Friday May 2 saw a new swell push in on the Mid Coast, and as winds backed off late plenty of glassy shoulder high waves were there for the taking.  Saturday morning saw a continuation of the swell, but thanks to several generally accepted but erroneous surf forecasts, quiet, uncrowded lineups. As the tide filled in spots like Seaford Reef, U-Turn’s  and Anzac’s began to show some promise, and later in the afternoon on the bigger tide, the fabled Freddie Nerk’s even started to work.

Sunday saw a temporary reprieve, but late that night the needle on the Cape Du Coudiec wavebouy sprang to life - recording the first 17 second pulses of new swell. Dawn broke to a perfectly lined up, pumping Westerly groundswell and superb, glassy conditions. The amount of swell pushing in at the Northern end of South Port was impressive, with a fierce rip running into the dredgy closeouts that stretched from The Hump to The Rivermouth. As the tide ran out it gained a bit of composure, and by 9:30am overhead grinding left handers were reeling off for less than half a dozen lucky punters.

As the tide turned Seaford and The Trough started to fire, the latter also holding some very fun waves on the outgoing tide, and a crowd maxing at just five. The wind held off and by just after lunch there was not a reef on the whole coast without glassy, head high surf.   The crowd at Trigs and Seaford became ludicrous, with average joes feeling the squeeze between board flinging learners  and psychotic, frothing rippers.

Such was the energy in the swell that by 2pm many beaches were swamped by the big tide, even though it didn’t peak for another two hours.  Seaford Reef began to turn it on as everywhere else became too full, and the high tide loving Freddie Nerks was breaking the best it had all year. Not long after the onshores kicked in and crowds started thinning as quality fell away - but with plenty of waves still on tap the after work crew had enough to keep them smiling. As a bonus, the wind backed off again later for a late arvo glass off.

Without doubt yesterday was the swell of the year. It not only exceeded expectations by a fair margin, but put other bigger calls made this year to shame. To have it largely missed by forecasting experts - self styled or not - should stand as a reminder that in this information age, there can still be surprises.

Finally a good dose of groundswell over the wekeend of the 5th and 6th of April, with light offshore winds on the South Coast.  

Saturday dawned with light North winds and clean 3′ waves between Middleton and Cliffs, and even a little learner wave on the Mid Coast for the Girls Get Into It event.  The swell cranked up a notch early Sunday, with good sized SW swell pushing in between Knight’s Beach and The Dump. A few early crew had a crack at Bullies, but the tide conspired against it. Knights had a bit of size, especially in the morning, and local groms were all over The Dump.

Around at Middleton there were good sized waves in The Bay, which staged two comps - The Coastview Women’s Classic and what appeared to be a club longboard comp. Sets breaking off Suicides were well overhead, with big sets closing out the Bay about every 10 minutes. Things settled down a bit around midday, but plenty of crew were still getting into long 4′ peelers off Middleton Point and further down the beach. Winds went a bit Easterly and reminded us of Summer Lumps, but with strong underlying swell it wasn’t too much of an issue.  Add to that the fact that the water is still pretty pleasant in a short sleeve 2mm steamer, and the great weather, I’d wager most Fleurieu surfers ended the weekend pretty stoked.

March kicked off nicely with a round of new swell on the Mid Coast and Yorkes, but what really made it was the record breaking run of hot weather. It’s not unheard of for a run of WSW swell to coincide with a run of heat, but given the very lackluster Febrary it was an unexpected bonus. The most recent run started with a NW wind effected swell building on the  14th, with not one day unsurfable right through to the 22nd. That’s not forgetting the fun little waves on the 3rd, 8th and 10th of March that lit up Yorkes a treat. Add to that the board short freindly water temperatures, all up it’s been a damn good start to Autumn. Looking at the charts on Easter Sunday it looks as if we are in for more swell to round out the month - and maybe even some Nor-westers for the South Coast. If this is what we can expect for the next two months then to summer 2008 I say goodbye and good riddance!   

It would have been impossible not to notice the fact that a major surf carnival was on at South Port yesterday.

My good buddy and business partner Glen had popped down for his only chance at a surf in three weeks, and  respecting organisers wishes we paddled out at the Northern end of the competition area. It soon became obvious that apart from cordoning off most of the beach, contest organisers had set up the “bumkisser” race slap in the middle of the Hump - about the only place you could surf on the whole Mid Coast yesterday.

