Pittwater Life August 2017 Issue

PL’s AUGUST SURF CALENDAR
August 11-22: Billabong Pro Teahupoo
From the sublime to the… sublime. That appears to be the life of a
professional surfer these days. No sooner are they done surfing the
best Jeffreys Bay in many years, than they are forced to fly to Tahiti.
Dear oh dear. Teahupoo’s silky smooth fearsome reef break will
test the pros as it always does. If it gets J-Bay style swell energy,
it’ll bring out a totally different side of the sport – the ability to keep
your head screwed on for 10 of the most intimidating seconds of
your life. Watch at www.worldsurfleague.com
NICK’S AUGUST SURF FORECAST
In most years, August is a dud of a month. The full westerly wind
band sets up across the south-east of the continent, and dry, cool,
clear days follow cold nights, and no surf shows up. It’s pretty and
it’s flat. This year? I think not! I think large quantities of surf from
numerous directions, as more energy pushes up into the southern
Tasman Sea and drives big south swells up the coast, just as it
began doing late in July. I also suspect some of that energy may
collide with the still surprisingly warm surface waters of the SW
Pacific and cause some ructions off northern New Zealand, maybe
bringing the tradewind band to life and blasting us with long range
easterly swell here and there. All in all, potentially the most surf
active August in a long time. Be careful, won’t ya.
Nick Carroll
months. An old Afrikaans
farm became a mythic centre
of a new way of life: Kombis
in the bushes, bell bottomed
jeans, and large quantities of
“Durban Poison” marijuana.
Very Byron Bay, except for
the wave itself. As a surfing
experience, Jeffreys is a bit
beyond Byron. It bends like a
point but breaks on a mixture
of rock and sand, causing it
to feel way more like a reef.
Surfing it, I was reminded of
Elizabeth Riddell’s poem, ‘The
Surfer’, that great line about
the “long muscle of water”.
J-Bay is a long muscle that lifts
you into another, faster place.
Its length and line was a
technical challenge for the
pros I’d come to watch. But
they were seduced by it as
much as the kids of the ’70s.
Normally, pro surfers flee a
location pretty much as soon
as they lose, but here, many
changed their flights in the
other direction, feasting on
the wave’s power and speed.
They circled the lineup with
glazed expressions. “I don’t
know how I’m gonna go back
to beachbreak surf,” Hawaii’s
Sebastian Zietz told me. “I
might need some kind of
detox!”
Jeffrey’s hasn’t become a
modern Byron. South Africa’s
social and economic distortions
The Local Voice Since 1991
were, and still are, too great to
permit the rise of such a classic
first-world Wellness Nirvana.
Besides, the water’s too cold.
And maybe the sea life is too
sketchy. Twice the event was
stalled by the presence of a
shark, the second time by a
sub-adult Great White that
came meandering up the point,
tracked by a jet-ski until it
disappeared off toward Cape
Town.
Two afternoons before, I’d
watched one around the same
size come to the surface just
outside Boneyard, J-Bay’s
top section. It cruised along
in much the same manner,
dorsal and tail fin clearly
visible. The wind was light,
the sun dipping past the
inland ranges. More waves
were lifting on some reef
further out. The shark’s
movement seemed in perfect
rhythm with it all. Three
or four other surfers were
waiting with me, but nobody
said anything, and we just
kept surfing.
Nick Carroll is a leading
Australian and international
surf writer, author, filmmaker
and surfer, and one
of Newport’s own. Email:
ncsurf@ozemail.com.au
AUGUST 2017 39
Surfing Life