West Island Left

Nice pix, Craig, very nice. But very misleading and deceptive. Still, it does breed resilience and one did learn to appreciate the (very, very) occasional great day that occurred from time to time. And getting the annual calendar from a very grateful fuel supplier was always nice....

Hey craig I didn't see one shortboard surfer in your shots. Does that mean your coming out the closet and declaring yourself a lidder?MOOHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!

Haha, not at all!!!

Just that the level of surfing and the waves the surfers took on were never really photogenic when I was there.

Here you go..

Max Longhurst..

Pheww, hopefully that gets me through ;) haha

Nice shots Craig- thats the allure of this thread, getting the boys inspired that one day ..... maybe one day, we may get some quality waves. It's what the south coast is about, very short sessions of the odd reasonable waves.

You need to look differently at waves, and one common word we all use is 'potential'. Whats crud in the morning may turn on (for south coast anyway)for an hour or two in the arvo then be gone never to be seen again.

Surf checks consist of scouring up and down the beach for something with 'potential', looking at inside banks for 'potential' & looking outside the box for 'potential'.

This coast is full of potential, but very rarely delivers- so makes it more rewarding when you actually get something half fun.

This threads got me keen to once again look outside the box, and stop the default Waits/Parsons/Bay routine.

'Railways' also known by the name 'The Gap', may have been a couple of waves there earlier in the year...............

@ fraser-gordon, I too would like to hear the crowning of 'Lunch rags'.

Anyway couple of shots - Toadies cropped for mystique, once again a once in a decade wave.
Photo by Curly me thinks

Waits cannon

Waits and Parsons would have to be the best overall beachies in SA day in day out hands down. Sure other location beachies can be sick but for all round everyday of the year kind of thing you can't beat them. Anyone have pictures of picnic point. That is my fav. spot down there.

@barley Waitpinga is my favorite beach in all of Aus and Ive seen a fair swag of them the main drawcard in it's favor is crowds or the lack of them.Sure it has periods of lacklustre waves but rarely is it ever flat but when everything comes together it can turn on some quality.I've surfed it countless times with not a soul around wishing someone would show up.I'm lucky that it's only a 15min drive away 12 if I know it's pumping and hang for it to all come together.Now Lunch Rags name came about a certain rock bottom sand set up that's gone but not forgotten.We were fortunate to work close to this little spot and whenever it was on it didn't take much for us to drop down tool's and be on it.We all used to order up our lunch from a mobile lunch service and being growing lads we used to order big.We didn't call Scotty two burgers for nothing.For a period the prime condition's happened to be at lunch time so we would be surfing and getting lunch elsewhere now this made for a one pissed
off lunch service lady in fact she had become a bit of a rag about it.She started hunting us down and delivering her wears through open windows leaving stuff on the bonnet and trying to make us pay for it.I can't remember who first said it but we where in the water and she comes into the car park when someone said that's one persistent lunch rag the name stuck I still check it if I'm over that way and it always makes me laugh when I think about it.@lpt great cropping of toadies mate had my third surf for the year today shit things can only get better

@ Zambezi- that parson's bowl looks that perfect it doesn't look real, good work.

@ Fraser-gordon- The Lunch rags story is gold & mate good your got in the water today champ

RIP The King of Poodle's

Few rogues around this morning, who checked WP from the top carpark without walking down to get a look off the point? Probably not the best decision........................





Bank up the beach

Shit! Why weren't those guys on the left paddling over to the point!! I'd be all over that thing..

Poodles! I remember Vance telling me that name name many years back, as he waxed his 9'0 gun before paddling out at maxing Bullies.

Lunch Rags.. hmmm, I've never heard that particular name but have have a few sneaking suspicions based on the pics (small boat top left of your pic lpt).

Those pics of Waits are unreal lpt. If only we could get a surfcam in there!

I've surfed the right off the back off the breakwall and into the bay at Horseshoe Bay. Does it have a name??

It was a terrible wave though, with a quick dicey takeoff behind the breakwall into a big fat channel. Probably not the safest either...

@ Ben- I like the idea of Cams (at middleton/knights, but Waits still has that great anticipation as you come over the last crest to veiw the Southern ocean.

