Drug Aware Pro Margaret River webcast

Bloody hell - how's these bombs! That's a GOOD 6ft+.

Great to see.

I'm guessing they'll surf Thursday, Friday, possibly Saturday after a late start and then Sunday.

Will be tricky picking whether to surf Monday or Tuesday with more size Monday, but better winds Tuesday..

Interesting to read the 'official' forecast - this was taken from the ASP website this morning (linked off the homepage). 1-3ft with sideshore winds?

BOOM WE ARE LIVE!!!

Conditions are red hot!

Look... I realize that the smaller we call the size of a wave, the bigger our cocks are.... I've always understood that..... But the non surfing community who try to get a grasp of our sport just shake their heads...... And Ben, you and i both get a bit irate at BOM with their coastal warnings for the general public.... But if us surfers were in charge of this, how many novice rock fisherman would die with you and me saying that the waves are 4 foot today? "Cool", says the rock fisherman...... "That's tiny...... 4 foot...."...... Hours later, a wave with an 8 foot face swamps him and his kid.......
We are a funny mob, us surfers.....

Just switched on and will be ineteresting to see how the commentary addresses the move made by Kelly.

Didn't say it was 4ft, Sheepdog.

I said that "I'm seeing good 4-6ft sets on our Margs surfcam". Then a few minutes later, I uploaded anothersurfcam grab and mentioned "That's a GOOD 6ft+".

For what it's worth, I actually watched our webcam for 10mins+ until these waves came through - it was tiny prior to then. Very typical of long range Southern Ocean groundswell - very inconsistent at times.

As for "how big is that wave".. well, that's another discussion which we've had many times before.

But in order to alleviate confusion, if you mouseover our Margs forecast for this morning, it says "2x overhead" (or, double overhead). That's about 6ft in 'surfers feet'. Which is what the surf is right about now.

@Doggy.

Fkn right we're a weird bunch... Its different break to break https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_scale

I'd Call today 6ft going by the webcast. remember also how bloody far out the wave is.

BTW, our forecasting system also produces surf size predictions in "face feet" too (of which today would probably be in the 10-12ft range). We just haven't got around to making that functionality available on the website just yet.

Jeez, there were waves galore before the start of the heat and now hardly a set!

Ah, always happens, bring on an add and you're bound to miss some action and a set.

Didn't say you called it 4 foot, ben.... Was just painting a hypothetical about "surf size"in general.... Possibly worth a forum on it's own.....

Or when you're surfing and a set comes just as you start to have a piss;)

And.. how are the other major surfing websites forecasting Margaret River today?

Keeping in mind that Surfline and Magic Seaweed both forecast 'face feet' - so, their figures should be approx double of ours - this is what their forecast are showing for this morning (taken from their iPhone Apps):

Magic Seaweed

Surfline

Well that's right, Ben.... So how does a non surfer make any sense of this?. Name another sport that has this much confusion about the main facet of the sport.........

Wow surfline massive overcall even if you half it....
Did I hear correctly the ad was Coastalwatch the official forecaster for the 2014 ASP World Tour?

I believe they are for the Australian leg. Can't imagine they're doing the OS events though.

Sheepdog wrote:

Well that's right, Ben.... So how does a non surfer make any sense of this?. Name another sport that has this much confusion about the main facet of the sport.........

Agreed.. that's partly what makes surfing what it is.

But as for the reliability of the various surf forecasting websites - my advice to anyone is that they choose one source and stick with it, rather than jumping between different sites looking for the 'most favourable' forecast. By using one source, you'll become accustomed to its specific trends and characteristics.

Has Jordy got bigger?

There's some shit coming out of those commentators trying to fill the lulls

Jeez the waves look bloody good!

I'm 20mins behind watching webcast - but have the commentators addressed the big elephant in the room - Kelly's stickerless board??

Yeah they're not skirting the issue. Mentioned it this morning in the 'dawn patrol' segment too. 

