GPA said..
Well I have today off - and guess what? It's sh!t...

Guess I am painting the eves then?!

It was surf able this arvo. ****, yes, but I'd have been out had I a board.

thedrip said..

GPA said...

thedrip said..

Or stop grooming the beaches and allow a natural profile to return so the banks return to what they were like 25 years ago. The beaches will be smaller but the waves way better. The width of the beach now is ridiculous

Yes - Trigg is as wide as I have ever seen it - and the banks straighter than it has been in the 30+ years I have surfed it!

I will be joining the hoards travelling this weekend...

Nooooooooo nooooooo nooooooooooo!!!!!!! I had forgotten it was a long weekend and was looking forward to some waves and now it is going to be war with half of Perth heading down.

Comp head on? Check!
Bigger board than Perth boys? Check!
Wave identified with tricky lineup? Check!
Close second option with gnarly takeoff that Perth boards don't work on? Check!
Ring a few mates to pack the peak on Option A? Check!

Righto. I am ready. Bring it on ya mongrels.

I think sometimes the people of Perth have chosen the wrong sport when they have to travel 3hrs for a decent rideable wave.
Doesn't make sense
On the flip side I have a few mates from Perth who claim that it has some of the best conditions in the world for Kite surfing

T.P this morning, as posted on the Swellnet Daily Report....

At the end of the day you just gotta make do with what you have got, I think everyone would love to live up the road from consistent good surf, fact of the matter is it is just not always possible.

Get a few different boards, chill out and just get out there if only for a paddle with you mates sometimes, I reckon I would grow a tail if I did not get in the water at least twice a week, regardless of conditions.

so true it has been so crap this year no swell and no waves at least last year we had waves last year.

DJMWA said..
Do any government bodies keep swell records? Would be interesting to see how different years compare. Ie. "X" amount of days between 0.5-1m. 1-1.5m, 1.5-2m etc.
I'm still adamnet that it was a standard summer but maybe I'm wrong.

Last year it seemed the warm weather stayed longer

DJMWA said...
Do any government bodies keep swell records? Would be interesting to see how different years compare. Ie. "X" amount of days between 0.5-1m. 1-1.5m, 1.5-2m etc.
I'm still adamnet that it was a standard summer but maybe I'm wrong.

There's been ample swell this year it's just the paucity of e-ne winds that have made it so crap.

Another thing I have noticed in the summer just gone and even now is that people have absolutely no standards anymore.
People seem to paddle out in a screaming onshore with 20cm straight handers.
There would be more on offer at the local park if the wind is up
If they can stand up for a half second on anything remotely resembling a wave there will be a pack hunting it.
The explosion in crowds has left everyone in desperation for anything half rideable
There is nothing wrong with putting surfing down for a while and feeling refreshed when your getting back into it.
Or changing sports (wishful thinking)

Department of Transport tides and waves division do keep all the records.
You can't just download the data (otherwise it can be used by consultants etc to make profit), but you can request it if for a study or something non-profit, and then sign a waiver that legally binds you to not reproduce or on-sell.
the coastal managment group has a couple of folk that will review the records either for internal info, or to produce scientific papers, and otherwise it gets issued to universities for phd and honours studies usually.
if i hear of any review done of the swell patterns for the last year or so, i'll keep you posted. there has been an above normal movement of sand northwards at a few key spots i know are monitored this past 6-12 months, which suggests more energy hitting those beaches in that direction over that time (probably more consistent south to southwest swell then previous years- not saying that means thumper or memorable swells, just more on average for the duration).


and if anyone is wondering why the cape nat wave buoy is down, it is a telstra issue from the base computer back to the central storage point, the buoy is fine as far as i know and is still recording. telstra crew apparently are on their way to check it. bl00dy hard to get decent reception in those parts

mazdon said..
Department of Transport tides and waves division do keep all the records.
You can't just download the data (otherwise it can be used by consultants etc to make profit), but you can request it if for a study or something non-profit, and then sign a waiver that legally binds you to not reproduce or on-sell.
the coastal managment group has a couple of folk that will review the records either for internal info, or to produce scientific papers, and otherwise it gets issued to universities for phd and honours studies usually.
if i hear of any review done of the swell patterns for the last year or so, i'll keep you posted. there has been an above normal movement of sand northwards at a few key spots i know are monitored this past 6-12 months, which suggests more energy hitting those beaches in that direction over that time (probably more consistent south to southwest swell then previous years- not saying that means thumper or memorable swells, just more on average for the duration).


