by Franck Gazzola | Jan 12, 2012 | Daily Updates
A south swell has been delivered to our door step as forecast. At the moment it's hitting the 3 – 4ft mark but it looks set to get bigger through the day.
At Bronte earlier, there was a good crowd of 25 – 30 in the water making the most of the slight SW wind before it swings to the SE. There are plenty of waves but the quality just isn't there. It looked fat and wobbly, and finding a good one looked like hard work. Regardless there are some real waves to be had if you're lucky enough to jag one.
Today's main shot is of young grom Ethan Davis from Bronte. In the space of only a few weeks his surfing has progressed considerably and he was pulling off some good turns this morning. Keep it up Ethan!
Dr Rob Brander's "Essential Beach Book" can be bought online as an ebook for just $4.99 through the ITunes Store. If you want to know more about rips, waves and sandbanks then this is the book for you. It's a great read and very informative.
Back tomoz! – Brad
by Franck Gazzola | Jan 11, 2012 | Daily Updates
After driving 4,000km across Australia over the past four days I've returned to the East Coast and I'm back behind the lens. There wasn't much photography going on in W.A. My time was solely focused on maintaining the smooth operations of the luxury yacht that I look after – Gen sets, air con, refrigeration, watermakers and 2 x Cat 1500Kw donks were a handful of the boat's onboard systems that required constant monitoring, for, if any of them go wrong you're literally stuck up shit creek without a paddle.
After playing roo dodgem and sweating it out driving through our vast interior, I decided to hit the water at Bondi this first morning back – and wasn't it just amazing! I hear it's 22 degrees in and boardies are the order of the day. There is a slight East swell running but with a massive high tide of 1.8m mid-morning it will be all but gone with too much water. Try later on in the day for your best chance of a wave. I suggest taking a longboard or similar.
If we are lucky this evening's sunset will be as spectacular as last night's, with Jonas Liebschner capturing the burnt oranges in the fading summer light. Nice shot Jonas!
Looks like some waves tomorrow. Expect the south swell to crank right up throughout the day. Hold onto your hats though or find a protected corner out of the wind.
Great to be back! – Brad
by Franck Gazzola | Jan 10, 2012 | Daily Updates
It is still very small wave wise, so take the longboard or whatever craft you use to keep yourself afloat out there on those tiny, weak walls of water washing ashore. It doesn’t look promising any time soon either.
The wind is moving around to the nor east again at least, so Bondi will be clean and nice for a swim. The water was amazing last night, if a little dirty from the storm runoff after Sunday evening's thunderstorms. It’s up around 22 degrees now, so make the most of it and get down for a dip if you can.
It’s movie time at Bondi, with Flickerfest in full swing once again. There are some great short Aussie and International films showing. There are also out door “under the stars” 9pm sessions too. So grab your sweetheart, head on down and make an evening of it!
Mad if you don’t!
Billy
by Franck Gazzola | Jan 9, 2012 | Daily Updates
We have eaten all the left over ham and emptied the overflowing recycle bin of wine and beer bottles. It has been a very enjoyable Xmas/ New Year break and we sincerely hope yours was just as pleasurable, but the party is over and its time to get those camera shutters blazing once more along the south side beaches and hopefully bring you that feeling, the one that takes you to that place, that zone, where pleasure and happiness begin to froth over you to the point where nothing, not even a council ranger standing at your expired beach parking meter because you missed that last wave of the set to make it back to your car in time. An impenetrable shield of bliss! Well, maybe that's a little far fetched but we truly do hope that our reports this year, will bring a smile to your dial and brighten your day in some way.
The surf has been ok, for summer anyway. We had a nice east swell over Xmas courtesy of Tropical Cyclone Fina. The winds were a little iffy but Bronte had some fun peaks in the middle. Tama had a few grinding lefts into to the twins also and ‘The Bra’ has been pulling even more swell than everywhere combined! It certainly hasn’t been a flat summer so far by any means and we are indeed in a La Nina weather pattern right now and that should spell more storm action for up north, hopefully producing more solid, juicy ground swells for us all down here! Fingers crossed.
Happy New year!
Bill Morris
by Franck Gazzola | Dec 23, 2011 | Daily Updates
The sun is shining right now! Dark grey early with no sunrise at all, before thinning and popping out at 8 am. The surf is still tiny but there is a buzz in the air about what's coming. It may even start to arrive right on Xmas Day. How exciting! There is nothing like paddling around for the late in a rising swell, while trying to keep down a massive Xmas lunch!
If you are looking at teaching your children some ocean awareness these holidays or you already have surf competent kids but want to take their level up a notch, Oceanfit are running some programs through January called “Oceankids”. Check it out.
It wont be long now before the wrapping paper is torn away and strewn about the room, making it look like some dump truck has just dropped it’s load at the paper recycling plant! Well, that is how it looks at my place every year after my kids have finished anyway.
Christie, Brad and I would like to wish you all a very Merry Xmas and happy New Year. We look forward to bringing you more spectacular images in 2012.
See you on the other side!
Billy
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