What we really need though is for Kelly to jump into the commentators booth and do an interview. He's unlikely to win this heat (and therefore won't be up for a post-heat interview) so it'll be in his own time. Wonder when that'll happen?

Classic Yadin! Speaking to Pete Mel post-heat:

"You beat Kelly Slater. Must feel pretty good".

"Well the guy doesn't have a sponsor. So I felt a little bad".

Haha, and then the interview with Kelly was great, obviously still really raw for Kelly and showed.

Surfs turned crap. Wrap it up for today, I wanna see Mr Wright on some clean faces.

Interestingly winds are still offshore in the Yalls region, and having gone light to moderate N'ly for a period well south of Margs, it's now somewhat variable (N'ly tending NW, then SW and now SE in the last few hours, all under 10kts). So, probably just a local sea breeze in the Margs region.

took a while to catch up. Pretty emotional for Kelly. Be great to have the inside story. Guess that will be good details for a book one day!

Best day of the contest period ACB they will milk it right through to the ladies

and as soon as JJF does 1 good manoeuvre, the drivel about hawaiian's being the best because of their backyard begins.

The women are in the water now.. we're halfway through the first heat and the scoring system is buggered again (at least give or six waves have been ridden, yet the scores aren't showing). Argh!

I am transfixed by that desk. Do you think they flew it there from the gold coast like a hover craft? Looks like it came the set of THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO with those jet propulsion units at each end. Come to think of it so do the commentators. Maybe Zosea could get the old puppets and use SIRI as a voice over to save money on this part of it? Couldn't resist when I saw poor Pete Mel with a blank look on his face.

No mem, it's inflatable! Never any shortage of hot air. Joe can blow it up easily, I think he uses circular breathing.

Yes that's it! The rubber ducky of desks with Joe hooked up to it to maintain its tautness . Maybe they could hook up an outboard and take it out to the surf and commentate from there. He could talk in an iron lung so out in the surf wouldn't be a problem.

Stoked.. our model forecast nailed it again. The ASP are reporting 3-4ft surf at Margs this morning (and it looks that way on the webcast) - just a little overhead on the sets, with moderate offshore winds.

https://www.swellnet.com/reports/australia/western-australia/margaret-r…

And.. let's again see how the other major surf forecast sites are calling today (remembering both MSW and Surfline measure 'face feet').

Magic Seaweed

Surfline

So again - at 3-5ft MSW have significantly undercalled the surf, whilst Surfline at 9-10ft have overcalled the surf.

looks like there is no waves at all at the moment!!

thermalben wrote:

Interesting to read the 'official' forecast - this was taken from the ASP website this morning (linked off the homepage). 1-3ft with sideshore winds?

You must have gotten the "old" official forecast Ben, as CW updated it yesterday morning to call 4-6ft for yesterday. Must have been a close range storm off Margs Tuesday night that made the forecast change so significantly!!!! ;)

So, they updated the forecast for Wednesday, on Wednesday?

That's a little convenient. Kinda hard to get it wrong too.

Also, what model are they getting 15kt N'ly winds on Saturday night from, no model I've checked even comes close to forecasting this..

lets go to the box.. this is so inconstant.

ACB__ wrote:

lets go to the box.. this is so inconstant.

Exactly. Guys are getting pitted over at the box while the girls are just sitting around. Get to the Box!

https://www.aspworldtour.com/posts/36478/official-assessment-margaret-ri…
"We're looking for power, we're looking for unique lines and of course innovation where opportunity presents itself." Rich Porta

Isn't this a given when you're having a comp and how is this relevant to the Official Assessment Margaret River?

I still think the Box is an average competition wave. Unreal freesurf viewing (and an excellent decision for the ASP webcast to have one camera trained on Parko over there!) but I reckon The Box would lose its appeal after a couple of heats. 

