Cronulla surfers got more than they bargained for this week when the East Coast Low sat right on us for a couple of days and pumped away.The East winds and rain was a hazard but the 3 meter swell did give people the opportunity to surf a few novelty/protected waves in tucked away hidden bays.
Monday did let a few brave and hardy souls surf the Point,Southie's and the Dunny bowls in the dirty and foamy water and yesterday it was all systems go with a 2 meter Nor East swell still pushing into the corners with clean offshore winds until lunchtime.
Todays pics are from a high tide suck session at North Cronulla but the reefs got a working over for the first time for the year and there were plenty of other good waves if you knew where to look.
The forecast shows this swell will slowly drop to 3-4 ft,which it is this morning, into Friday when another big 10 ft, 14 second period Cyclone swell is predicted to hit from the nor east again-the beaches might be under a bit of stress on the high tides with massive amounts of sand already gone from the corner of Cronulla Beach.
The swell will drop pretty quickly leaving us with waist high waves on the Monday-it shows we might have some offshore's Saturday morning so it could be epic.Cross all your fingers.
Eighteen qualified boardrider clubs and five Wildcard Clubs are ready to do battle on February 15 and 16 at Newcastle's Main Beach when bragging rights as the country's best club go on the line in the nudie Australian Boardriders Battle Series National Final.
Some of the world's best current, former and up-and-coming World Surf League stars will don the comp singlet to help their club in the quest for national glory.
Elouera Boardriders Club earned their spot in the lineup after blitzing the NSW South battle last October.
With the collective effort of team members Shane Campbell, Jarvis Earle, Rachel McKendrick, Luke Weinert and Connor O'Leary, Elouera was able to finish the NSW final with a solid 38.25 total to gain the upper hand against their fellow finalists.
"To win this event twice in two years is a dream come true," O'Leary said.
The Elouera team for this year was bolstered with the inclusion of Jnr Luke Wedesweiler, Nichola Turner, Glenn Pringle and coached by Joey Sear and Glenn Pringle.
Elouera has a colourful history in the event famously finishing runner up at Cronulla in 2014 with a young Connor O'Leary in full flight.
Connor is now officially one of the world's best surfers and regained his position on the 2020 World Championship Tour after a solid year on the World Qualifying Series.
In a massive controversy in 2018 Elouera were judged not to have made the final and Culburra Beach Boardriders Club was advanced.
Having struggled during the team's division earlier in the day, Culburra were certain they didn't have a chance of making the final and left Newcastle when they were recalled and Mikey Wright scored a heat winning wave to take the overall win.
When judges sheets were checked it was found Elouera should have been in the decider and not Culburra-there is now no official winner of the 2018 Battle and Elouera were awarded equal first prize money.
Now in its seventh season, the nudie Australian Boardriders Battle is the country's biggest grassroots boardriders event, involving more than 60 of Australia's best clubs with $110,000 in prize money. The series is officially sanctioned by the World Surf League which allows Australian WSL World Tour surfers to represent their local clubs.
The Mothernest Great Lakes Pro will once again call Boomerang Beach home this February with over 200 surfers visiting the idyllic region. The elite four-day World Surf League (WSL) Qualifying Series (QS) 1000 rated event will form the second of three stops on the Vissla NSW Pro Surf Series and will take place in the Great Lakes from the 19 February - 23 February 2020.
Surfing NSW CEO Luke Madden believes the event will continue to amaze spectators and competitors when the competition kicks off.
"The Mothernest Great Lakes Pro usually scores some of the best waves we see all year for competition, which in turn, makes for some incredible surfing. We can't wait to see what happens when it kicks off in February," Madden said
The World Surf League Big Wave Tour kicked of this year with the Nazare Tow Surfing Challenge last night.
"We have glassy 40-50Ft waves this morning," Bill Sharp, Big Wave Tour General Manager said. "It's a little bit misty early on but we expect conditions to clear throughout the morning to offer an epic day of big wave surfing."
The first event of its kind, the Nazaré Tow Surfing Challenge featured 10 teams comprised of two athletes, alternating between surfing and driving the team's ski.
Team Australia is Axi Muniain (EUK) and Mick Corbett (AUS) .
Each team will compete twice in an hour-long heat with a priority system to ensure all riders get their shot at some of the best and biggest waves on the day.
When the competition wraps, a nominating panel will examine the video evidence and select the biggest, best-ridden waves of the day as finalists. At an awards ceremony later in the day the athletes themselves, along with a group of expert judges, will review the nominated rides and place their votes in an assortment of categories.
