Swellnet Live: at Cape Solander
Check out our live webcast from Cape Solander and Middles. Mark Mathews and a host of surfers charging 6-8ft slabs with blue skies and offshore winds.
11:30am update: We're offline for a bit... wind has come up from the south and a few crew have paddled in, so we'll keep an eye on it and push the start button if it turns on again.
3pm update: Webcast is over but you can watch the day's vision below.
Comments
Looks like they're at Middles right now.. seen a couple of incredible drops (and some nasty beatdowns too). If anyone paddles out at Cape Solander we'll swing the camera around.
Cool concept.
i like the idea of setting up a cam at a name break around oz when it's firing and being able to watch the local guys get into it.
Logistically would have to be tough but great idea. Cheers.
It's a great idea unless it's your local break I'm guessing.
S'pose Solander can take care of itself but there's plenty of spots where it would be about as welcome as gonorrhoea.
I said name break.
I doubt if having a camera pointed at Winki or Margs or Snapper is going to make one iota of difference to the crowd.
Thanks for naming Snapper, if it's crowded this weekend you will hear about it!
It's actually been in the planning for about 6 years Zen, since we started webcasting surfing competitions. As you say, the logistics are insane but technology is slowly making things possible (albeit at great expense). Looking forward to expanding a lot more within this genre over the coming months.
Agree with Zen - great idea, thanks Ben! Now if only my employer's firewall would permit the live stream...
We're offline for a bit.
Wind has come up from the south and a few crew have paddled in, so we'll keep an eye on it and push the start button if it turns on again.
Cheers Ben. Was the previous live stream recorded & can it be played back for us punters that missed it??
Not available right now but I'll see if I can dig it up this evening.
Fantastic Ben!! Sounds like it was a great session. Cheers
Should be able to see the day's vision in the player above now (no editing, straight off camera).
Thanks Ben!! Will check it out.
5/10 lads. We were hoping but that summer wind moved in by 9.50am.
I'm sorry - but how is it ok to live broadcast from somewhere like here?!
It wasn't too many years ago that this wave was relatively "unknown" - now its getting named and live broadcast?
deckstrus , take it up with the Bra Boys weren't they behind the world wide live streaming of the Red Bull comp .
udo, sure i appreciate that - but that was @ "ours" a spot everyone knows and "middles" was never mentioned to my knowledge?
They're about 50m apart mate. You surf one or the other depending on conditions.
I'm impressed........THIS kind of thing IS progress.
Be nice to just have "set wave" times given for the playback so we can skip to em.
Geez there are some keen blokes out there.
F--k that
I'm not sure that locals at very many spots wold appreciate that tho.
Maybe a comp in the Chat-----ummmms would be cool ;
haha
This is groundbreaking stuff!
I am in qld so I am hardly about to contribute to crowd!
Being able to move around and focus on take off spot, depending upon conditions makes it a real step up from the static swell cams.
Am imagining big screen TV with screen split into 10 pictures of my favourite 10 surf spots, live around Australia, or the world for that matter.
Go BEN go Swellnet!!
One area that I truly am a xenophobe in is the world of surf cams. You blokes do a Stirling job, but developments like this scare me. Whilst Swellnet display admirable discretion, some other players in this field are a lot less scrupulous.
One surf site has at least one surf cam that is a slap in the face to anyone with a modicum of reserve about the betrayal of low key spots. Fellas responsible should be limited to surfing on sunny two foot Sundays at Manly for the rest of their lives.
I'm interested to know what 'low key' surf spot have surfcams. We always think long and hard about the places we put surfcams, but sometimes it's difficult to please everyone - one person's secret spot is another person's crowded, well documented location.
In fact, this topic is worthy of a seperate article, which I'll try and find some time to write about in the next week or so.
Without revealing the location Ben, I can say that the spot I'm referring to is far from well documented and whilst I have surfed it with a crowd of maybe a dozen and heard of more people out, it's the sort of place that would justify a much larger crowd if only people knew about it or, more specifically, when it was on.
Maybe you already know about it Ben. I never did till I went there by happy coincidence. Happy days if you do.
I can think of two reasons why the camera would be there and inadvertently displaying the spot, but the cynic in me guesses otherwise.
dont think there's any risk of this wave getting too crowded. No thanks boyz
It's not the same without the inane Yank commentary. I sort of miss it.
Gotta admit I feel deeply uneasy and queasy about this new use of technology.
Name spots. Now it's Solander. Where's next? Lennox, Angourie, Sandon, Voodoo?
I kinda thought, RedBull comp notwithstanding that Ours was sort of a wilderness spot on the edge of the city. Still kind of wild.
But no, Big Brother is watching, beaming it out to the World. The concept of entering the ocean and removing oneself from the technological Bullshit of dry land is now disappearing under the impetus of consumer voyeurism. Surfers are falling over themselves to sell the wildness and sanctity of the pursuit of surfing to the demands of the Surveillance Society.
And for what? A few moments of titillation and distraction.
