The year's best swell hits New South Wales
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Meltdown Lowdown
March 22 – 24, 2011
Words By Ben Horvath
It has been well documented on this website that surf conditions in New South Wales in the last six to eight months have been well below par. There hasn't been one single, decent overhead swell that's combined with sunshine and all day offshores that has produced genuine stand up pits since October 2010.
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There were only a couple of four foot swells in the last ten weeks of 2010, and all three were generally bereft of sunshine and favourable winds blowing off the land.
It has been really difficult to maintain the motivation to surf weekly, let alone daily so far in 2011. All the talk of the potentially epic La Nina cyclone season upped expectations, exacerbating the disappointment when it failed to deliver. Besides a handful of three to four foot windswells, a brief four foot tease courtesy of Cyclone Vania and one or two short-lived south swells since, the last six months have been a bit of a hoax.
The vibe amongst the hardcore surfing fraternity recently was getting so negative crew were spinning tales that Huey had taken long service leave. Some carpark doomsayers were propagating the myth that quality waves were indeed a thing of the past, and based on the evidence of the last six months their stories were getting traction. Thankfully future swell denialists were nowhere to be seen beachside on Tuesday morning March 22, their mischievous myth well and truly busted as clean Easterly lines stacked up on the horizon.
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After a weekend of rain and persistent onshores, followed by flash flooding on the Illawarra coast where 280 mm of rain fell on Monday, Tuesday morning dawned clear, sunny and offshore. Solid six foot plus easterly joy quickly restored the faith, snapping hundreds of boards up and down the New South Wales coastline and delivering stand up pits to all that had the ability and desire to pull in and punch through.
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This weeks swell event was totally appreciated and lapped up by the entire New South Wales surfing fraternity. I spoke to so many crew that snapped boards and surfed through gut, boardshort and leg rash pain barriers with no complaints. It was not uncommon to chat with brothers and sisters that were clocking up multiple four, five or even six hour sessions simply to get their wave-starved quota back up. Everyone was keen to extract every bit of juice the swell offered, simply because conditions just haven't aligned like this for so long. Many forecasts underestimated the size, quality and endurance of the swell, so three days in a row of offshore, overhead bliss was a bonus not to be missed.
The other undeniable factor contributing to the en masse explosion of positivity and commitment during this swell episode was all the natural disasters in Japan, New Zealand and South East Queensland have pre-conditioned us all to be more appreciative and stoked with what we have.
On Monday March 21 the four-to-five foot southerly leftovers twisted east as driving east-north-east winds and rain pushed the swell up into the six-to-seven foot range. Tuesday through Thursday's run of sizeable east swell came in above expectations. And, there's more on the way...
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The Breakdown
Coastalwatch chief swell forecaster Ben Macartney's analysis of the easterly fetch revealed a slow moving belt of 25 to 35 knot east-north-east wind spanning the central-western Tasman; a short range fetch located close to the southern half of the New South Wales coast.
Benny Mac said, "The fetch was the by-product of a firm ridge extending off a 1031 hPa high over the Southern Ocean, interacting with a deep low pressure trough and embedded lows spanning the western Tasman and Bass Strait. Although the resulting pressure gradient was primarily focussed on Tasmania's east coast, the upper boundary of the fetch remained well north of the 35S parallel on Tuesday and early Wednesday."
By Tuesday morning a broad low pressure trough over inland New South Wales approaching the Eastern Seaboard from the west caused winds right up and down the New South Wales coastline to swing offshore. Finally after months of mediocrity it was tube time. Point and reefbreaks that lay dormant for months roared to life. There was still a slight wobble in the swell early, but it cleaned up rapidly during the day.
Down the Coast
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Northern New South Wales was a clean three-to-four, Newcastle was four-to-five foot plus, Sydney a solid four-to-six foot plus with some eight footers at exposed locations. The South Coast was six-to-eight foot with the odd bigger bomb. The further south you went the bigger it was. Wednesday revealed near perfect conditions, as the wave period increased into the 10 to 11 second range meaning point and reefbreaks were pretty much firing on all cylinders – ranging from four to seven feet in Sydney and surrounds and up to six-to-eight foot on the South Coast. Only select beachies were handling the straight swell direction, but those that were produced stand up pits, and even average reefbreaks were churning out caverns. Quality reefs and points delivered hectic stand up kegs as the wind stayed offshore westerly pretty much all day.
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The Cape Kegs
Mark Mathews and an all star cast including Kelly Slater, Taj and The Gudauskas brothers charged what Mark called, "The best Ours since June 07."
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According to Mathews "it was just so clean on all three days. At dawn on Tuesday there was still a touch of bump in the swell, but the size and power made up for it. There were some chunky six-to-ten foot bombs on Tuesday and it cleaned up as the day progressed. Wednesday was cleaner again with all day offshores and solid six-to-seven foot sets. Taj and Slater nailed some sick tubes. It was actually best at high tide which is rare out there. It is generally perceived to be best at low, but when it is east and six-to-eight foot sometimes it can almost shut down, so it was good all day even on the high. There were still waves at dawn on Thursday, but I scored my quota on Tuesday and Wednesday."
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Of course Solander wasn't the only reefbreak pumping. Reports and pictures came in from far and wide from frothing surfers and photographers, many claiming it was the best swell since Anzac Day 2009. Jason Gava and Steve Cox were standouts at a Wollongong area pointbreak firing in the six-to-seven foot range. Further south numerous tales of perfection filtered in of reefbreaks going nuts south of Ulladulla. Underground Cronulla charger Terepai Richmond spoke glowingly of three days of bliss taking turns with regulars like Kingy, Griggsy, Fletch, Jezza and Jenna at his beloved Shark Island.
In the East outer Tama lefts and one or two unnamed bombies did the business, whilst on the northern beaches, the Queenie to North Steyne stretch was kegging if you picked the right ones, Dee Why Point pumped all three days, so too did old faithful North Narrabeen and the list goes on.
No point running an endless check list of who scored where here, by now you get the picture. What is important is that you scored and got out amongst it. The good news is Macartney has news of a follow up south swell this weekend, so finally it looks like autumn is kicking into gear. Check Dialing In for more.
-Ben Horvath
Let us know if scored this week and if you thought it was the best swell in New South Wales since Anzac Day 2009...
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