If you're a surfer on the East Coast of Australia you'll know that bluebottles are the scourge of summer. Yet it appears there's a new kid in town - the Blue Dragon. Blue Dragons eat bluebottles then use their toxin to sting people
Will this be the swell to kick the Eddie Aikau Quiksilver Big Wave Invitational into gear after a three year hiatus?
The swell from Evan was a true cyclone swell, one that was generated in the core of a severe, slow moving tropical cyclone, and yet it was nothing like a classic cyclone swell. The reason Evan won't be remembered that way is because it formed in isolation. Despite spending a week in the far reaches of our swell window and wreaking havoc on Samoa and Fiji, Evan lacked the associated weather features required to create classic cyclone swell conditions.
On the back of a relatively poor cyclone season earlier in the year, it's welcoming to see the first signs of tropical activity forming in the Fiji region.
We're now less than a week away from the start of the Billabong Pipeline Masters and there's swell on the way. We expect proceedings will kick off on the second day of the waiting period this Sunday, however before we get to size there are a few pertinent points that need to be covered.
Around the world there are a handful of rivers that offer the chance to ride kilometre long, thigh-burning waves at particular times of the year. The waves are not a result of wind blowing over water, however, but a combination of a large tidal ranges and ideal river contours.
"The great earthquake could happen tomorrow or....
Hurricane Sandy will create a fetch of northerly gales in the Great Lakes system
The world's most perfect wave won't exist in twenty years time.
But there is good news ahead. The much discussed Long Wave Trough (info here) is about to enter a strengthening phase in the Southern Ocean, and we're looking at two to three weeks of heavy swell activity for the southern states.
In theory the sand slug will break up incoming swell lines and provided a series of wedges and peaks on the downward side of the slug.
The Sydney buoy rose 9 metres in one hour
