Next week. Been difficult to schedule a trip to Sydney; two of my technicians were sick last week (one with Covid), so all of our work got pushed back accordingly.

No worries, thanks mate.

Hi Ben
is there any way we could get stu to stand on the point under the norfolk island palm overlooking the island and do morse code when a set rolls though?

just kidding, hope you are well mate

The other technician caught Covid yesterday, sent home from a job site to isolate for 7 days. Argh.

hey mate any chance we can get the Avoca cam panning?

thermalben wrote:

The other technician caught Covid yesterday, sent home from a job site to isolate for 7 days. Argh.

How's that Narrabeen cam going that's been down for 2 and a bit years that you KEEP saying is getting fixed in the next 'few weeks'. Pretty shit as a paying customer.

Deceptive advertising

I second the sentiment of eel. I love Swellnet but two years or more of no reliable surf cam at Narrabeen is making it very difficult to justify not moving to the competitor.

Yep. The fact that they aren't even replying (even though they are online replying to other posts) probably indicates that the Narrabeen cam is still a long way off. Very deceptive how they said several times 'the next few weeks' about Sydney cams. I'm pissed off that I paid yearly and not month to month. When my subscription runs out I'll be moving to Surfline.

Sooo that Narrabeen cam?....Another week gone by and still no response?

eel wrote:

Yep. The fact that they aren't even replying (even though they are online replying to other posts) probably indicates that the Narrabeen cam is still a long way off. Very deceptive how they said several times 'the next few weeks' about Sydney cams. I'm pissed off that I paid yearly and not month to month. When my subscription runs out I'll be moving to Surfline.

Eel, Swellnet folk like us will applaud your migration to whatever other platform you decide to join, you’d probably whinge there as well. So fuck right off then as you please. Do you understand the enormity of operating a company like this one that involves, electronics, high end tech, cameras, satellites, purchasing data from other scientific organisations etc,, hardware that’s on the frontline of meteorological events, vandalism and so on, obviously not you clown. Please remind me how much your annual subscription is ?
You probably count your money on a daily basis and spend most of your time checking your bank balance. Fair dinkum. Do you even surf or are you a keyboard warrior ?

AlfredWallace wrote:

eel wrote:

Yep. The fact that they aren't even replying (even though they are online replying to other posts) probably indicates that the Narrabeen cam is still a long way off. Very deceptive how they said several times 'the next few weeks' about Sydney cams. I'm pissed off that I paid yearly and not month to month. When my subscription runs out I'll be moving to Surfline.

Eel, Swellnet folk like us will applaud your migration to whatever other platform you decide to join, you’d probably whinge there as well. So fuck right off then as you please. Do you understand the enormity of operating a company like this one that involves, electronics, high end tech, cameras, satellites, purchasing data from other scientific organisations etc,, hardware that’s on the frontline of meteorological events, vandalism and so on, obviously not you clown. Please remind me how much your annual subscription is ?

You probably count your money on a daily basis and spend most of your time checking your bank balance. Fair dinkum. Do you even surf or are you a keyboard warrior ?

The only keyboard warrior is the internet tough guy calling me a clown and suggesting I should be donating freely to Swellnet. I have been a paid subscriber to this site for a number of years. The gall of me expecting something that I paid money for. Or at the least, expecting the staff to answer a simple question about when a cam is going to be online?
Yes I surf and have done so for many years at a lot of the bucket list waves around the world. Thanks for asking champion.

"Jeez, looks like someone's not going to be on the SN Xmas card list!"

I'm ok with that. We (not SN & I) stopped doing Xmas cards years ago. Save the trees n all....

Do you care to comment on the subject matter? Why would surfcam feedback comments all of a sudden be getting deleted without explanation? It's pretty rare for any comments on any subject matter to get deleted on SN. First world issue I know. I am curious though.

You know, theyd get deleted because of that balance between being a business and also have attaching a soapbox to your business (this forum) allowing anyone to say whatever they want. It's fairly unique.

I'm all for more cams tbh. The horse had bolted, genie is out of the bottle, past is the past, golden years are gone. Get busy living or get busy dying. Anyone against cams is living in a fantasy world of yesteryear when phones only worked when plugged into copper, cars weighed several tonnes and women weren't allowed in offices.

Stok wrote:

You know, theyd get deleted because of that balance between being a business and also have attaching a soapbox to your business (this forum) allowing anyone to say whatever they want. It's fairly unique.

