Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Healthy Interest Or Crazy Obsession: Surfing The Line In Batemans Bay

It was cold, a bit windy, overcast, there was both a strong wind warning and a "large and dangerous seas" warning, pretty much the perfect day to go sea kayaking. Actually, inside Batemans Bay it wasn't too bad but as Doug and I stood by the whipped up brown ocean pulling on wetsuits for another kayak surfing session it was hard not to feel that we might be crossing the line between healthy interest and crazy obsession. We could probably legitimately blame Peter who, the day before the east coast low moved in to pummel NSW, noted that on days with a huge swell on the open ocean, semi-sheltered locations often have great surfing waves.

On Tuesday, the swell was still running around four metres with peak waves up to seven metres and a long line of breakers was hitting the sandbars near the breakwater at the mouth of the Clyde River. The ocean was brown with run-off. It was a mostly easterly swell so we thought Surfside Beach would have some good waves. The swell was good, around a 1 to 1.5 metres with larger waves rolling in frequently, but the beach itself is too steep for a good spilling wave and was instead a nasty shore-dump. Just to the west, around Pinnacle Point, the beach is long and flat. Normally, there are no waves here, excepting perhaps a riffle, today there was a steady line of breakers. The small creek that usually trickles out was a steady flow. 

 
 Doug catches a wave where normally there is barely a riffle

We spent about an hour surfing here. The waves were a little tricky to catch as they were somewhat irregular and steepened suddenly which meant the kayak would broach even sooner than normal so rides were short, spin cycles long. I lost half my spray deck on one large crashing wave, pulling out finally to see Doug giving me a thumbs up for hanging on. 

After a bit we decided to wander back around the corner to Surfside to see if the falling tide had improved the waves. It hadn't but we could see a nice wave across the way just inside Square Head. Although the waves were pretty small here, no more than a metre, they were fantastic for surfing as you could get on and ride a long way in towards Cullendulla Creek then exit at the end without the usual thrashing. They were gentle enough on the face that a stern rudder would hold the kayak in a straight line. We hung out here for a long while until Doug's virus began to assert itself and we decided to head back. 

 
Heading home across Cullendulla Bay

It took a long time to paddle back to the car as not only was the tide and wind against us, but all the rainwater flowing out the various rivers and creeks was creating even more current. The swells were a decent size coming in but not steep enough to get much of a ride. When we pulled the boats up to the car, I realised I had managed to leave my life jacket on the beach near Cullendulla Creek. Neither Doug nor I had noticed that I had spent half an hour surfing and almost an hour paddling back not wearing a life jacket. 

Neither of us relished the idea of another two hour round trip in the kayaks to retrieve it. Luckily, I found a good track down to the Cullendulla Creek from Long Beach and retrieved the jacket in a scant 20 minutes on foot.

9 comments:

  1. The Australian school of mountaineering: http://climbingadventures.com.au/mountaineering-ice-climbing.
    I can't believe you find it 'hard' to go alpine mountaineering or skiing in Australia?! There are plenty of places to do these things here. Hello, alpine national park, great dividing ranges, Australian alps, snowy mountains national park, the list goes on and thats just in Victoria, NSW has loads of skiing fields and as for Tasmania, the entire state is covered in mountains. South Australia, Western Australia, Queensland and the ACT all have mountain ranges too which are popular for climbers... so what's with the 'hard'and having to 'go sea canoeing' instead in your 'about me' section? You make it sound like there's nowhere to ski in Australia at all when that's simply far from the truth...smh

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    1. Thanks for your comments. I think we might have different definitions of mountaineering. I am referring to technical climbing on high glaciated mountains. I have done some great rock climbing in all the states you mentioned and also a lot of mountain walking in all those places, but Australia just does not have mountaineering in the classical sense. Best of luck on your own adventures.

