It’s been a long week for many reasons and for Cronulla surfers today is another average day of surf - but at least we can still paddle out and catch a few waves.
The winds have swung around to the East after a couple of good days of waves and winds, days where the beaches and reefs all had their moments-lest we forget.
The Swellnet forecast is a mixed bag with another East coast low developing off Newcastle today; this should push some decent size nor east swell onto our beaches just in time for the weekend. The downside is the wind will come from the same direction as the swell - so there is nowhere to hide.
I took today's pics at the Alley where literally ever surfer in Cronulla was surfing. Obviously there are no other banks on our beach, yesterday there was 45 surfers at the Alley-outrageous - I gave the young surfers a run before the Old Farts!
In breaking news, Red Bull Cape Fear is back! This unique, invitation-only big wave surfing event returns in 2015, to be held at one of the world’s most challenging and dangerous waves located in Sydney, I won’t beat on about this today but will chase this later this week.
Just a reminder that the Southern Beaches Regional Titles are now just a couple of weeks away so you have only a few days to get your entries in because they close this Friday (May 1st) The Regional Titles is the qualification event for spots at the NSW Junior Titles, which in turn is the way to qualify for the Australian Junior Titles.
This year, for the first time, Surfing Sutherland Shire (Cronulla) and Surfing Southside (Bondi, Maroubra) are combining forces to run their Junior Regional Titles under the banner of 'Southern Beaches'. This means an expanded competition - but fear not, the allocation for spots at the NSW Titles will also be combined, so there will be more competitors but also twice as many spots up for grabs.
This year's event will run at Cronulla (and alternate each year with Maroubra) on Saturday May 9th - with the chance of running into Sunday if the number of competitors requires two days of competition.
Entries are OPEN via the Surfing NSW Website so don't miss out, enter NOW!
Joel Parkinson and Laura Enever will mentor a new wave of Australian junior competitors on the northern NSW coast, with dual three-day Subway® Surf Camps to be run at Casuarina.
Twenty six junior surfers, who won the Under 18 divisions during the Subway Summer Surf Series held across Australia in summer, will enjoy an all-expenses paid training program at respective boys' and girls' camps at the Hurley Surfing Australia High Performance Centre (HPC).
The surfers at the boys' camp, which starts this Thursday (30th), includes Cronulla's Jared Hickel and Paris Whittaker.
Brazilian Adriano de Souza) has won the Drug Aware Margaret River Pro, the third stop on the Samsung Galaxy World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour). Main Break delivered another morning of great conditions and the world’s best surfers battled each other to win the event. An exciting clash saw De Souza claim his fifth CT victory and defeat John John Florence (HAW) in a thrilling Final.
“I’ve just beaten the best surfer on the planet!” said De Souza. “I’m so happy and I feel so motivated. After reaching the Final in Bells and not winning I was really spurred on. It’s such an honour to put my name on the stairs here. Every morning I walk down them and see those names and just wish that my name would be there some day.”
He was lucky to win, as John John doing bigger moves fell off four waves straight on the end section and it wasn’t till his fifth wave that he stuck one-getting a nine, but too late.
Congrats to big Dave(and son) who has now picked the last 2 winners straight in the Prosurf picks competition and leads the Cronulla losers, there is still a long way to go.
In the women’s, An epic showdown saw Courtney Conlogue (USA) claim her third CT victory and end the amazing run of form from two-time World Champion Carissa Moore (HAW).
The first World Surf League (WSL) QS10000 event of 2015, the Oakley Lowers Pro, commenced this morning with the 8-man Trials contesting the one-to-three foot (0.5 metre) surf on offer at Lower Trestles.
Of the eight surfers competing, two were awarded highly-coveted spots into the main field of 96 surfers with Thiago Camarao (BRA) and Ezekiel Lau (HAW) emerging victorious amongst a hotly-contested field.
Cronulla’s Connor O’Leary, the only local on the QS tour is in heat 20-if you want to know how hard it is on the tour, he is in his first round with Michele Pupo, Sunny Garcia and Portugal’s Frederico Morais. If you get through that one the worlds your oyster!
If you really want to come out of your shell, the World Surf League Big Wave Tour (BWT) is placing the Quiksilver Ceremonial in Punta de Lobos, Chile on Greet Alert to commence on Thursday, April 30, 2015 with a projected 20-foot-plus swell heading towards the region.
"The swell we’ve been tracking from Antarctica has intensified and we’ve called the Quiksilver Ceremonial in Punta de Lobos on for a Thursday start," said Peter Mel, WSL Big Wave Commissioner. "We’re very excited to kick off the 2015/2016 season in such style at an iconic venue with an incredible competitive field."
The Quiksilver Ceremonial in Punta de Lobos will be contested by 24 men, led by reigning BWT Champion Makuakai Rothman (HAW) and including the Top 10 finishers from last season, six WSL wildcards, six event wildcards and two qualifiers from the 2014/2015 season.
If that’s not enough contest crap,the World Surf League is thrilled to be returning to Indonesia for the second annual Komune Bali Pro pres. by The Mad Hueys. This year’s event will hold a QS1000 rating and will see a mix of the world’s best surfers taking on Indonesia’s finest and an exciting crop of up at comers at the world-class Keramas rivermouth.
West Australia surfers Taj Burrow and Jay Davies are in the draw and will turn up to Keramas in red hot form both having charged the solid swells at Margaret River over the past week.
Finally ,if you are still reading (the medal is in the mail) The World Surf League is pleased to announce that the Vans US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach - an elite women’s Championship Tour event, a men’s QS10000 event and a Pro Junior event - has been confirmed for its 2015 schedule.
The partnership marks a multi-year commitment between WSL and IMG for the Vans US Open of Surfing, ensuring the “Surf City” event is contested by the world’s best surfers for years to come.
In addition to the Vans US Open of Surfing, IMG have partnered with WSL for multi-year terms on both the Hurley Pro at Trestles, a men’s Championship Tour (CT) in September, and the Australian Open of Surfing, the QS6000 event at Manly Beach in Sydney, in February.
That’s about it, so thank God you aren’t in Chile and have to paddle out at 20ft Los Lobos and pray we may have some 6 footers behind the Rock Pools ,which is a lot more user friendly!