Big Surf Day

Catch the wave or die trying

Winter is rolling in which means 2 things. 1. It gets slightly colder 2. The surf is picking up. This past Sunday had the biggest surf of the year thus far with swells up up to 10' high on the Manly/Queenscliff beach. If Amy and I went out in this, it is likely we would perish but it made for good watching as the pros came out of the woodwork and put on a show. All weekend the beach was lined up with spectators, ooohhhing when someone pulled off a nice ride and grimacing when some poor soul got crushed out there.

A brave soul ventures forth

We took a hike out to on the rocky headland just below our apartment with out mate Webs to check out the waves and surfers and took some pictures along the way.

It was a truly impressive set of sites. To start off with, the surf was big enough that the Queenscliff Bombura (Queensie Bombie in Aust-speak) was breaking. Let me take a moment to explain what this is and the significance of sighting it is.

The Bombie is a monstrous wave that breaks about a kilometer off the beach only when the surf is truly huge - anywhere from 8 to 16 feet. That means that it doesn't even bother getting out of bed most days. But, when it does come out to play, it is when the surf is big enough to be treacherous for newbies and a calculated risk even for experts. Just to get out to it, you need to paddle for a kilometer or if you are smart/lucky, take a boat and then when you do, you are running the risk of injury or death.

Tooling around in the Queensie Bombie

Although we saw some surfers in the vicinity, the only people that were actually playing around it in were some members of the Surf & Lifesaving Club who were riding down the face of the wave in a zodiac raft.

Looking, judging

We hiked around the headland from the Queenscliff side to the Freshwater side to take a look at the surfers there. This is a sweet little walk that has you stalking through a cave and scrambling over a field of broken boulders.

Hiking around, Freshwater Headland behind me

By the time we made it back to Queenscliff/Manly, the sun was setting and the waves were still pumping. It was an awesome and beautiful sight watching the sunset reflecting off of the clouds and water with the surfers shredding below us, one that I will remember for a long time.