I like the Knights cam for a general condition update, but nothing beats the surprise of motoring over that last hill as the sun's rising to see it firing- specially when its a swell size that still has people filtered between middleton & Goolwa.

lpt, your great crested anticipation of Waitpinga must be better than mine. All I know is to anticipate strong rips and a high percentage of closeouts!

Personally, I always had much better luck at Parsons.

@Craig - it's only known as the Breakwall (very original, as per the international convention of naming surf spots). A couple of mates surfed it over the years but it always looked pretty ordinary to me.

[img]" alt="Image" />[[img][/img]/img]Here's some photo's of the days we hang for between long periods of sub par waves.More to come the vault has been opened.@thermal many people have a love hate relationship with the old "pingy" it certainly makes you earn your waves.

awesome shots there F-G..that last shot possibly the biggest wave captured on camera of the South Coast i've seen. ive seen bigger waves ridden live but not pictures. If you got bigger i'd like to see them..would you call that 8'? (another debate i know)

I think you're undercooking that one AMB, looks at least 4x overhead so I'd go 10ft, maybe 8-10ft if you wan't people to believe you, haha.

To get a swell that big and clean is rare indeed!!

That's gotta be Vance taking off way out on the outer reef. Unreal shot Fraser!

amb, that wave is touching 10 feet ,draw a line across the face at centre.......are you saying half the wave face is only nudging 4ft ????? get ya hand off it.just replying here to that last post bot of page[forum wont allow more than 1 post in 24hrs] tracks ran a story on aussie titles that year,with some pics to i think, try peter victorsen for more info or andy inkster......wayne dale ,weasel at s.a.surf history. hey old dog wots ya age ??? any hint on your I.D.

Hi crew, been lurking for a while thought Id throw my 2c worth in.
Nice shots of regulation 6-8ft bullies. over 8ft it wads out and goes even flatter.
If that wave was on the North shore they would call it 3ft.Id rate that spot about a 1/10
on a world class scale, pretty sad really, still way better than Kings though.
Biggest waves Ive ever seen ridden to this day down South was at the dump in the 75 aussie titles.

I keep hearing about the '75 aussies, my thought is over time the stories grown and turned it into an urban myth.

I find it hard to believe that a swell that unusual for the South Coast(massive and clean), went completely undocumented. If I see photo's I'll eat my words.

Seen the dump on 2 seperate occiason's when the swell's been big enough for 1-3ft Pines, and that place (dump) hasn't been able to handle a solid 6ft- so I struggle to see it holding bigger than that photo of Bullies.

If I'm wrong happy to eat humble pie.

@ Fraser Gordon- get those goodies out of the vault mate.

Yeah, that first shot of Bullies @ FG looks pretty flat...and the second one even moreso...erm. The third one is regulation 6-8? I would've thought 'regulation 6-8' breaks on the ledge (dependant on tide of course)...any bigger it breaks on the second reef, which isn't such a hair-ball lurching takeoff it's true, but you still have to deal with the inside...going left and/or right. Wow, it ain't the North Shore of Oahu (unless you were talkin' about North Shore Sydney? Sunshine Coast?)? Really? Who'd a thunk it?! Pray, Old Dog, where in Australia IS in pure wave size/power terms? Still seen Bullies break boards in 3 and snap some poor bugger's pelvis though!! Oh yeah, and fuck-all crew out...just like Sunset! Not bad I s'pose for a one outta ten joint?! Jeez, what's the rest of the coast worth in your humble estimation??
My auld uncle had a cool photo of PT at the Dump during those titles...doing a stylin' bottom turn, on rail, fully committed ...on about a 6 footer. What was Bullies doing then, Old Dog...or anyone else who was there? Enquiring minds want to know. I heard MP was on it (the wave that is)? Were you on it (the wave that is)?

From my experience, Bullies has a lot of different moods depending on the tide and swell size. I've seen it playful 4-5ft like Pondi - only just breaking on the main reef and bowling through the inside. I've also seen it pitching top to bottom on the main reef with seemingly the entire Southern Ocean pitching out at once. With a heavy inside barrel to boot.

