In obvious breaking news, last night’s southerly buster didn’t do any favours for this morning’s surfers!
In fact it was hard to find a surfer in the small East swell. Rick was solo out the Point, a couple of kids and surf school at North Cronulla and I saw Cords paddling out tp the Dunnies at 7 o’clock.
The swell did pick up though, just as predicted .It was tiny at first light and by 8am it was 3ft - albeit a bit blowy with the 30 knot Sou-Easter doing its best to clean the beach.
I took my pictures at Nth Cronulla because there was no one else surfing on the beach, and I couldn’t bare the drive south to Shoes, where all the kids would have been.
Swellnet says it will pick up today to around 4ft from the south and stay around that size for the rest of the week. In a sign of things to come the first cyclone (named Tuni) of the season has been spotted forming off Fiji and we should get some northerly swell from this over the weekend.
A small amount of southerly energy will also remain in the water, although likely undersized in the 1-2ft range at south swell magnets.
The real energy lies a bit to the North East in Hawaii where Connor is in the fight of his life. The way the cards are tumbling he just has to hold his nerve and the Gods may smile on him.
In Mauai, small surf continues to trickle into Honolua Bay, prompting event organizers to call the Target Maui Pro off for the day. The world’s best are ready for more but will have to wait for the incoming swell to get competition back underway and crown a 2015 World Champion.
“We arrived early this morning and the bay is completely silent so we’ll have to go on a lay day today and come back tomorrow with hopes of a rising swell,” WSL Women's Commissioner Jessi Miley-Dyer said. “We’re keeping our eye on the forecast and it’s still looking like great conditions are coming for deciding a World Champion. The anticipation is brutal but we know it will be well worth the wait once more.”
At Sunset where the Rat is judging and Connor is waiting to surf his second heat, it’s also off for the day after Sunset Beach churned out classic heavy water conditions for Round 2 of the Vans World Cup, pushing surfers to the brink as they battled wave face heights of 20 feet. The conditions delivered brilliant rides balanced with heavy wipeouts and hold downs.
The superheat of the day kept spectators on their toes as Hawaiian Ezekial Lau, North Shore specialist Jamie O’Brien, California's Pat Gudauskas and Italy's Fioravanti went blow for blow on Sunset's freight train-sized waves-in good news for Connor Lau needed a Semifinal finish to requalify for the Championship Tour, but fell .06 points short to O'Brien's final wave with only seconds left on the clock.
Meanwhile Connor’s Elouera team mate Jared Hickel got 420 points for his 5th place in the Taiwan open (won by Perth Standlick) last week which sees him 140 points behind Dale Lovelock in the Australasia ratings-first place gives you seeding into the 10 star QS comps so it’s a good thing to aim for.
Over-30 surfers from all over NSW will this week contest the 2015 Surf Dive N Ski Australian Junior Surfing Titles-the week-long event which will decide over 12 new Australian junior surfing champions has had some small but good waves so far.
Nathan Martin is our only representative surfer with Blake Johnston and Steve Brown working as Coaches.
The 2015 Surf Dive N Ski Australian Junior Surfing Titles will determine the selection of all positions on the Australian Junior Surf Team for the 2016 ISA World Junior Surfing Championship in the Azores islands of Portugal.The competition will be held at Praia do Monte Verde, Ribeira Grande, São Miguel Island from September 17-24.
Nominations are now open for the 2016 Australian Surfing Awards incorporating the Hall of Fame.
Surfing’s night of nights will be held in Sydney, on March 3, 2016 and will feature the who’s who of the Australian surfing community.
For more information and to nominate visit www.australiansurfingawards.com or for information on the Nikon Surf Photo and Movie of the Year visit www.mynikonlife.com.au/partners/surfing-australia/.
Hang on to your hats and all eyes on Sunset, because we may see Connor's future unfold before our eyes tomorrow when they think they should have good waves!
