Watch: J-Bay Warm Up Sessions
The surfers have arrived, the swell has too, not to mention the weather, so it's a chilly but action-packed video from local videographer Brad. A good chance to scope the form before committing to your fantasy surfers, or just to while away your lunchbreak on a waveless Wednesday.
Comments
So...Friday and Saturday likely run days? What about next week? Or is the WSL a week late yet again?
Saturday 100% but Friday will be small in the morning before building later so it'll be interesting if they go on hold. Later next week/weekend looks the goods.
Cool as.. geez Erin brooks had a couple nice carves... Reminded me of occy jbay spray.. some cool as fun fast waves
shes put on a lot of muscle in the last year
Yeah looking good while Caity looked a bit lazy.
Barron Von Barrelmaster.... high flying carbon?
Birdseye view
i dont own property here, but f#$k moi I am pumped for this event and the rest of the year
Good viewing:
I’m calling it. J bay is the best event of the year. Seems like it pumps every year and the time zone is the perfect start time for cracking a beer and settling in for a big night on the couch. Love it.
Agree.
x2
x3.
Yep.
Absolutely
Haven’t watched a comp with beers for a while.
What should I try for this one?
Watsacowie jazzy red ales are damn good... I got on the double jazzy reds last weekend at the brewery, very tasty , bloody 8% beers crept up on me though, haha.. Or my personal fave for just kicking back at home on the couch watching jbay will be coopers mild orange tins... Enjoy
Thanks for the suggestions.
I do like coopers but not really the mid.
That other brewery looks like it has some interesting stuff. Need to do a South Oz trip one of these days.
For Balter I prefer the XPA over the hazy.
Might give freeride’s suggestion a go as it’s pretty local.
Balter easy hazy
Spangled Drongo
Organic Lager Midstrengths.
Local woolies has them.
Sounds very Byron.
I'm not a fan of lagers Free but I've had their pale ale and was nice.
Was at a restaurant on the Goldy
I'd try the lager if i saw it though
Woolies!
Love an ipa
Brewed in Murwillumbah I think.
Anything but Corona Cero.
If you're brave, and your local sells NZ beer, this one is a flavour bomb - and will knock your socks off
https://www.libertybrewing.co.nz/products/citra-dipa
Not that brave haha.
I'd be seeing double after one of those.
Ooh, nice. Will hunt that down.
This one is also a sipper..
easier to find hens teeth than NZ beer in Straya
Tui and steinlager excepted.
Red Ales in winter are perfection. The more malt the better.
I just don't enjoy those heavy, hoppy IPA beers.
I want a beer that tastes like a beer, not a fruit cocktail where the last third is a chore to drink.
As someone who likes a beer but has no interest in getting drunk, I tend towards them. Lots of flavour is fine for me if I'm nursing it for a while.
Geez picked a great month to stop drinking!! haha. This thread!!
Aus does a lot of stuff well, but your coffee and beer is generally piss weak. At least when you're used to NZ fare.
Will have one of these this evening (two is the limit!)
https://garageproject.co.nz/products/pernicious-weed
Coopers green best beer in the world IB!
That's a great drop (and one of the OG big IPAs I remember back when it all kicked off 15ish years ago) NZ have some excellent hops too and excel at that pine flavour, some fantastic beers, but Moffat Beach Brewings Iggy Hop IIPA is the best IPA going. Tonnes of excellent drops here, Range, Mountain Culture, Bent Spoke, etc.
(Just don't touch any FR recommendations, tasteless piss water :-P)
No idea on NZ coffee but I'd be very surprised if you have any speciality roasters better than Common Folk, Proud Mary, Criteria, Josie, The Flags, etc.
Pine flavour?
In beer?
Thats a hard no from me.
I want a beer, not something to mop the floor with.
Hahaha gave me a chuckle.
To be fair even the worst beer in this country is decent beer. If someone likes it, great, and there's clearly still a big market for the staple Aussie lagers etc.
A bloke who works at Mt Gambier Dans was telling me easy-drinkers have been snubbing Great Northern recently and turning to TravLa, (the tinnies made by Travis Fimmel, aka Viking Ragnar Lothbrok.) https://travla.com.au/pages/our-story
Whoever the heathen that thought to brew beer with cloves needs a swift backhander.