My feed is shithouse this morning jumping in and out. its got Kelly and hedge's heads on the screen with a live feed showing girls surfing. But display is saying Broadcast is off. Next call following womens round two. Got the fastest broadband too.

Given they measure in wave face MSW should be in line with Surfline.
haha frickin classic - I saw the official forecast too for yesterday and it was forecasted for small in morning

Only Southerlys on seabreeze too for the weekend Craig. No northerlies there. Though there are northerlies forecasted for Perth.

https://www.seabreeze.com.au/graphs/wa2.asp

Yeah it's buffering heavily here too Mick. I'm very surprised - YouTube have a really strong CDN network so this shouldn't be happening. 

The forecast the had up on the ASP site that you posted Ben was done last Wednesday they didn't update until yesterday. They were updating every few days on the CW main page just not updating the ASP page

mick-free wrote:

My feed is shithouse this morning jumping in and out. its got Kelly and hedge's heads on the screen with a live feed showing girls surfing. But display is saying Broadcast is off. Next call following womens round two. Got the fastest broadband too.

Same it's really shitting me I wanna know the individual scores not just the total...

My feed isn't too bad though.

waves are getting better. Was going to put Fuel on but its not even on Fuel TV....

matt123 wrote:

The forecast the had up on the ASP site that you posted Ben was done last Wednesday they didn't update until yesterday. They were updating every few days on the CW main page just not updating the ASP page

If we were the 'official forecasters' and the 'official forecast' at the top of the ASP homepage was so wrong and so out of date, I would have been demanding the ASP update the content (the screengrab I showed was taken on Wednesday morning around 7am). Most of the ASP audience is non-Australian so they would have assumed that this was the latest information.

In any case, forecasting four consecutive days generally under 3ft in Margs in April is a big risk (especially at long range).

Basic forecasting principles would - in the absence of any other data - maintain at least a climatalogical average for long range (which is probably somewhere in the 4ft range at this time of year).

And for reference - Craig's written forecast for Margaret River - 9 days in advance (March 24th) and two days before CW's 1-3ft easing to 1-2ft call was:

"A stronger polar frontal progression right on the edge of our southern swell window, south-southwest of the state (pictured right) will kick up a moderate to large S/SW groundswell for next Tuesday and Wednesday that at this stage looks to reach 5-6ft in the South West, 1-2ft in Perth and 3-4ft up at Gero under favourable offshore E/SE winds."

https://www.swellnet.com/forums/swellnet-forecast-notes/101636

thermalben wrote:

The forecast the had up on the ASP site that you posted Ben was done last Wednesday they didn't update until yesterday. They were updating every few days on the CW main page just not updating the ASP page

If we were the 'official forecasters' and the 'official forecast' at the top of the ASP homepage was so wrong and so out of date, I would have been demanding the ASP update the content (the screengrab I showed was taken on Wednesday morning around 7am). Most of the ASP audience is non-Australian so they would have assumed that this was the latest information.

In any case, forecasting four consecutive days generally under 3ft in Margs in April is a big risk (especially at long range).

Basic forecasting principles would - in the absence of any other data - maintain at least a climatalogical average for long range (which is probably somewhere in the 4ft range at this time of year).

And for reference - Craig's written forecast for Margaret River - 9 days in advance (March 24th) and two days before CW's 1-3ft easing to 1-2ft call was:

"A stronger polar frontal progression right on the edge of our southern swell window, south-southwest of the state (pictured right) will kick up a moderate to large S/SW groundswell for next Tuesday and Wednesday that at this stage looks to reach 5-6ft in the South West, 1-2ft in Perth and 3-4ft up at Gero under favourable offshore E/SE winds."

https://www.swellnet.com/forums/swellnet-forecast-notes/101636

I really couldn't care less, all I was saying is that the forecast on the ASP site was a week old and they were updating on the CW site.. and if I remember correctly they had 5ft Margies in the Friday update, Not sticking up for them tho.