It's all relative though. Growing up surfing in Adelaide means you're generally sheltered from heavy reefbreak kinda waves, so when the South Coast does fire it's in a new league - even though comparatively, Bullies wouldn't really rate anywhere else in the country. But for the average Joe who surfs Middleton, Seaford and Parsons 95% of the year (and doesn't travel frequently to seek out the bigger stuff), the handful of potential 6-8ft Bullies sessions per year are another dimension of surfing.

yeah ok 8-10' i concede....As i said before Surfing World ran a full story on the 75 titles with probably 4 pages of photos..from memory none of the photos were as big as FG photo..The dump did look very good though.

@old dog i've surfed all round Aus..Indo Fiji and Bullies on its day 6-8'is alot better than 1/10. and Thermal if you put bullies on the same day on the east Coast it would be packed...Its no J-Bay/Kirra..but it does get the heart pumping...you know that.

Absolutely it gets the heart pumping, AMB.

But it's not the kinda wave that anyone would wake up at 3am and drive for four hours - bypassing numerous other excellent waves - in order to surf exclusively. Like we have on offer north and south of Sydney, for example.

Bullies is essentially just another fun righthand reefbreak - probably the best in the Victor region, but that's not really saying much (unless you live in Adelaide, of course :) ).

I'd rather get up at 3am and drive west!

Spot on with picking the surfer thermal its good to see some debate on the waves size 3ft? to 10ft.A little info on the photo it was taken by a local lad Micheal Gee .It's right out the back off the shelve so it hadn't hit the reef yet by all reports it jacked further and I remember the bottom dropping out and going square when I got to the bottom it closed out from there to boomers.Thats a 8'2 single fin shaped by Andy and is perfect for when its like that.There were a couple of sets that were bigger than that wave and one lefthander that sticks in my mind as the biggest wave Ive seen out there.Having surfed out there in all its different moods and conditions from perfect to complete horrendous and having surfed elsewhere at premier reefbreaks around the country and overseas many times in my humble opinion it rates as a great training ground for those type of waves.As for old dogs call about over 8ft it wads out thats when the left starts to come to life and its far from waddy.I can't see the Dump holding bigger waves than Bullies at anytime.The biggest Ive heard Bullies being surfed and with clean conditions is easter 81 same swell as Bells classic day.[img][img]" alt="Image" />[/img]://[/img]

HAHA! I didn't realise you were Vance. All makes sense now! You gave me plenty of great insights back when you were working at Power Plug. Great to have you on the forums.

vance, was it andy inkster that shaped the board? ....i owned one of the first power plugs ever shaped..in about 1977-78. HEY FELLAS< CAN STILL ONLY POST ONCE A DAY ON THE FORUM.....WHY......????

Chance for 'somewhere' Thursday afternoon. No need to name but would be good to hear some accounts if anyone can get on the road.

I was 18 in 75 and will admit that some of my memories are a bit hazy for the usual reasons but here are a few thigs I recall.
The look on M.P.s face when Punk barred him from the titles for turning up late for his heat at Dribs.
Ian Cairns fresh from a win in huge surf in Hawaii struggling to get out the back at huge Dump.
Andy Inkster and Kent Mcdonald ripping at Dribs and taking it right up to crew like P.T. Terry Fitz & Guy Omerod etc.
The news ran a shot of a very young Roger Matthews and wayne Bellingham(?)sitting on the rocks at kings head "watching their idols surf."
Disapointment seeing a very bored Wayne Lynch free surfing the Bay and Bucky running rings around everyone on his tiny finned board doing 360s at will.
The surf media had a field day calling Middleton the worst break in the world (it was as good as it gets) and Kings S.A.s Waimea Bay cause your lucky to get a top turn in before you hit deep water.
On the big day at dump Bullies was a complete wash through with no breaks & total wad, the biggest waves at the dump were lefts way out past the usual right.That day I ended up at C------- which was tiny as the swell direction was too ----erly and surfed small F---
The next day the dump had dropped to 4ft and Roger Matthews scored C----- all time with 300m rides claimed, Shouldnt really mention the c word as I have scored it heaps since and rate it quite highly.
Stills of Bullies look great but video shows it for the semi hoax it really is.