Likewise, don't want to mop the floor with beer and don't want to drink it in a dentists chair.
I just like normal beer.
Just had a few Epic Double Snakes on tap by the fire at Preachers Hobart, delicious. Lupulingus was another of your great IPAs that showed up here back when it all began. Your side of the ditch sure make good beer.
Out of curiosity, anyone know what South African beer is like?
And what's the best wind to drink it in? ;)
Beer? Probably shithouse like their accent.
Wind? Don’t go there if the wind is at ah bugger strength.
https://youtube.com/shorts/Nc0HxxKSdbU?si=eDRBu_S9FbDIRCWn
haha, yeah that'll blow the froth off.
Castle is a rather standard lager, Castle Milk Stout is quite good - many people like Windhoek, from Namibia but widely sold in SA. Original recipe, made by Germans back in the day as Namibia was once a German colony -
Lets be honest- you can all these IPA's that taste like fruity cat piss, or you can have a German pilsner.
No-one has improved on that simple formula.
Mmm ...Saaz hops preferably. Or a good old schooner of Resch's.
Watching that video reminds me how much I miss John’s top turn hack on tour. No one in any video or other links above come close.
Woz should throw john in as a wild card for the next 2 events !
Wave at 00:27 (and many of the early waves in this reel) are a light Northeast wind - onshore, and overcast for the most part.
Wave at 1;18 is back to a light Southwest wind - vive la difference?
^ go jam a cold chisel up ya clacker
… farkhead ;)
This is an inappropriate comment.
There are people here on Swellnet, particularly people that actually surf, who can appreciate a visual illustration of the difference between a wave a Supertubes with an onshore northeast wind and a wave at Supertubes with an offshore southwest wind.
You are apparently not one of them but one should anticipate inappropriate comments when casting pearls before swine -
This is an inappropriate comment, @john.calhoun.
There are people here on Swellnet, particularly people who (sic) actually surf, who can appreciate a pisstake about the difference between a normal swellnet post with an ounce of social nous banging on about 'informative comment about Supertubes with an onshore northeast wind and a wave at Supertubes with an offshore southwest wind', and a fatuous mug banging on about 'informative comment about Supertubes with an onshore northeast wind and a wave at Supertubes with an offshore southwest wind'.
You are apparently not one of those who can tell the difference, so should anticipate appropriate comments when casting pearl-barley before pearl-graders.
(I have corrected the prior statement for you. You are most welcome.)
Brilliant, this just made my day!
@swellnet, this deserves its own article now, like a bit of a debate where both parties try and come to an agreement of sorts as Im sure there's truths on both sides, everyone needs to take johns comments with a grain of salt as they are a different breed of person over there, very passionate ,stubborn and a little bit sensitive
"they are a different breed of person over there, very passionate"
Thank You
That's why I wrote a 304 page book about international surf travel - no Australian could do it, EVER.
Lack of cognitive ability and ain't got the balls to be subjected to the "Tall Poppy" syndrome of abuse, threats and ridicule.
"Tall poppy syndrome can have a detrimental impact on individuals, leading to decreased morale, reduced productivity, and even mental health challenges. It can also discourage others from striving for success, fearing the same backlash"
Rather why few to NO Australians achieve anything of any distinction; outside of athletics, unless they do so OUTSIDE of Australia -
If Stu or Steve want to do an interview, I'm open to it - Stu disagrees with many of my opinions, but these semi-feral savages are his constituency (not mine, thank god) and he does appreciate increased traffic to the Swellnet servers -
Incredible that someone coming from a culture as dysfunctional, destructive and toxic as the United States has the gall to criticise somewhere else.
Speaking as a self-confessed semi-feral savage of dubious (if not convict) ancestry, I have no doubt you are open to an interview on here. But you're starting to come the raw prawn when you besmirch Aussies' cognitive abilities in the most generalising of terms.
Not sure I want to hear what you've got to say with the antagonistic attitude you've repeatedly displayed.
