The weed at Fangy's seems to be mysteriously absent so far this spring.Here are two videos shot exactly one year apart.




This one was shot the same date but in 2015.



What caused this? Cold wet spring with no sun, increased run off and silt or Donald Trump?

To many swans survived last year decimated the grass

Too many fins cutting it up last year?

Tony Abbot is to blame

AHHHHHHHHHHH that sound!!!!! Why can't I stop playing that vid

Not enough farmers upstream pouring nutrients into the tributaries?

Oh no! Should I cancel my trip?

Wow! You can clearly see the board crabbing in the second video! I winder if it would be as noticeable with a non Delta fin?

I would think the number one culprit would be low water temp.
Grass certainly is very slow to grow in cold weather.
Any indication of how the grass is growing this year vs last?

With any luck the weed will come, just later.

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sailquik said..
Wow! You can clearly see the board crabbing in the second video! I winder if it would be as noticeable with a non Delta fin?

I definitely notice the difference but it lessens with speed as the lift from the fin gets up to the realms of adequate. It would not be noticeable with a normal fin because you would be swimming back to board after having been pitched around the handlebars

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Windxtasy said..
I would think the number one culprit would be low water temp.
Grass certainly is very slow to grow in cold weather.
Any indication of how the grass is growing this year vs last?

With any luck the weed will come, just later.

I hope you are right Windy! I have been pouring through old photos etc and the optimist in me thinks that the weed washed up after each storm/ high tide looks very much it did the last couple of years in August. And continuing the optimistic streak, the cold Indian Ocean should produce some good sea breezes to coincide with the late weed growth, producing an epic season

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sailquik said..

Oh no! Should I cancel my trip?

Yes. Isn't enough that we suffer with Fairybob.?

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fangman said..

sailquik said..

Oh no! Should I cancel my trip?

Yes. Isn't enough that we suffer with Fairybob.? www.seabreeze.com.au/images/forums/icon_smile_big.gifhttps://www.seabreeze.com.au/images/forums/icon_smile_big.gif' />

Too late. Your endless optimism has me sucked in again!

Need a modern day speed board

Reminds me of Budgie except the water is clear. I think I prefer the Budgie capuccino colour. When its that shallow I'm not sure I want to see how close the bottom is.

Wow I'd love a go at a nm , hr & distance with those long runs in those conditions..

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sboardcrazy said..
Wow I'd love a go at a nm , hr & distance with those long runs in those conditions..www.seabreeze.com.au/images/forums/icon_smile_tongue.gif' />

Doesn't look like it's going to happen this year.
When it happens, NM is great, but hour and distance not quite as good, the weed's usually at a great angle for long down wind runs, but square runs are much shorter in the really flat stuff.

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BRUCE H said..
Reminds me of Budgie except the water is clear. I think I prefer the Budgie capuccino colour. When its that shallow I'm not sure I want to see how close the bottom is.

Hey Bruce - wear polaroid sunnies then you can see the bottom at Budgy too..

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sailquik said..
Wow! You can clearly see the board crabbing in the second video! I winder if it would be as noticeable with a non Delta fin?

Changed from an upright fin to a weedy midway through last time out at Primbee. Back to back, the sideways crab is very noticable. For about 5 minutes. Then all is back to normal, sideways is the new straight once your brain readjusts.

Totally agree Ian. I tend to notice it more the other way, when I put a ' normal ' fin in, the board feels really tight on the backend, by contrast the steep raked fins feel really loose.

fancy, how do you get your mast mount for the go pro to be so still ?? I've used mine twice before and it's never as stable as that ??

thanks

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Ian K said..

sailquik said..
Wow! You can clearly see the board crabbing in the second video! I winder if it would be as noticeable with a non Delta fin?

Changed from an upright fin to a weedy midway through last time out at Primbee. Back to back, the sideways crab is very noticable. For about 5 minutes. Then all is back to normal, sideways is the new straight once your brain readjusts.

When switching to a weedy, try moving you mast forward a few centimetres. It helps with the crabbing.

That's interesting, I was told to move the mast base back when I first used a weed fin on Lake George

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wa881 said..
fancy, how do you get your mast mount for the go pro to be so still ?? I've used mine twice before and it's never as stable as that ??

thanks

Hi wa881 - sorry for the late reply. I use a Sony action cam and turn on the 'anti shake' stabilisation setting In small chop. The water state plays the biggest part though: in the smooth stuff I don't need any stabilisation; the second video has the image stabilisation turned off. The top video has the image stabilisation turned on because of the chop. You can tell because the image field is slightly smaller to allow the software to juggle/crop the periphery image data. In chop the picture is still rubbish regardless of the setting.