We paddled out and sat on the edge, trying to pick up the wider sets and salvage what we could. Within about 5 minutes, an “official” came charging up in an IRB and told us to “f— off out of the contest area”. We were a little taken aback, but calmly pointed out that we were not inside the area, indicating the line between the flags on the beach and the bouys out to sea. He then screamed off back out to sea, and radioed to the jetski driver to come over and sort us out. As soon as he arrived, he recognised Glen - the bloke he regularly flies in the Westpac rescue chopper with. Yes… Glen’s a clubbie too… and one of his bretheren had just abused him out in the water without any good reason. Glen’s also a former state representative, club president of Chiton Rocks SLSC,  and in the past, has been involved at an organisational level in Surf Lifesaving - the same organisation the clown in the IRB had just misrepresented. Jeff laughed and waved his finger at us to give us a mock telling off, before driving off back out to sea and leaving us to it.

Now I’m not about to justify what happened next, but suffice to say the two of us deciding to paddle across the contest area ( albeit at a carefully chosen gap where we weren’t in the path of any competitors ) was probably not the most diplomatic move we could have made. And two wrongs certainly don’t make a right. That said, if we were going to get verbally abused for minding our own business we decided we should give the man something to genuinely get upset about. Once again fatty charged in in the IRB and started swearing at us, but we kept our cool and informed him we were just crossing over… and would be on the other side in 20 seconds. He then informed me  “you shouldn’t f—en be out here in the first place”. Right. So surf Lifesaving SA now owns every surfable beach in St. Vincen’t Gulf? I’m sorry… I didn’t notice the “local residents must stay the f— off the beach today” sign on the way in. I didn’t get a flyer dropped in my letter box explaining that the entire beach was closed for the day. And that’s because legally they can’t.

I know right now there are clubbies that surf reading this and cringing, saying to themselves “we don’t need this sort of bull….”, and it’s true. In SA we have almost totally avoided the animosity between surfers and clubbies that has seems to happen interstate. On the contrary… there are a lot of surfing clubbies here… some very hardcore, and very experienced watermen. Good blokes.
But setting up the race so the take off for The Hump was perfectly placed dead center also highlights a total disregard for other beach users. Another factor was the Southerly sweep that drew competitors off course and well out of the contest area - another error of judgment on the part of organisers. I can only assume that local South Port members were not consulted, or any concerns they raised were ignored. To then resort to threats and intimidation to scare surfers away from a non-marked off area the competitors strayed into is very poor form indeed.

On the other side of the contest area, the narrow gap between the next flagged off area was chockers with kids on paddle boards. They continually strayed into the contest area, and soon attracted the attention of the fat controller in the IRB. He then proceeded to weave in and out of this supposedly “clear” area, swearing at kids and threatening to confiscate surfcraft. The driver was certainly going a lot faster than the 5km limit that applies for boats travelling among swimmers. All up, their behaviour was appalling, and I am certain not the sort of community spirit so many volunteers uphold.

The arseclown we came across yesterday is clearly not representative, but loudmouthed blow in, blow hard Hitlers do nothing to foster mutual respect between non-surfing clubbies and non-clubbie surfers. If good relations are to be maintained, loose cannons like fatso IRB guy need to be given a long hard talk about the value of PR. And the 5km speed limit. End rant…

After the dreaded sou-easters left the South Coast sloppy through most of November, we finally got a taste of offshores in the days following Xmas. Boxing day turned up some fun waves along the Day St. - Goolwa stretch of coast with light offshore NE winds, and a beautiful glass off the following afternoon. The 28th dawned to a freshening Northerly, and while it got a bit hot and gusty at times, swell was the straightest it had been in weeks. Day St. was chockers with holidayers keen to make the most of the clean 2′ waves spread amongst dozens of peaks between Middleton Point and Goolwa. Waits was also busy - but not anywhere near as busy as you might think. With three half reasnable banks throwing left and right handers as the tide shifted, there were some fun waves to be had - even if the bigger ones closed out.

Here’s a few shots of the two banks closest the carpark, plus the left at the Rivermouth just starting to fire as it moved into tidal range. Also note the unsurfed left up towards Waits Point… a reminder that even in the peak of Xmas holidays in SA you can score head high offshore waves, and even the odd barrel… all to yourself.

This weekend saw the Aussie Junior titles kick off on the South Coast, with Waits ending up as the venue of choice in the small, easterly effected swell. With big sets closing out, alternating with long lulls and a shifty takeoff, the contest bank was a slightly duff call on the part of contest organisers. But a short walk down the beach was another bank that spent the day getting demolished by free surfing interstate competitors, and this certainly was the hot spot. It’s great to see just what these guys can pull off on a wave… let alone a less than perfect Waitpinga re-form.

The competition will continue on the South Fluerieu coast for the rest of this week, so make sure you get yourself down there on one of the better days for a look. You never know… you might just be watching a future Fanning or Occy!