Surf Report with John Veage

After 3 days of turmoil the ocean is starting to calm down and today's 6ft plus of south east swell will start to settle.

Swellnet reports this low has run out of steam and over the next few days will drop to 2-3ft and carry through the weekend at this size and direction. The winds will stay from the south until Friday when they will swing from the east south east to the Nor east at around 5/6 knots.

If you have surfed over the last couple of days it would have been at the Point, Cronulla or Kurnell that’s been the only real option. Tuesday afternoon the winds did swing to the sou west so there were a few sneaky ones to be had at a good size even though it was breaking wide…..if only South Cronulla was filled with sand – imagine that breaking all the way to the Alley-we could call it ABay!

I took today's pics at the Point where there were a dozen usual suspects having a go. I had a sneaky surf somewhere else and it was good to get wet and the water didn’t taste too bad, for all the rain.

If you wanted to really taste some waves you should have gone to Tahiti with Bluey, who sent me a text while sitting in the channel watching perfect “Chopes” up close and personal, I told him I was also sitting in the channel-Fuel TV channel!

The Billabong Pro Tahiti began yesterday in the biggest surf of the season. The world's best will have to battle huge the waves again today at Teahupo'o for Round 2.

"The conditions have definitely improved and we've got some really good double-overhead sets coming in," said ASP Commissioner Kieren Perrow. "The angle of the swell is great, everything has really settled in and it's pumping out there so we are on. It's going to be a really exciting day and I think conditions will continue to improve throughout the day."

It is smaller than yesterday and I agree with Occy who reckons they should be starting to do some turns! As I write this they are just finishing the loser second round where Jordy got dusted, John John  nd Mitch crews progressed and CJ had a walk through...Wilko and Melling are surfing now.

Surfline, official surf forecasters for the Billabong Pro Tahiti have called: "Tuesday will see decreasing, but still strong, swell/surf along with variable SW/WSW/S wind (mostly light). Another strong SW swell builds Wednesday afternoon and continues Thursday as wind builds quite a bit and shifts from S/SE (Wed) to ESE (Thur). More SW swell is due for the last 3-4 days of the waiting period, although we may see unfavorable wind develop over the weekend, before improving early next week." 

In local Aussie news,  leading waterboard sports brand FCS has extended its partnership as Surfing Australia’s official fin and hardware supplier for a further two years. FCS will broaden their partnership and become a support sponsor of the Original Source Australian Boardriders Battle and a support sponsor of the Hurley Surfing Australia High Performance Centre (HPC).

FCS will provide a test facility at Casuarina giving patrons access to its extensive range of fins to sample during their time at the HPC.  FCS fins will also be used in the 35-strong surfboard testing quiver provided by DHD (Darren Handley Designs) and Mayhem Surfboards.

The final day of the Australian Surf Festival kicked off in throaty three-foot waves at Gallows Beach to conclude the final heats of the Wahu Australian Bodyboard Titles.

Finn Haslau (Margaret River, WA) managed to nab the first bodyboard victory for WA, taking out the Cadets division (Under-16) with a 13.75 heat total. The West Australian bodyboarder managed to pip his fellow statesmen Lachie Breaky (Dunsborough, WA) to claim the top spot.

Event standout Ben Veitch (Margaret River, WA) took out his first Australian Title, successfully nabbing the Open Mens division in a virtually wave-starved final. Veitch was able to lock in an 8.00 scoring wave in the first minutes of the event, which allowed him to keep his opposition at arms length over the course of the entire final.

The only local I could find in the results was Matthew Mytka from Kogarah. What are all those other local  kids doing, waiting for Shark Island to break?

Anyway, The ASP Big Wave World Tour (BWWT) has placed the Dungeons Challenge in South Africa on Yellow Alert with a projected deep-water swell heading towards the region. Event organizers are closely monitoring a system that is traveling towards Cape Town and ASP will issue a Green Alert 72 hours prior to commencement if the event is called on.

“We are starting to see some storm activity that we are getting excited about,” said BWWT Commissioner Peter Mel. “With only a couple of weeks left in the waiting period these are positive times and it would be great to finish the Southern Hemisphere leg with a bang.” That’s pretty funny because at the moment Pete Mel is sitting in Tahiti in the channel with Bluey!

So get up early and stay tuned for some Tahitian Sashimi -  and I don’t mean Fish. I mean ASP surfers literally shredding!