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fangman said..
The weed at Fangy's seems to be mysteriously absent so far this spring.Here are two videos shot exactly one year apart.



What caused this? Cold wet spring with no sun, increased run off and silt or Donald Trump?

I think I might have found some clues as to why. I was looking at historical satellite imagery of the weed banks and I noticed that there have been times in the past where the weed appears to be absent. I then went to historical rainfall data. There seems to be a strong inverse correlation between the amount of rainfall and weed. That is; the drier the winter, the more weed growth. This is the opposite to what I expected to find. I had thought it was due to run off upstream, causing increased nutrients and oxygenation to be delivered to the estuary.
So, does that mean with climate change profoudly affecting the SW, can I look forward to better weed and deeper water(sea level rise) in future?

This is Feb 2014 - a excellent vintage for weed.


This is same spot in 2008 - before I got addicted to weed - almost bare sand out on the run...

interesting. perhaps the increased rainfall decreases salinity and the weed needs salt? That might explain why it is still growing well at Liptons.

did you look for a correlation between temperature and weed growth? This year it was wet and cold but most years when it is wet in winter the average temp is warmer

Well done Ross! It could help people making trips if we can predict what the weed will be like in advance.

Nice work Fangster. Maybe your intuition is right, but a wet winter actually means reduced nutrient loads due to dilution?
Anyhow its karma - no more weed until you lift my ban!

Be very careful relying too heavily on Costa Fangsteragiadis's weed crop predictions altho' I do remember February '14 as being prodigiously weedy at Fangy's as I was constantly stuck in it....and on it...and I was trying to go fast and I couldn't! Maybe there IS something in the water.? My legs looked like Costa's chin when I arrived in WA from Queensland and after a couple of runs at Fangy's they looked like they belonged to Cadel Evans....and it certainly wasn't due to my speed through the air or water. What's going on there??

This action GoPro shot from Fangy's mast head installation shows Costa flat on his back after a particularly gnarly stack up at the top weed banks. Note the colour of the water and the crab, bottom left.

Not pointing the bone at anybody in particular^ but there Wazzaweed right up until his emigration.

Coincidence?

Indeedy Elmo, indeedy it is!. Altho' I do have a little bit of Fangy WA weed around one footstrap. And a bit of a crab pincer as well I see.
Wazzakelpdealer hopes all have a great Christmas break and holiday.

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Windxtasy said..
interesting. perhaps the increased rainfall decreases salinity and the weed needs salt? That might explain why it is still growing well at Liptons.

did you look for a correlation between temperature and weed growth? This year it was wet and cold but most years when it is wet in winter the average temp is warmer

I agree Anita, at the moment I think salinity may play a part as the weed is growing back as the runoff decreases. ( except in the areas that are very shallow/exposed on spring tides) I also noticed that the sand banks around the mouth are much deeper in places, and the area to the NW of the mouth is shallower.(Mike, you might recall the early spring sail where we both came close to touching down on the outside of Grumpynuts) I wonder whether some of the weed loss was due to increased sedimentation from the greater outflow. Then throw in temp,sunshine,salinity etc. And the only thing I am confident about is that it is multifactorial...., or Wazzabadsanta's fault.

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fangman said..

Windxtasy said..
interesting. perhaps the increased rainfall decreases salinity and the weed needs salt? That might explain why it is still growing well at Liptons.

did you look for a correlation between temperature and weed growth? This year it was wet and cold but most years when it is wet in winter the average temp is warmer

I agree Anita, at the moment I think salinity may play a part as the weed is growing back as the runoff decreases. ( except in the areas that are very shallow/exposed on spring tides) I also noticed that the sand banks around the mouth are much deeper in places, and the area to the NW of the mouth is shallower.(Mike, you might recall the early spring sail where we both came close to touching down on the outside of Grumpynuts) I wonder whether some of the weed loss was due to increased sedimentation from the greater outflow. Then throw in temp,sunshine,salinity etc. And the only thing I am confident about is that it is multifactorial...., or Wazzabadsanta's fault.

IOD the Indian Ocean Dipole forecast is looking likely that a positive index will develop and persist at least until July. A warmer dry winter Is not good news for farmers. However if there is a correlation between poor winter rainfall and weed growth on the estuary, maybe there will be a better weed crop instead.