Big Thursday

6/5/2015

Things started out mediocre, but by lunchtime the swell had jacked up big-time and most of the spots in the bay were unplayable unless you had an inboard motor to deal with the hell-rip.

Watched Avo's for a bit and saw an ou paddle his gat off for 5 minutes - and not move so much as a metre forward. Even Avo's local, Munro, opted for a trip round Bird Rock and then in at Millers after his last cooker of an early sesh.

Chomp Rock had a few before lunchtime, but the guys were struggling to get onto them. The rock got chomped properly on the bigger sets.

Clubhouse had some smokers, but you needed a ski to get out there. Andre Venter decided to have a stab at it, and paddled in from up at the beacon at Rincon. By the time he was level with the lifesaving club he was still in the impact zone and decided to call it quits before he ended up being ripped round Avo's.

Andre calling it quits after a moerse paddle and a solid effort

Coming in on a "small insider" nowhere near the backline

Earlier in the day an unsuspecting punter had tried his luck paddling out at Pipe, and quickly caught the express train round the rock, finally managing to get back in at Chomp. Got there faster than if he'd run along the beach.

Rincon was breaking as far out as the eye could see. Definitely no takers there.

Rincon. With no backline in sight.

Blackbottoms looking "fun" © Sean Coppin (Update - turns out this is from the 2008 swell - but a kiff pic anyhow!)

Fish Farm out there? of course yes! not.

Devil's reef - which sits way back out behind Millers had a few slabby slots to pull into if you didn't mind the gnarly mussel beds sitting half a metre under the surface.

As the tide pushed in there were a few big lines right out the back, but to be in the right spot to catch one was pretty much impossible. Guy nabbed an "insider" - using him as reference reckon you could call the back set triple overhead?

Moody Millers © Christo Zietsman

Bottom of Millers was manageable, although also shifty as hang. Plenty of water moving there too. Mervyn saw an ou snap his board on the end section, and then him and his board got swept past Hobie and through the onto the pier in the blink of an eye. Dude chucked the board and hid on the concrete wall behind a pylon til he got a break in the waves and jumped back in to swim for the safety of the beach. No fun in that! There were some absolute bombs if you could find them - like this one - coulda just stood there with your arms stretched to the skies.

Pier had a few nugs early on, provided you didn't mind the continual paddling practice just to stay in one spot. Just as well it's closed for renovations cos reckon on the high tide early evening coulda had a few ou's washed off it!

Baked Beans had some bombs. Fairly shifty but if you kept your eye's peeled you could slot into a nug or two. Rumour has it that Andre Venter made up for his failed attempt at getting out to Clubhouse by scoring a man-sized shack at Beans.

There was space to stand there with your arms stretched up to the sky. Baked Beans bomb.

Hummies was the pick of the day in terms of the effort reward ratio. Some good 'un's and not as much current as everywhere else. By late arvo the surges were running right up under the bridge, and were stripping the sand off the beach at a rate of knots.

Kyle Jacobs hiding at Humewood

Suicides was suicidal. Denvils had about 1 in 20 that was a beaut. The other 19 closed out on your head. A bank in front of McArthur Baths fired for a while. Dunno if anyone had a go at Fence, but with waves like this smashing into the harbour wall musta been biggish!

JBay was an absolute mess, with monsters breaking way out in the middle of the bay. Those brave enough to try their luck mostly ended up with one-way tickets to the Point. Here's Joshe Faulkner taking it all in before he heads out. And back in. At the Point. Ballsy to have a go at least.

Further west and things were still messy. Even Bruce's couldn't handle the size all that well. But all in all a good day. Despite a few solid beating and a coupla close calls no-one drowned. Rather have the issue of too much swell than none at all!

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