That will be up to the editors of this forum and your PR consultant.
Are you aware of how many inventions have come from Australia?
Or that it's a melting pot of success?
You sound like a jaded ex pat.
I met plenty of you on my world surfing travels
I take umbrage at this John "Rather why few to NO Australians achieve anything of any distinction; outside of athletics, unless they do so OUTSIDE of Australia - "
I mean Australians, we may be inappropriate and lack cognitive ability and prone to chopping down tall poppies but we invented the Hills Hoist, the stump jump plow, the bucket bong and the THRUSTER for fuck's sake. That's not nothing John.
Anyway, I enjoy your big noting and respect a man that sticks up for himself so I can forgive you insulting Australia and Australians and look forward to looking at your book briefly in a bookstore some day (and thanks for your insight on the subtleties of JBay wind directions and now at least I know that north east at JBay is a devil wind,)
I'm sure an interview with you would be a great read John, and would attract some positive feedback and increased server traffic as you say from the throng here, the "semi feral savages", although many are full blown feral savages in my experience, and poppies like you John are always going to get the chop unfortunately, especially the self described tall ones.
On the contrary, in my limited experience the savagery (around the WCT forums anyway), is not full-blown. Although it sometimes gets breezy, the exchanges are for the most part considered and respectful.
That's the main reason I'm here - to avoid aggressive self-promotion, or any other kind of fundamentalism that pervades the internet.
@Ding,
I'm just piss taking. This fucking guy needs to spend some time self reflecting and getting to know Australians better before he starts with the insults.
@Stu did a pretty good job with his cull. The forums have been light hearted and respectful of late.
"getting to know Australians better"
Actually - I used to have an Australian girlfriend, for several years - Melbourne gal, from Glen Waverly, a St Kilda supporter.
She considered herself to be posh - and described Sydney people as a bit rough and anyone from WA, the NT or especially Queensland, was a semi-feral savage until proven otherwise.
She knew people talked behind her back about having a Seppo boyfriend - but she didn't care.
…but that axe wound ;)
https://youtube.com/shorts/DCt5shOJbjs?si=yO4j_AGcV1Yst5Ry
Semi feral savage has a nice ring to it. I'll run with that!
And whilst I can agree with your sentiments on the whole, that's what started this.. so reluctantly I add:
Apparently anything WNW - NNE is potential devil wind quadrant. And apparently NE is where the disagreement lies ...but the WZL will be deciding what is contestable, so anything is possible.
FFS - after repeated statements to the contrary, " I know that north east at JBay is a devil wind"
What I said about the cognitive abilities of semi-feral Australian savages??
You just made my point for me -
ONE MORE TIME for the slow kids in the back:
The northEAST is an onshore wind at Supertubes, Jeffrey's Bay -
The northWEST is the side-shore "devil wind" at Supertubes, Jeffrey's Bay -
Can’t believe that joke of Adam’s went over your head so easily.
Bait taken, hook, line and sinker.
Hahaha
Right, OK, gotcha, so the NE is the devil wind and that's when it's onshore, so the SW is the Jesus wind and who gives a fuck, really John. You could have just let Craig do his thing, expert forecasting and being a nice bloke and shut the fuck up instead you inserted yourself and then big noted yourself and now you are crying and dishing out insults because you copped some blowback for it.
It's not tall poppy syndrome mate, it's because you come on like a dickhead, and Craig has a lot of friends here who respect his work so they went in to bat for him when you basically attacked him and insulted him , read the room before you spout your self aggrandizing nonsense and have a go at Craig or Australians and you might sell a few books here, or not, I don't give a fuck really. It was pretty easy to bait and land you though John, as your above response shows, "you just made my point for me", who's the slow kid at the back John? I believe it may be you.
Well played, sir. Another thoroughly palpable hit.
Can we leave it there?
fuck I hope so, everyone has taken his point about the wind, hopefully Mr Calhoun (to offer a little more respect to the man) has taken the point that phrasing his little obs to Craig something along the lines of: 'Hi craig, great to hear it's gonna be turning on, just a little thing, I seem to recall the term 'devil wind' refers to wind from the NW at ST... blah blah..' might have been an idea.
