A surprise visit by the worlds greatest competitive surfer Kelly Slater made Cronulla's star-struck grommets' day as he duked it out with the rest of them on a small North Cronulla shore last week.
Slater had been staying at Avalon and mixing it with the northside surfers before crossing the bridge to see his old mate John Shimooka and have a quite surf session at the Wall.
There was already a surfing over 40's Masterclass in action when he arrived with former pro's Richard 'Dog' Marsh and Luke Egan already in the water with Shmoo- they have won 59 WCT titles between them -Slater unbelievably winning 54.
The bank was buzzing with older sea dogs-Matt Griggs, Speg McKinley, Adam and Rich Brown and others, they were joined by Hayden Blair, Jordan Widenstrom and Jarvis Earle just to make sure no one else could catch a wave but it still went down as one of the more memorial local sessions, and one that the local groms won't ever forget.
After a few days of really small waves, the Cronulla stretch is preparing for another solid hammering with a big new south swell predicted for Thursday morning.
Tuesday at dawn it was dead flat and as the westerly wind swung slightly south the waves came-breaking 3-4 ft at lunchtime, breaking on the outside banks at Wanda before hitting the gutter and running dead into the shore.
We also have some big tides as well with a 1.8 high and a low low -so there could be a bit more damage to the beach and the banks that were just coming good.
Today's waves are just an early indication of what is coming and by dark, it should be 6 ft plus before tomorrows solid 177 degrees south swell with hopefully some sou-west winds in the mix.
The rest of the week looks good and we should still have great waves with Friday and Saturday looking fantastic-4-6ft and offshore-bring on Winter!
After the success of the latest Mal and Bodyboard web surfing titles, Surfing NSW has announced they will be holding another online clip surfing competition powered by Liveheats -a 'NSW Big Wave Web Surfing Titles'.
This competition is designed for surfers making the most of the big swells we have had lately. It has several divisions including Junior Boy Charger (Under 18 Boys)- Junior Girl Charger (Under 18 Girls)- Best Barrel (Opens)- Big Wave (Opens) and Heaviest Wipeout (Any Age)Prizes.
First place in each division will receive a voucher for a one-hour session at Urbnsurf Melbourne and all competitors will receive a Mad Mex voucher for a Free Burrito or Naked Burrito.
So get your mates to video your wipeouts and enter via the Surfing NSW website-its worth a Burrito or two!
To celebrate our oceans and mark World Oceans Day on Monday 8th June, the Surfrider Foundation have teamed up with the Ocean Film Festival World Tour to raise funds via a virtual Ocean Film Festival.
For the whole month of June they invite you to view any of the Ocean Films on Adventure Reels TV plus 3 special Surfrider Foundation virtual events. When you pay to view any of these films 20% of the rental fee will be donated directly to Surfrider Foundation Australia.
Simply enter the promo code SURFRIDER when transacting your film to ensure the donation is captured.