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    2. That's ridiculous to say Australia doesn't have mountaineering in the classical sense. Why are there Ski Touring, Mountaineering & Ice Climbing courses here then? The only difference is the height may not be as high as mount Everest, but you still need a good level of skill and experience to tackle mount Kosciusko in snow season and as for requiring glaciers, have you ever been to the blue lake ice on Kosciusko? You need to have ice-climbing,abseiling, skiing,and snow survival skills to make the ascent, it's not just 'walking' and 'rock-climbing' as you say there's all there is here. I would also like to hear what the folks at the Australian school of mountaineering and other similar local businesses have to say about your opinion that mountaineering doesn't exist in Australia. Particularly when they are run by real international experts who have trekked places such as Antarctica and the Himalayas many times over. Funny how they find Australia such a successful place to run their mountaineering, ice-climbing, skiing and snow survival courses and make a living from doing so when these things don't exist here.

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  3. Dear Anonymous Dude: No serious alpinist considers Kosciuszko anything more than a doddle, winter or summer. It is what it is.

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  4. hi there, I'm from Canada and an experienced climber,skier, hiker, you name it I've done it.I have traveled to Australia many times for their winter snow season as an advanced ski instructor at Sun Peaks resort here in Canada to our affiliated Southern (Australian) Alps ski club resorts. I have to disagree with you about your comments on Australia's traverse as being easy. If you had actually been to Perisher in the Kosciusko NP in winter for example, you would not make such a statement, obviously you have yet to do so and it's well worth it. Back-country skiing is challenging and awesome in the Victorian mountains too such as Hotham, and Tasmania has some of the most difficult ranges to hike, ski, ice-climb etc that I have ever experienced anywhere. Unfortunately Australia's alpine regions are not well known or commercialized (yet), however this makes for experiences in which you can go for days without seeing another human being and uncrowded pristine conditions. I suggest you try here https://tasmaniangeographic.com/tag/mountaineering for some info on locations in Tasmania and/or contact one of the mountaineering clubs in Sydney such as http://www.surmc.org.au/ or https://alpineclub.org.nz/region/australia/ for locations on the Australian mainland. Just out of curiosity, why are you in Australia if you believe it to be a place where you are unable to be an alpinist? Why not New Zealand instead?

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  5. Jake, go ski the McBride Traverse, the Misty Icefield, the Homathko Icefield, the Lillooet Icefield, the Cariboo or Purcell traverse (all in Canada, all of which I have done) and get back to me on how extensive Australian alpinism is.

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    1. hi Sandy, I don't disagree with you at all on our ski regions here, we have amazing mountain ranges, but that wasn't my point. My point was that I disagree with you on Australia's. I actually read some of your other posts about locations you have visited there in Oz, and it seems you are sticking to walking them in optimal conditions without snow.. and yet you have been there several years now. Why is that? Is a nine day (for expert level)ski mountaineering trek across Hotham, month-or-more long trek along the Australian Alpine track in snow, Federation Peak in winter, or Perisher's Olympic Track easy, really? I have made some lifelong Aussie mates on my working vacations there at various ski resorts who compete in world championships, competed at Sochi,and who are now preparing for the next winter Olympics. They're world class elite athletes and have got there by skiing their home slopes and training on the courses such as the ones I just mentioned. The fact they have achieved advanced technical abilities with a tiny fraction of the budget we spend on our winter athletes but are winning world championships and Olympic medals is even more humbling, and something which says a lot about the conditions and challenges they train in.
      One thing I learned when first in Australia is the Aussies don't like arrogant 'yanks', as they call us Canadians and Americans (not being able to tell us apart until we say 'about'!)They don't brag and keep the best spots a secret to themselves. I don't think you are doing yourself any favors by denigrating their slopes- especially when you haven't skied them. Please, take my advice and get out there and enjoy what Australia has in terms of landscape, terrain and biodiversity. Be gracious and appreciative while you're a guest in their country because then just maybe you'll make some friends who will tell you about the best places to go. Otherwise you'll just be stuck doing the tourist route and never get to see the real country, much like I was the first time I was in Australia.
      Hopefully I can look forward to reading your blog posts from when winter officially sets in down there and you strap the skis on again. ;-)

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