Thermalben - west is the best.
Zambezi, that last shot of some guy pigdogging the alley left is a cracker. Thats a pretty shallow ledge and hard to get in early there, was it a tow in?

Haha yeah Ben you can tell there's been surf down here lately more surfing going on here than anything else all good fun though.@victor yep its shaped by Andy magic board that one might get a guernsy for grajagan this year.@zambezi the first three shots are from different years the photo of the 3ft hawaiian wave was 2008 august 27.The photo's of the left was last year.@old dog from what I've been told Bullies wasn't even surfed in the early seventies and even then it was just called boomer beach.Pre legrope days would of been a fare mission to try and get out I would think, leaving those marginal days your best option to have a go maybe thats why you seem to have poor view of the place.I always remember my first surf out there and just been blown away by how powerful the wave is and how radical some of the drops are out there and just for that alone it definately rates as a worthy wave.I was chatting to my good mate about this forum and as a young bloke he pretty much cut his teeth out there and for a period was obsessed with the place on it every time it broke onshore strong westerlys so long as it broke he was out there.He's moved on and surfed pretty much everywhere from pipe,sunset,phantoms,Gland mackin ulu's,Two mile, paddle surfed Yanarbie lives in Margs and if you know the guy he aint out just making up numbers he chargers like a mad beast still to this day after years of surfing he reckons Bullies is a great wave and rates it quite high in his list.At one stage when he was living in Melbourne he put me on Bullies alert to let him know in advance and he would drive over and surf it now thats someone willing to drive more than 3 hours Ben haha.

@Thermal..Fair point Ben 3am & bypassing other waves. Here’s a question what would you take: 1hr drive and 6-8' Bullies (low tide) or 3hrs drive for same size Chi's?

@F-G that top shot is a pearler..imagine what that guy thats regathering his board is thinking!..what a great day that must of been..glassy-as.

fraser gordon In the early 70s we drilled a hole in our fin and tied a cord around our ankle, crude maybe but it worked. When I was 16 we were being bombarded with images of huge surf in Hawaii and crew were riding 7' pintails and I was on a mission to ride the biggest waves I could find. We started surfing the flat left at Boomer on big swells and kept seeing a good looking right going unmolested down the beach.In the following years we surfed Bullies in all conditions possible and I must admit it was heaps of fun. It wasnt until someone took some stills with a box brownie that we realised some of the bombs looked huge and we were riding solid 8'waves.You knows its a good size when most sets wad out way past the boils and wash through. The way the shorey apexes at the end just begs you to go kamakaze. In the mid 70s we started going to Yorkes every weekend rain hail or shine but thats a million other stories.
My main point was that in my humble opinion Bullies doesnt rate when compared to some of the jewels in our West coast crown. Love the shots ,got anymore for us.

Ha Gordo is a legend southey lived with him in Margs and done a few trips up north when he was up there complete champ.With Bullies I'm lucky its only a 5min drive so you won't get me arguing about driving anywhere else.Paul Petrou is always telling me about surfing out there with a hanky tied to a bit of rope back in the days nuts.@olddog those 7ft pintails would of been perfect for out there and yeah what can compare/rate with our west coast?The best waves in Aus? you bet! Some more shots of the South coast and the man who's willing to drive 8hrs to surf Bullies.I'll get on to the big A about 75 titles and get the run down. [img][img]http://" alt="Image" />[/img]://[/img][img]" alt="Image" />[/img][/img]

This forum post is getting curiouser & curioser. Southey (surely not the pizza-bound one??) mentioning Gordo, international man of mystery?! I'll let him know he's being chatted about. @ FG those vault pix (whose vault??) are gold...I was expecting a pic of Hodgekiss from the infamous front cover of TRACKS. The one where he's burning some unfortunate at North Point...he loved that one...erm. Oh yeah, LPT (or whomever) howzabout a little background for the readers on the unsung Toad of Toad Reef? South Coast legend...the Lopez of the Fleurieu back in his hey day (well, I always thought so when I was grom)

hey FG, you're not referring to Marty are ya (as the eight hour Bullies driver)? That third pic reminds me of his style (although I haven't seen him for about 15 years!).