It's just one more example of the Commons being exploited for Private gain.
Little bit melodramatic if you ask me. Every time it breaks the carpark is full to overflowing, the rocks are crowded, and the filmers often outnumber surfers, never mind the noxious smell of diesel when it's big enough to tow. Calling it a wilderness spot is way off the mark.
Also, the resultant imagery from photogs is seen across all mediums within hours of being captured. The only difference being this was real time.
See Ben's explanation above about where this tech may get used.
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Probably was Stu but you can't deny the issues are pertinent.
We are living in an increasingly surveilled society and surfing is now becoming more and more part of that matrix.
You don't feel in some part of your self a bit uneasy about these developments?
Do I feel uneasy? Not really, but then I've been privy to the discussions so I'm very aware of what won't be done for ethical reasons. I don't see it as any different to a webcast.
I suggest this is helping to head towards man made or 'adjusted' point breaks, like footy fields, etc. This live cam just highlights popularity but also we are looking for more spots to surf. Bit off topic, granted but to me the comments indicate we want live access but privacy or exclusivity.
My feelings on this don't change - and the sentiment is echoed by a few I've spoken to.
Yes, everyone knows "Ours" but 98% of surfers don't want a bar of it so will never go out there to discover there could be other options within stones throw.
There is just NO NEED to do it - so why would you?
Look mate, you've clearly betrayed the fact you have no idea about the area so why are you going on with this? You appear to be going out of your way to get outraged. Fact is, Middles is also a very heavy wave, blow the drop and you're a good chance of getting drydocked. Joe Average doesn't want a bar of it, nor the third wave out there, Daggers, which rarely gets surfed cos it's the heaviest of the lot.
If you're not surfing the Cape, you're not surfing any of them.
Stu, you've clearly got a handle on the local sentiment there.
Apart from Mark Matthews who makes a buck from exposure what is the feeling of the guys who surf out there recreationally?
About what? This webcast, or exposure in general?
Well both. There seemed to be a fair bit of chagrin over the RedBull comp.
But about this setting up a camera and live webcasting recreational surfing there.
I've never heard any blowback. Most crew know each other so understand the dynamics, and dialogue happens in the carpark and in the lineup and not on the internet.
The fella manning the camera the other day is very heavily embedded in the local scene there, as is his brother, and he's got full consent to film.
The Red Bull comp could''ve been handled better but that was mostly about RB denying public access - nothing to do with webcasting. Every now and again you hear people arcing up with indiscriminate rants but they're mostly like that Deckstrus dill; never surfed the wave, never likely too, yet prepared to tell locals what they can and can't do.
You surfed the Cape Stu??
Yeah 50young, I have.
BIG Kahonas!! I say :)
This sort of mobile technology is only going to get better & cheaper, there's no stopping the exposure anywhere really. If people/organizations want to pursue it, particularly if there is money to be made, directly or indirectly, they will. Some will see it as positive & some negative. It's just the way of the world. Supposed "secret" surf spots will continue to be exposed, more so as the desire to search for uncrowded surf grows exponentially.
P.S. I am not reffering to the Cape region as a "secret" surf location. I'm sure it was a long time ago....
Hi Stu, yes...I have surfed out Middles a number of times over a period of years. Increasingly its become more crowded. But no, I wouldn't surf "Ours" and unless someone removes the pinnacle of rock that sticks up out of the water half way through the wave at Daggers then I won't be going out there in a hurry either (and probably not anyway). So clearly you're wrong on this...
I am not going out of my way to be "outraged" - you're really putting words in my mouth mate.
I am quite simply saying I'm surprised we're now blatantly naming and broadcasting from a wave that was considered a semi-secret spot not all that long ago - and the benefit of why we would do that...
Rabbits68 it'll really be up to local communities to make a stand if they want to preserve sanctity/privacy of spots. Not in the sense of trying to keep them off limits to other people but in the sense of maintaining them as public spaces and away from commercial activities.
I've seen local communities band together and achieve that.
Yeah true to a degree FR. I'm all for people power & didn't mean to come across negative, but the reality being where there's a dollar to be made it often takes priority over sentiment, which is wrong IMO.
Rabbits, don't apologise for any perceived negativity on your behalf. That's like apologising to a developer for not approving of their attempts to build a resort on pristine bush land. The onus is on the one making the radical changes to the status quo to provide reasoning as to why it should be so and to attempt to accommodate those people affected by the changes made out of their self interest.
Doesn't make you a hater to resist changes that are detrimental to yourself.
Not referring to the Swellnet team.
Oh and for the "deckstrus dill" comment - screw you hero.
Hey Stu, have you left any room for some humble pie? :-)
Because I assumed he'd never been out there? Bit rash, maybe, but I've just had lunch, so thanks anyway.
Yeah because everything you said about Dexta that if it is to be believed (& no reason to not be believed) turned out be clearly wrong. That's all.......
If your going to dish it out Stu, always best to take it as well :-)
sorry stand up boys but I think the lids have won on wave count got to lift your game