and if anyone is wondering why the cape nat wave buoy is down, it is a telstra issue from the base computer back to the central storage point, the buoy is fine as far as i know and is still recording. telstra crew apparently are on their way to check it. bl00dy hard to get decent reception in those parts

My local spot would have an extra 30' of beach this year than previous years. The sand is actually past the rock wall bend which i haven't seen before. That much sand movement still has me astounded . From summer to winter. These picks are just examples of the different beach condition from summer to winter and not the extreme shots. The beach ATM is further out with sand again than the last shot. Actually were the wave is breaking is virtually sand.

beastsurf said..
That's a massive amount of sand. If hopefully when we get some storms we should get some quality banks hey?

The sand disappears every year and i wonder were it ends up, as it always comes back. They talk about the Marina has stopped the sand movement back North and thats why the Quinns beach area is struggling more every year, but i find it a little hard to believe.

re: surf spot above from JB ^^
i was looking at this the other day because of a maintenance issue at another site, and i was actually quite surprised to see that the aerial shots from previous years actually show about the same amount of sand there annually going back the last few years. bearing in mind that the timing of the photo doesn't allow for what the tide was, but it is pretty apparent. FYI - i have surfed around that area since i was a grom, (mid90s), so it is funny what your memory tells you it "has always been like", and i have surfed it both as rocky as in the 2nd photo, but also with some sweet wedges bouncing off the front of the wall.

when it comes to "where does the build up come from and where is it going" questions, there is a fair bit of work on sediment cells for WA already published - can't remember if i linked this before, but here it is again
www.transport.wa.gov.au/imarine/coastal-erosion-and-stability.asp
sediment cells for your area:
www.transport.wa.gov.au/mediaFiles/marine/MAC_R_CoastalSedimentCellsReport.pdf
yours is G 29 (a and b most relevant) if you want to quickly find it.

basically you have to get a bit lucky with where these structures have been put - if it is a "node" , where sand kind of wants to be stored or heads on or offshore due to reef structures etc, then usually you don't get the build up permanently (and erosion downstream), and you see like what happens at your spot where the sand builds gradually over summer in prevailing southerlies, and then a couple of really brutal NW fronts rip it a) offshore, and b) send it back to the south, before it all goes starts over again with a slow push onto shore and a roll along the shoreline in the prevailing southerlies again. kind of like the usual bank formation but on a bigger scale
contrast this with say tweed heads, where if there wasn't pumping of sand annually from south to north, the beach on the other side of the channel would be 1km wide after 10 years and the erosion around snapper/kirra and further north would be even more insane. they got relatively lucky with hillaries, and pinnaroo point just downstream, as well - although some will say that hillaries has totally stuffed trigg/scabs. personally i think freo port over a much longer time scale, plus beach stabilising and grooming, has done that.

here are the photos that surprised me as well, in order we have 2010,2011,2013,2014,2015 - all in March to try to keep it relevant. i think there was less sand last year than this year, but wasn't far off this year back in 2011.










Thread hijack complete! cheers

subasurf said..
Took the gf for a paddle yesterday down in a secret harbour that isn't. She's doing rehab from an injury so thought it would be nice and gentle for her on her longboard...she had a bit of fun then i had a quick paddle on her longboard and got a few dick high grovelers.........**** me, how far we've fallen

Stop whinging - at least it was dick high.

thedrip said..

subasurf said..
Took the gf for a paddle yesterday down in a secret harbour that isn't. She's doing rehab from an injury so thought it would be nice and gentle for her on her longboard...she had a bit of fun then i had a quick paddle on her longboard and got a few dick high grovelers.........**** me, how far we've fallen

Stop whinging - at least it was dick high.

Yeah but I'm hung like a brontosaurus.