Serious Skunking - 6/6/12
After two solid forecasts at home failed to materialize into anything I was getting pretty desperate to score something decent. There has been plenty of talk of the giant East Coast Low storm system that will send some beasts over to Fiji for the Volcom Pro. Before the swell gets there it is tracking up Australia's Eastern seaboard along with the gale force winds associated with the low. Long story short, it was looking all time for Windang, around 100kms south of Sydney.
I had sailed Windang before at the 2011 Australian Titles, conditions weren't great then but I could see the potential of the place. Everyone was telling stories of how epic it gets with a big swell - long, peeling, steep right handers held up by a cross to cross off wind. After some discussion, Hudson and I decided it was worth a shot. We booked flights with the plan to get into Sydney early morning, hire a car, drive to Windang, slay the sick conditions until dark, go back to the airport and fly back to Melbourne making it an 18 hour mission door to door. Unfortunately that wasn't how it played out...
On the drive from Sydney it was pissing down with rain and as we came down Bulli Pass we could see the ocean for the first time. It was a seething mess of white water with waves breaking so far out to sea. A quick check of the breaks around Sandon Point confirmed the situation - massive, messy swell and not that much wind. After that we headed to Windang, hoping it was firing there. When we arrived it was reasonably windy but the swell was a total mess, there were no clean banks and the tide was ripping out through the river mouth, consequently messing up the waves. It looked like it would be hard to get out from the beach through the heavy inside sections closing out on the shallow sand bars. Seeing it was still raining we went to have a look at other options for the time being.
By lunch time the wind was looking light and the rain was not moving on, the signs were pointing towards a serious skunking! After sitting around for a couple of hours the sun came out and it looked like there was enough breeze to give it a go. Not long after, another rain squall came through but we had already made up our minds to get into it. Out on the water the wind was patchy but doable, however I quickly realised that it was going to be a constant battle against the super strong current pulling us downwind away from the peak and towards the nasty shoredump section. The peaks were really shifty with sets coming in over mast high, it was challenging knowing where to position yourself. After a couple of pretty lame ones, I got on a bomb and took it in before kicking out as the wave went fat and disappeared. Turning around I was looking into an even bigger one feathering, threatening to smash me. The wind was super light and I just got clipped by the lip as I got to the top - I was so close to making it!
After getting dragged under water for a while I lost hold of my equipment and popped up to see it basically in the shorebreak area I didn't want to end up in... Finally I made it in to happily find everything intact but now there was no chance of me getting back out in the light breeze. I walked back up the beach to swim across the river to where our car was parked. The water was still ripping out the river and I was quickly getting sucked out to sea so I decided to derig and then try to paddle across. I wasn't really looking forward to the crossing as the area is notorious for Bull Sharks and there was a fisherman on the far side throwing out berley. As I got close to the bank the current was so strong that I started to get sucked back out, to avoid the potentially unpleasant situation of getting dragged out through the waves I tried climbing up the rock wall. I didn't really think about the oysters that were basically a blanket over every rock until I started to cut my feet to shreds - lesson learnt: NEVER climb up rocks covered in oysters! So that basically was the end of an unsuccesful day. I guess it was worth a try, we could of scored big. Unfortunately we didn't but there is always next time...