I'm all for more cams tbh. The horse had bolted, genie gis out of the bottle, past is the past, golden years are gone. Get busy living or get busy dying. Anyone against cams is living in a fantasy world of yesteryear when phones only worked when plugged into copper, cars weighed several tonnes and women weren't allowed in offices.

Do you live in a densely populated area and predominantly surf a city beach?

"SN have not explained (that I have seen) why the obvious change in attitude or tolerance to the subject matter, that's all."

Thanks for the explanation Ben. Appreciate it. Enjoy your holiday.

DudeSweetDudeSweet wrote:

Do you live in a densely populated area and predominantly surf a city beach?

I grew up in cities, but now live essentially in coastal rural suburbia.
I'm essentially public enemy number 1! I used to be a blowin, now I'm the one who's moved in from the city and bought a house.

Look, I'm not for cams literally everywhere, but I do feel the track has been well beaten here in Aus. Doesn't matter if a surfer lives in a city or not, if they're serious about getting waves (which so, so many people are) then they'll happily travel 1-3 hours from home to score. Drop a pin at any surfbreak in Aus, then measure out a 2-3 hour radius drive - the result is heaps of surfers. And they're coming for a surf, when the tide, wind and swell line up, regardless of whether a cam is installed or not.

DudeSweetDudeSweet wrote:

Stok wrote:

You know, theyd get deleted because of that balance between being a business and also have attaching a soapbox to your business (this forum) allowing anyone to say whatever they want. It's fairly unique.

I'm all for more cams tbh. The horse had bolted, genie gis out of the bottle, past is the past, golden years are gone. Get busy living or get busy dying. Anyone against cams is living in a fantasy world of yesteryear when phones only worked when plugged into copper, cars weighed several tonnes and women weren't allowed in offices.

Do you live in a densely populated area and predominantly surf a city beach?

the dude lives in a bubble, that's where he lives!

"...Drop a pin at any surfbreak in Aus, then measure out a 2-3 hour radius drive - the result is heaps of surfers. And they're coming for a surf, when the tide, wind and swell line up, regardless of whether a cam is installed or not..."

yeh nah bubble boy

Stok wrote:

You know, theyd get deleted because of that balance between being a business and also have attaching a soapbox to your business (this forum) allowing anyone to say whatever they want. It's fairly unique.

I'm all for more cams tbh. The horse had bolted, genie is out of the bottle, past is the past, golden years are gone. Get busy living or get busy dying. Anyone against cams is living in a fantasy world of yesteryear when phones only worked when plugged into copper, cars weighed several tonnes and women weren't allowed in offices.

What a bizarre little comment.

Stok wrote:

DudeSweetDudeSweet wrote:

Do you live in a densely populated area and predominantly surf a city beach?

I grew up in cities, but now live essentially in coastal rural suburbia.

I'm essentially public enemy number 1! I used to be a blowin, now I'm the one who's moved in from the city and bought a house.

Look, I'm not for cams literally everywhere, but I do feel the track has been well beaten here in Aus. Doesn't matter if a surfer lives in a city or not, if they're serious about getting waves (which so, so many people are) then they'll happily travel 1-3 hours from home to score. Drop a pin at any surfbreak in Aus, then measure out a 2-3 hour radius drive - the result is heaps of surfers. And they're coming for a surf, when the tide, wind and swell line up, regardless of whether a cam is installed or not.

Unless you’re talking about a point or reef break this is patently untrue. Even then crowds ebb and build on word of good sessions getting around. You only have to witness a crowd growing at a break over a sustained period of good waves to see evidence of people’s demand for return on travel investment, even if it’s a destination within their usual travel bubble.

There’s hundreds of breaks within a couple of hours of crowd centres which are usually empty but which get very busy once word of recent good waves spreads. Surf cams ensure that any periods of semi-rideable waves are always crowded due to the fact that they are never given a chance to slip under the radar.

Just this morning I was watching a super fun little peak at a beach not regularly blessed with decent waves . Three crew on it. If this beach had a cam there would have been a couple of dozen people on it no doubt.

That’s why the expansion of surf cam numbers is always contentious.

You do t have to be a Luddite to grasp this truth and oppose the incursion of business profit onto our beautiful coast.

Besides….who wants every private beach moment broadcast into the universe? Not me! I feel sorry for crew who have to go to beaches surrounded by houses , shops and busy carparks, let alone having a friggen camera pointed at you all day.

