It was a dark and stormy night. Dawn didn’t really break; it crept up on us like the sou'easter that was blowing the squally rain clouds across the eastern sky, winter it seems had finally landed.
Create a free account to read this article
or signup to continue reading
The swell has kicked 3-4 feet from the south-east and wouldn’t you know it after having a 30min surf and standing on the beach for an hour and getting NOTHING, the second I had to leave the wind swung around to the west the sun came out and the swell lined up!
To make matters worse Mackenzie talked to me the second Cords got a nice one and jammed it off the top-I missed that one and another three good ones as I trudged up the path late for my first job at Kogarah oval-Loser!
Swellnet's forecast says the swell should stay around this size until Saturday when it’s going to die in the bum and sit around the 1-foot mark for the weekend-and the wind will swing around to the nor'west on Friday after a couple of days of light variable winds.
The world’s best surfers have converged in South Africa ahead of the start of the J-Bay Open today. Stop No. 6 on the 2015 Samsung Galaxy World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour, the only CT stop on the African continent, holds a competitive window of July 8 - 19, 2015 and the acclaimed right-hander of Supertubes at Jeffreys Bay will play host to the WSL Top 34, recommencing the 2015 WSL title race.
Jeep Leaderboard frontrunner Adriano de Souza (BRA) will lead the field after an impressive start to 2015, including a win in Margaret River. De Souza heads into the event wearing the Jeep leader jersey and matches up against Kolohe Andino (USA) and wildcard Slade Prestwich (ZAF) in the first round.
Defending event-winner and three-time world champion Mick Fanning (AUS) currently sits in fourth place on the rankings and victory at Jeffreys Bay this year will see him equal 11-time world champion Kelly Slater’s (USA) record of four wins in South Africa. Fanning matches up against compatriot Matt Banting (AUS) and injury replacement Tomas Hermes (BRA) in the opening round.
Surfline, official forecaster for the World Surf League, is anticipating, "A mix of swells from a variety of directions and swell periods will prevail during the first few days of the waiting period. Wind will be favorable on Wednesday before turning onshore Thur/Fri. We’ll be watching for new, mid-size SW groundswell later in the coming weekend and early into the following week with a period of more favorable wind possible.”
The J-Bay Open will be webcast LIVE on WorldSurfLeague.com. Bring it on!
Alejo Muniz of Brasil was chaired up the beach after winning The Ballito Pro presented by Billabong after defeating Davey Cathels of Australia in the final at Surfers Beach, Ballito, South Africa. The win solidifies the number one position on the World Surf League Qualifying Series ratings board for Muniz and puts him in a very good position of requalifying for the Samsung Galaxy World Tour. The result earns Muniz 10,000 qualifying points and US$40,000 in prize money
In good local news Connor O’Leary made the quarters and now sits at 14th in the QS ratings (see Thursdays Leader)
At Lennox Head, day five of the Skullcandy Oz Grom Open presented by Coolridge saw another day of picturesque two-to-three foot waves and massive heat totals across a multitude of different divisions, as the hotly contested event approached its final rounds.
Jared Hickel (Cronulla, NSW) showed that good things come to those who wait in his quarter-final, waiting until there was only four minutes remaining in the heat to catch his first wave. The Cronulla goofy-footer got the edge over Elliot Paerata-Reid (NZL), who was the last remaining surfer inside the top-ten of the Australasia JQS rankings, on the strength of a 13.34 heat total (out of a possible 20 points).
“I don’t know what was going through my head there,” said Hickel. “There were heaps of waves coming through in the heat before ours and it just stopped for us unfortunately. When I heard there was only five minutes remaining, I knew I had to get moving, so I just scratched into a few smaller inside waves and hoped for the best.”
By the time you read this we should know the results!
After five days of incredible surfing the finals day of the Billabong Occy’s Grom Comp, some of the world’s best junior surfers converged on Duranbah Beach to participate in the afternoons finals in a bid to etch their names on one of the most prestigious trophies in junior surfing to date.
Arguably one of the biggest stories of the day was young gun Jay Occhilupo who claimed victory in the U/12 Boys division in his father’s event after a stellar performance. Jay wasted no time locking in an early score of 7.83 (out of a possible 10 points) but he still needed a large score to take the lead. Waiting until the final minutes Jay found the wave he was looking for which resulted in a needed 8.27 ride (16.10 out of possible 20 points) and the event win. Jay defeated some tough competition in Lennox Chell (13.13, Avoca Beach, NSW), Codie Jeffery (12.13, Newhaven, VIC) and Noah Dupouy (7.80, Torquay, VIC) that placed respectively.
The best placed local was Jay Brown in the under 14’s (I think because I cant open the final result doc)
One of the world’s most iconic surfing locations is set to join the World Surf League Qualifying Series calendar in 2015. The Quiksilver Uluwatu Challenge will run from 13-16 August.
This year’s Uluwatu Challenge will hold a QS1000 rating and will put Indonesia on the global surf event calendar, providing a platform for talents from Indonesia, Australia and other countries around the region to compete for world tour qualifying points. Co-sponsored by the Australian Embassy Jakarta and Coca-Cola Amatil Indonesia, the Uluwatu Challenge promotes active, healthy living and a clean environment, particularly raising awareness about the importance of keeping Bali’s beaches clean and safe.(it may be too late)
Enough of all that contest guff-turn your TV onto Fox sports and send your partner mad with 7hrs straight of JBay live from 4pm till you drop!