And understands that tall-poppies aren't clever, they just chase more sunshine than the other poppies.
Anyway, he's had his razzing, if he showed a bit of humility and the ability to have a slight chuckle at himself he'd be part of the semi-feral savages here in no time.. but as he says, he has no interest in Australia and Australians in general, and people on the swellnet site in particular.
I for one intend watching the comp and enjoying the sn comments, and hopefully everyone shuts down any further use of sn as an inflammatory vehicle for self-promotion.
Why is no one talking about the ENE wind though? Or the NNE
Surely there's more to this story! ;)
oh, well, when you put it like that, @john.calhoun, bahahahhahahahaa...
"we invented the THRUSTER for fuck's sake"
True - Simon Anderson is a design genius and his creation of the Thruster has had the biggest impact on surfing worldwide of anything done in the past fifty years -
Simon kept the design under wraps for the better part of a year - he brought Thrusters to Hawaii, but did not ride them on the North Shore out of concern for being ridiculed as a Tall Poppy, until he was damn proper sure it worked, and worked BETTER than any surfboard design available at the time.
After that was conclusive, people can say what they like - it WAS a better surfboard and some 40+ years later, the basic design is still ridden by 80% - 90% of surfers, worldwide.
You still don’t understand the tall poppy thing.
I moot that only Australians and New Zealanders (and perhaps Romans) can be described as Tall Poppies and have the glory of being cut down! Anyone who self describes as a Tall Poppy and all from other nations should immediately be given the status of Short Poppy.
I reckon Australia has come up with heaps of great stuff and therefore should be one of the few places who can attribute the Tall Poppy status and subsequently cut down said Tall Poppies! Talk about cultural appropriation, Jeez!
Oh what, you wrote a book?? Who knew?
Actually, literally everyone who's read even one of your lame boring comments here you pompous self-promoting tosser
Curious as to why you bother with swellnet ? Is it simply a vessel to promote your book in ? You may need some advice when it comes to book promotion, just my opinion .
That is actually a good question -
The Australian market is small, just 25 million people. And of that population, while the number of surfers per capita is high, how many of those surfers have the cognitive ability and inclination to buy and read a 304 page book with 56 982 words?
Not many, it is true -
The Publisher actually has two Public Relations agencies, one for USA/CAN/MEX and one for the UK and the Rest of the World. The UK lady has seen a few of these Swellnet threads, as proof I am getting the word out about the book.
She replied "Why are those people so rude?"
I said "They are semi-feral savages, descended from British and Irish convicts deported to penal colonies on the other side of the world for the term of their natural life and now - they are surfers".
She said "Well, try your best, Australia isn't particularly important anyway"
More comedy gold , thanks for replying
Will this guy ever pull his head out of his…..
Pig ignorant tosser.
I'll have you know that Swellnet began in South Australia, which was established as a free settlement. We have a strict no-convict employment rule.
Gold!
I think you're a bit out of touch @john.calhoun, convict jokes were funny in the '80s, but all the old whities are dropping off, and we are a nation of extremely engaged and grateful citizens originally from the Middle East, the Sub Continent, SE Asia, East Asia, Pac Islands who all enjoy a separation of church and state, no guns and think the monarchy is as quaint as it is powerless. We fight to be 'One Nation Under a Fair Go'.
And with regard to you thinking we are homophobic, while I am a straight cis male, my boyfriend is as camp as a row of tents.
wish we could do clever things in australia..
just not fair how clever people outside Aus are.
heavens to betsy and murgatroyd it makes us jealous.
thanks for putting us in our place, @john.calhoun -
bahahahahhahaha
It's all pretty funny. I appreciate that Johnny boy never makes callous personal comments or questions other's psychological wellbeing. Thats a decent trait in my opinion.
Thank you - I try to stay impersonal and on-topic.
"That's why I wrote a 304 page book about international surf travel - no Australian could do it, EVER.
Lack of cognitive ability and ain't got the balls to be subjected to the "Tall Poppy" syndrome of abuse, threats and ridicule."
Shit bruz, i wrote that before i read this. That's a bit harsh.