Fair enough, you've got me there - if a cam is exposing the once in a blue moon epic bank on a beachie then my views differ. The context for me was the cam at Winki (expecting this post to be deleted shortly).

I don't really see a surfcam on private land as an overstep into our coastlines. That ship left when the council zoned that area for private land.

I also don't see surfcams popping up in areas without erected buildings, infrastructure, suburbs etc. Although maybe I'm wrong?

I did notice in the local papery thing, there was a headline article about the Winki and Wye cams, suggesting disapproval and 'is it above board?'...
In the meantime, ermagerrd, Fishos!

That cam is going to be so handy, we will be able to refer you all to it and say 'see? what a circus!'

It’s not just once in a blue moon sand banks at peril though is it? I can think of dozens of often fun beachies which are usually uncrowded because people can’t check them at their convenience, they don’t have contacts to tell them what local conditions are like and the local crew know better than to broadcast the quality of their waves to the general public.

Put a cam at any of these places and the regular ctrowd numbers would swell alarmingly.

I can even think of quite a few beaches adjacent to very crowded waves which remain uncrowded because crew are too lazy/ too stupid to check them. Often great waves breaking for a few crew whilst the nearby name spot is half as good and ridiculously crowded.

A surf cam would change all that quick smart.

Also the idea that crew understand the required conditions to make somewhere pump has caveats attached. Often conditions will punch above their weight and far exceed how they should be relative to spots nearby or based on predictions and computer model. Localised weather patterns throw a big spinner into that machine.

Plenty of reasons to cheer everyday a beach goes without a Big Brother surf cam on it.

I think many of us in Sydney find it frustrating that a business we want badly to keep supporting has acted shabbily with cameras for a long time (well before Covid). It seems SN can't compete on cameras and, rather than investing in trying to, my suggestion would be to offer different subscription levels that appeals to its competitive advantages, eg, a Forecast Notes subscription. I reluctantly have a SL subscription for cams (literally 10x more on the NBs) and keep my SN subscription for the notes, but its a close call and I reckon your average surfer would just pick SL for the app and cams.

hey DY (and others), I'm on leave at the moment, but will give an update on all of this later next week when I'm back in the office. Appreciate your points - they're all valid - but there's a lot of stuff happening behind the scenes. Just not online much at the moment due to travel and associated commitments, so don't currently have the time to run through everything.

Any updates on the Bondi Camera? Been a few years now...

The other joint's got 2 Bondi and 2 Narrabeen cams, just join it too. $160/year for here and there combined. If that's a stretch just point your DNS to Google's servers, cancel all your streaming services, put a parrot on your shoulder and DL your shows from the bay.

thermalben wrote:

hey DY (and others), I'm on leave at the moment, but will give an update on all of this later next week when I'm back in the office. Appreciate your points - they're all valid - but there's a lot of stuff happening behind the scenes. Just not online much at the moment due to travel and associated commitments, so don't currently have the time to run through everything.

So how are those surf cams coming along?

So it's August and still no word from Swellnet about those Sydney cams. On June 10 you said "will give an update on all of this later next week when I'm back in the office. " August 3 and still no word and cams still offline - for over 2 years.

Agreed @eel. Would have thought as a paying customer we would get a response?

Fifty_Plus wrote:

Agreed @eel. Would have thought as a paying customer we would get a response?

Yep, they are taking the piss. August 28 and they still haven't responded when they said they would in June. Won't be renewing.

i've asked about the wye river vic one a few times with crickets....

Any ongoing issues with the Goolwa cam ?

Yep, second the Goolwa Cam issues. Bad enough we rarely get any decent surf and lately the lack of a cam has meant I actually have to go to the beach to see that there is nothing worth getting up for.

Fark. Wonder how they managed back in the day.

Nick Bone wrote:

Fark. Wonder how they managed back in the day.

Ted Bainbridge on 3XY?

Swellnet cam offline? Nope quite the opposite.
Thanks @Ben for the extra Newy cams and new angle on the cenny coast. Really appreciate those upgrades. It's like you've read my mind or something :) Going full 1st world problem, do you think they will become available in multicam on desktop?

Westofthelake wrote:

do you think they will become available in multicam on desktop?

Ah yes - they'll be on multi-cam later this morning.

Cheers Jono, love ya work.