. It’s amazing, these spots, the harder they are to find the more beautiful they are. It actually wasn’t as big as we was hoping but it was sunny, barreling & no one out.
Arriving at our first spot at first light, the waves had morning sickness and were average, but we waited for the winds to go around and when they did it was on! Later in the day the winds back swung around to the wrong direction so packed our stuff & headed back to base.
Day two we ended up and another crazy spot where it was a nightmare just getting out, let alone getting the cameras & my tripod down the cliff face. Really, it wasn’t me that was risking my life as the waves were serious. PLUS, in the first 15 minutes the boys seriously saw a huge shark. I saw it too but as I was pointing my camera towards it, it disappeared. Meanwhile, the lads paddled in at hundred miles an hour. Hippo went to closest piece of land that was a vertical cliff. My thought was that it looked like a seal gliding across the water. But they all laughed at me saying ‘the thing was the size of a truck. Seals are not that big!’ — They eventually got back out there and scored some great waves.
A local bloke called Bordo paddled out during a monster set which landed on him. Snapped his brand new Al Merrick surf board and told me that it was the closest to drowning he has come too. Getting in also wasn’t easy. Richie got washed down the coast where
there’s nothing but cliffs. So his mission back took him over 30 minutes.
Overall, it was a memorable trip. One that will help make ASMF11 very memorable.
Back in Sydney I was eyeing off some bad weather that was going to hit the NSW coast. Strong North East winds brings lots of moisture and rain plus it creates a good swell from that north east direction. They are pretty rare, around 2 a year.
This one had a majority of the swell heading down the south coast. So the following morning (16th September) at 4 am after a night of wind and rain I was on the road heading south.
At 8.10 am I drove into a road block on the Pacific Hwy just north of the Sussex Inlet turn off. I asked a bloke what was going on. He said ‘its head on mate. Looks like we’ll be here for a few hours, at least.’ He was right. I sat in my car till 11.30 am before been allowed to continue my drive south.
Arriving at Milton/Ulludulla. I rang around and was told that the winds weren’t perfect and the surf was too big for the spot I wanted to shoot. Yep, it was the biggest I have seen at that spot. The smaller ones in-between were the best. Brett Burcher & Scott ‘Whip’ Denis was out there but those darn winds were too North. Within 30 minutes, they headed off.
I stayed and shot empties (barrels) The sky went dark again and started to rain so I decide to head home and back for dinner.
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