Gallery: Christmas In July
From tropical beginnings to polar endings.
The entire East Coast lit up into the end of July as a late season tropical low formed off the Capricorn coast. Initially the Agnes Water and Yeppoon regions bore the brunt of the wind and swell, with the Noosa points following shortly after, offering great (though shortlived) out of season surf.
As the low drifted south-east towards the Tasman Sea, the swell followed with the Gold Coast and Northern NSW building in size Friday before cleaning up into Saturday and Sunday.
The best attribute of this low was it's track away from the East Coast while continuing to generate swell, resulting in consistent surf that slowly clocked south-east in direction through all of last week.
Stacked
With the low at arms length to the coast winds were great through Monday and Tuesday before a cold burst of polar air pushed through Tuesday evening, bringing gusty offshore winds along with 4ft surf mid-week before slowly tailing off into the weekend.
Secondary burst of gales generating a large, reinforcing E/SE groundswell for Monday the 25th
Fortuitously I had a week of annual leave booked and pointed the car north early morning on the Saturday the 23rd, arriving at Rainbow Bay early afternoon.
The aim was to surf my way slowly south through the swell, tucking away from the marquee breaks as much as one can. The East Coast in winter is one of pure beauty. Green rolling hills, clear water (away from the lingering flood waters), all day offshore winds and much smaller crowds.
Below is a photo diary of one of the most consistent swells I've had the pleasure of surfing across the North Coast, shared with friends old and new.
Comments
way to make a surf coaster even more depressed
yep
nice
beautiful shots mate
Hey John John can I send you a selfie bra
There's some nice shots in there A ;)
That TOS-esque dunes shot, damn... feels like years since I've seen/had an empty session like that, dreamy.
Sprout there were days like that last week..... and I live on one of the busiest surf areas in thw world...
that's so good Craig!
Sick shots!!!
Doesn't get much better than that!!!
Well played Craig....
Sick road trip
Good one Craig. Lovely stuff.
Nice Pics ...what a week...Manly Crow-Eater on Fire..
Onya Craig, strike mission score, great photos and surfing at Greenmount. How did you rate those waves? Looked so good on the cam
Super fun!
Not heaving and barreling like Kirra but Greeny either side of 4ft is just like a wave pool but better. Varying sections and bowls, and through the inside a chance of a barrel. Effort for reward seems higher there than Kirra which if you took the wrong one, got burnt by a ski etc and had to to the whole run around again would take over an hour..
'like a wave pool but better '
Every wave was different and the surfers had to react accordingly but yes it pumped like a machine. Surfers Paradise indeed.
Huge long tubes at Kirra but not many makes. Probs best surfed from a ski tbh, what a kookathon.
Pro forecaster scores epic waves, shooting fish in a barrel?
I had the added bonus of Craig staying at our house, which means my Mrs was much more lenient on my surfing hours. Like when you used to have a friend over and your mum would go all nice and carefree... "Craig's such a nice lad, off you go boys, take your time and have fun".
Dawnies, duskies, middays - it was all happening. I'm normally squeezing rushed surfs in between kids, life and work etc.
Ha, win, win. Accomodation, fun hangs and more surf time.
Haha don't tell me, lasagna in the oven when you dragged your surfed out selves home? Craigos getting the red carpet treatment, love it. Mrs Jono we're all stopping through now
Excellent Craig
Epic trip and photos :-)
epic shots Craig.
Gold mate, nice one!
Beautiful Craigos. You really know how to make a vicco surfer feel down and out ;)
I guess we all have a choice (not so easy sometimes with young families, old families, little ones, working arrangements & been confined to within 5kms of your house) but there are still plenty of good times down here you just have to hunt a little harder or do some extra miles and think outside the box :)
We at have had a times endless runs of lined up groundswell and perfect winds while other parts of Australia lay dormant for months on end... It just seems to be getting longer and longer between decent drinks and the normal reliabilities of years past and prior. Strange times
All a cycle I guess and you take the good with the bad. Or we could just all move north in the interim and just forget about the rotten state that is called Victoria and the stretch of coastline between the Otways and Barwon heads
Where are the inland shots from Craig - Clarence River catchment?
Nah further south, west of Kempsey.
That area is pretty amazing the way you can catch everything from wahoo to flathead to trout within an hour or so drive.
Cheers Craig.
It's such an epic part of the world, there's just not enough time to get into everything the area has to offer.
About the only thing it doesn't have is snow skiing.
Totally!
Every trip I try and go somewhere new west of the highway. I can't wait to do the Oxley, that looks incredible!
You should have given me a bell on your way through Craig. I would have thrown the hell party. Hold it way out in the back blocks. Mad times with lots of drinking, fighting and rooting.
Just the two of us mind.
Haha, yeah next time!
Paddle?
I can thoroughly recommend the Platypus Flat to The Junction stretch of the Nymboida if you're up that way.
More so drive, but also to check out the river. Awesome, any other tips are always welcome. Some wild country out there eh!
Just had a Google, looks incredible!
Oh mate, it's so good.
I've spent the last couple of years poking around between Grafton - Glen Innes and Bellingen - Ebor, that whole block between the Gwydir Hwy south to Waterfall Way.
The paddling is good and this walk is also a highlight.
Would be good packrafting too.
https://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/things-to-do/walking-tracks/new-en…
Thanks guys, had some incredible moments on this trip, one was like rocking up in one of The Search videos, pumping surf with not another soul around.
Looks like you scored!
Hurts seeing these given I booked my ticket off Tasmania for a month and a bit on the east coast for the 27th of July. Every car park I've pulled in to: "mate you should have been here last week", Glad you scored!
Aghh, bummer. Beautiful weather though eh!
The weather has been a revelation. Who knew you didn't have to fly all the way to Indo to surf in boardies? Tasmanians have been lied to.
Nice boards, Dan.
It’s always funny watching the Southern coast surfers act like they’re honeymooning on the equator whilst surfing the sub tropics in winter. Case in point being the Victorian bloke I surfed with a few days ago….me in steamer and chilly from the offshore breeze, him in boardshorts and raving about the water temperature.
I sometimes ruminate about how an Indonesian must feel when they go for their first surf at the average Aussie beach break- Cold, low period and lots of close outs. They must wonder why we bother.
It’s great to see people scoring!! It just looks so fun.
Awesome pics Craig, magic.
Scoring and finding the options away from the hoards makes deciding against Kirra getting burned at greenmount fuel and effort seem irrelevant pretty good holiday by the looks good stuff
Very good holiday!