Great pic of the Kingswood too. I wasn't there at the time but vaguely recall it being MG's car during state titles? Perhaps I'm mistaken.

fraser gorden are those last two shots of Ulawatu? Pedro, I did a few yorkes trips with him in the early 70s, never forget the ranger kicking us out of a ruined house at Inneston for the fifth time and pulling the structure down with his 4wheel drive. Back when men had balls.He was no hottie but he was a bullies fanatic. Whatever Big A says about 75 is good enough for me, my memory is a bit hazy.

@ angry brigade- toadie the enigma would only seem to surface after long stints in the wood work factory (creating trophys for state titles & ellis memorial contests), to miraculously appear on your inside just as wave of the day loomed.

He would then vanish back into the haze of woodwork dust & laquer fumes until the next worthwhile session or SCBR rally.

Trying to get waves at Toadies with Toadie out there was an impossible mission- probabley why there would be only a handful of people that can lay claim to scoring one out there...................................

Or maybe its just a hoax & I like to embellish.

Anyway all this talk about Power Plug reminded me of something stored in the shed.

Photo circa '92 when Thermalben was homing his forecast skills inbetween scoffing hotdogs with bacon & cheese from the lunchrags chuck wagon, on his days droppin in at the PP factory.

Please note this is the closest Foxy has ever gotten to smiling- unless he was doing a reo 360 or grab rail forehand reo ontop of a booger or goat boater

.

P.T at the dump 1975 Aussie Titles img][/img] Spoke to Andy last night and he said it was a big swell lots of close outs and remembers Col Smith tearing the left at the Dump but unfortunately no epic 50 yr type swell event.Just your typical big solid swell that happens from time to time down here.@thermal keep guessing it's not Coxy I'll give you a clue apart from Chappy maybe the only other South Aussie to ever be on the cover of Tracks.Classic shots lpt lots of deck grip and hair the classic Fox smerk he's. thinking hurry up cunts.Kris holding black beauty Shano let me ride it a few times great board keep them photo's coming champ.Ha ha Angry your vaults sprung a leak.It's not Mg's car thermal but a local bloke named Scotty Keach left it out of gear and no hand break.He just got his wettie and board out went for a surf while he waited for a tow out.@old dog I reckon it was Minnards 4wd can't recall Peds ever owning one I think I've heard that story about that.Toadie was always on the wave of the day wherever you surfed great surfer.

Well ,there you go ,I stand corrected, it must have been mushie season,although there were
much bigger waves ridden than that one of PTs and the photographic proof is out there somewhere, So I guess the myth has been busted once and for all, no standup pits at pines or 10 ft. triple overhead lefts at the Dump.
fraser gordon , It was the rangers four wheel drive , he through a rope over the rafters, tied it to the back and pulled the house down ,we used to give that ranger hell .Pedro is the same age as me, a gentle giant feral hippie in the 70s absolute classic bloke,we shared many classic sessions at yorkes back then.Last time I took some video of Bullies he was still out there charging.He would be 55 now surely hes thrown in the towel by now.

@old dog Peds still keen as anytime it breaks and still charging out there legend.He's done gland for the last 6 or so seasons month at a time absolute inspiration for a lot of the lads done here.

love that team photo,picked beaker morrison straight away and the fox,where was pasty nose ? never seen so much deck grip...... THE BIG A had a tracks cover shot...in 1974 twas a back cover pic ,full page of mr inkster modelling o'neil wetsuits ,trim and buffed he was....sporting a full head of hair........geez he was a clone for NEIL SEDAKA....thermal this forum still only allows me to post once every 24hrs ? swellnet clock error ?? its pissing me off, can you help ,cheers...

TC and Murf with long hair! Them were the days.

By the way, those hotdogs were bloody unreal, LPT. Almost as good as the toasted cheese sangas from Bob at the Yilki deli.

Hey, does anyone remember those pics of the Power Plug team shoot at Middleton Bay by the Advertiser photog, back in the early 90's? (can't remember the name of the photog).They managed to score the only day in history - and a sunny one at that - where the inside left at the Bay had a bonafide barrel section.

Well, that's my recollection of the pics on the wall at Big Surf anyway.. would love to see 'em again.