I hope the judging is really, really harsh.
The wave should be scored as a whole and I would like to see points deducted - for flubbed turns, sticky rails, boards that don't drive through rail turns properly, missed sections, too much double pumping etc etc.
Lets see a high standard set here or GTFO.
Click through each slide for a more detailed read.
Not the easiest format to read unfortunately
And you actually have to play each slide as more text comes up as the vids play.
Fascinating post. Is this what the competitors get before each event?
John, could you clarify the name of the section that the WSL is talking about, is it Supertubes or Supertubos?
I feel like they roll out the same super subjective and vague terms ie: speed, power and flow every comp (as though they are providing a concrete blueprint).
Kind of like a horoscope where everyone can read it and feel involved but at the end of the day it means nothing.
Does that make sense to anyone?
Totally.
Btw- I'm a pisces.
I’m a Virgo and like long walks on the beach
And brunch and shopping for period furniture...
Basically the same as: ‘a variety of major
manoeuvres with a commitment to critical sections’
…….cool, so now I just go out and surf good?
The judges will be very confused. They can't reward closeouts here.
Fighting words. Agree wholeheartedly on the "whole wave" concept. Points deduction however, is as subjective as ever. One man's flub is another's power gouge.
Missed sections and wave wasting should be penalised. Well ridden waves start to finish is my scale. Full-blooded carves will win and they tend to go with good bottom turns, albeit sometimes double-pumped.
Hoping Jack gets a chance to get on the Arakawas so the rail turns will be drivey as hell.
Note that the scale is compressed in the Good and V.Good ranges to 1.5pts each. ie. only a 3pt range between fair and excellent?
Seems ridiculous to me. Would like to know why there's not 2pts separation or more.
This! ^
Get a devil wind upya
Yago was climbing into them. I like his angle of attack
Can anyone that owns property in South Africa tell me the exact angle of the wind in the video please. Thanks
I don't own property in South Africa, but I can tell by the smell that the wind is blowing out ol Johny C's arse again!
The first image is the preferred wind, from the Southwest - slightly behind the wave, so offshore with minimal chop on the face.
Ask any Seth Effrican, if you can smell the fynbos vegetation when driving to Jeffreysbaai on the N2 from Port Elizabeth - then you know the southwest is blowing and it will be offshore!
You are welcome.
Honestly i try to avoid South Africans as much as possible. For this very reason
You don’t have a son called Indo-dreaming by any chance do you?
Now that you mention it, I've not seen I-d around lately? What's the connection?
jury's out.. but fuck, the guy must have some free time these days!
Pretty sure Peter Neely was Australian, he did a bit of exploration and wrote a book . https://indosurf.com.au/peter-neely/
Peter Neely was a very good bloke, but to be pedantic - Indo Surf and Lingo is a guidebook, specifically targetted at Australian surfers.
I contributed numerous images to the successive editions, Peter was always a pleasure to deal with and a pioneer of Bali surfing and Indonesia surf travel.
Not a property owner but does local videographer Brad own property? That front gate looks rented.
Looks a little janky.
There's a line between tall poppy and total faarken wanker. Some folk cross it on a daily basis
Come on guys Dirty Harry is just giving it back and trying to wind youse up .
I own property in the region and the wind is always offshore in the pub. There settled it for yas.
Bring back the Sultan
I kinda doubt that JC book will make the new york best sellers list , its up there with “ art of the deal “
I've wanted to surf Jbay for a while does anyone on here know the best/worst wind directions
Do you surf John?
Has anyone else done a backhand layback at Pipeline, in a contest, on their own board?
https://nobodysurf.com/simon-anderson-the-shocker/ Soundtrack "shock the monkey"
Necessity is the mother of invention
The First Australians used a weapon that returned, if you missed the shot, about 10,000BC ..... way, way back before Elon Musk, S.A. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boomerang#:~:text=Depictions%20of%20boomer....
Aussies invented the torpedo, tank, cool fridge, electric drill, notepad, car radio, pacemaker, etc...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Australian_inventions
CSIRO scientists invented fast WiFi etc....
https://www.csiro.au/en/about/achievements/top-10