Saturday at the Bommie
Plenty of surfers on the Eastern Seaboard went to bed Friday night in a state of mild anticipation. On Thursday two low pressure systems tracking on the opposite side of the Tasman Sea united and reintensified their energy. It was a unique storm and the satellite readings were equally exceptional showing 60 knots of sustained wind, all of which pointed dead east back toward the Australian mainland.
Just after dark on Friday the forerunners began making landfall at an incredible 20 second period, data that's almost unheard of on Australia's East Coast. First light on Saturday and the swell had filled in with incredible 8'-10' waves at deep water reefs across the coast.
At Manly a small crew of surfers including Carl Lamaitre, Tristan McCaffery, Jeshayle Singh, Mick Freeman, and Andrew Sail paddled out to Queenscliff Bombora. They had a small window of opportunity where the swell peaked, the winds were light, and the tide low - an uncommon combination at this most rare wave.
Notes to the photos: Carl Lamaitre is the fella getting bucked on the right, while Tristan is the surfer getting barrelled on the left. Photographer Murray Fraser drove a ski and shot a camera, and when that wasn't enough he dived in to capture the water angle. See Shot 3 where Muz took one for the team while wearing just one fin.
Good to see surfers getting all carpe diem, cos it's gonna be a long time till we see another swell like that.
All photos by Murray Fraser. Muz is the Captain at Sprout Daily, click and like for a daily delivery of sunshine.