Sunday, January 31, 2010

coffs boardriders opener

The Coffs boardriders held their first meet of the year today at good ole Diggers beach. The swell arrived just in time after a week of near flatness. This pic is of Matty Wyborn going to town on a nice righthander in his first heat. Our website will have the full gallery up over the next few days. I'll keep you posted through this blog or join up to the weekly newsletter of our surf website to get it all first.

Friday, January 29, 2010

new surf newsletter out today

The surf this morning was as flat as I've seen it. The last few days have been tragic in the swell department. Over the last week it has got smaller and smaller and I think today it can go nowhere but up.
We have managed to pull together some new surf galleries for you to check out...read more click here

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

rock ledge


Today's pic is from deep in the archives. I haven't seen this rock ledge break for a long time, its a very fickle wave from our northern region, it only really gets surfed by a handful of locals who are well tuned into it. One advantage of this 3 months of small swells is that the sand should be building up nicely off the end of it. hopefully it will light up again this autumn.
Today is just plain flat, well it was first thing this morning on the fullish tide, chance of a southerly change either tonight or tomorrow.

Monday, January 25, 2010

smooth


6am this morning
Almost flat today. Perfect glassy conditions with a very short range 0.5-1 foot wave. Hard to get a log into a decent trim today. Looks like small surf all week.
http://www.stimages.com.au/

Friday, January 22, 2010

summer sliders


Another beautiful morning on the mid north coast, weatherwise its been the best summer in years. Colourful mornings, warm evenings and light winds. Just missing out on the swell departmant. Its's smaller again today. 1.5 foot sliders on the sets and ankle height in between. Still beautiful in the water, so just go with it.
 
Donk and Joe getting their morning fix

The Chief!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

hoax


Well I think nearly every keen surfer was up at the crack of dawn ready for some swell action, but it was nowhere to be seen. A large south swell is battering Sydney and Newcastle over the last 2 days and we are getting none of it. All reports pointed towards a 2.5 meter south swell for us, but the swell doesn't appear to be south and it's not even close to the forecast size. Its actually smaller than yesterday and now the north-east wind is playing havoc with it.
Todays shot was taken around 9.30 yesterday

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

summer fun


2nd post for today. I ventured back to the beach this morning around 9 and found some little peaks breaking in cystral clear water. Swell still not as big as we hoped for, but much better than its been.
got thursday on my mind!

waiting for the tide


Clean little swell running in at first light this morning, but the ultra low tide had most beaches looking undersized and closing out. The push of the tide should bring up the size and improve the quality. Cooler westerly winds blowing too, all the signs are pointing to a change in fortunes. The next few days might deliver.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

southside storm


This pic is of Sawtell's southside last Friday evening. It was a pefect blue sky day and I had to get tourist type photos of the headland, so I got in the bus and headed south, in the space of 30 minutes the sky was invaded by these big grey monster clouds...... probably not the look the client was after, but I love it when the storms roll in, so I'll be holding on to a few of these.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Dan


Umm.... this is not today. surf was small and glassy this morning and I left the camera at home.
Today's pic is a friend of mine, Dan Cougle. He is one of my favourite surfers to shoot. I know he inspires a lot of surfers at my local break, mainly for his flawless style and ability to generate speed no matter how gutless the waves are. But Dan really comes into his own when the waves get solid, not many swells go by around here without him scoring the best waves. I haven't surfed or shot with Dan for over the 3 month flat spell we are currently in, but when it comes up he'll be ready

Thursday, January 14, 2010

sage shapes


Spent yesterday morning photographing and watching Sage Joske at work in his Valla factory. He was working on his newly created Vector boards, he had four of these puppies on the go yesterday, this one at the shaping stage while the other 3 were getting glassed with some sweet resin tints.

surf looks better today, wind has gone south and there were some fun two footers punching on to our beachies, get out there before it goes north-east again..... water temp gone cold again.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

sun & the sea grass


Well not much happening with the waves this week on the mid north coast. Monday and Tuesday had tiny east swell, bout 1-2 foot at best on the open beaches.... It been too long!
Come on Huey come back from your long service leave

sloppy north-east wind swell today. maybe try a back beach that get it from this direction.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

logging in the rain clip

This is a little video clip of my good mates Brett Caller, Sage Joske and Jack Lynch. They are the team riders for Valla surfboards which is an exciting place to be at the moment, so many cool boards coming out of that factory. I shot this while doing my regular still photos which can be seen at our surf gallery page under the title "Rainy day at Crescent 30th Dec"


Rainy day at Crescent from Tom Woods on Vimeo.

Friday, January 8, 2010

the golden hour

More sunrise shots this morning, the surf was very lazy knee high and a bit crumbly, so I worked on getting the reflected colours that only this time of day can bring..... best time of day, most humans are tucked up in bed missing the best hour of our 24 hour cycle we call a day.

Mitch & Rusty crossing the creek at prime time today.


clouds on fire

Thursday, January 7, 2010

colours


Better than average sunrise colours were happening this morning, just enough clouds to give the warm tones something to work with. The swell is smaller today, but early on before the tide got too low there were a few sliders. If the wind stays away the incoming tide could have some joy for fish and longboard riders.

Donk and Willis head out for the early sess with the right equipment..... 5.55am

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

board dreams


Sage Joske ; flying fish
Sage is better know for the amazing lines he draws on the face of the wave, but this morning he got all flighty and took to the air a couple of times.

Got a chance to ride that board on the right today. Its called the Valla "VECTOR" and it is so much fun. This is one of Sage's newest creations and I reckon its a total winner. It was a brand new feeling of surfing and I will go to sleep tonight dreaming of the few rides I got this arvo.
Click here to check out more of Valla surfboard news.

Brett Caller at around 7.00 this morning

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

town beachie


Fun waves on the incoming tide this morning. It was too lower tide at 6am for most beaches, but when the tide start coming in there were 2-3 foot clean peaks all over the place. Had a real summer look today, waters is warm again and the air is steamy. These shots taken around 11am.

Jayke Sharp 11.15am

Monday, January 4, 2010

worm tracks


A glimpse of light before a grey and stormy day came along. The shots today were taken between 5.30-6am the sky looked more impressive than the surf hence the heavy composition towards the top half in most of these photos. A strong south-east wind is making a mess of the surface conditions at all of our town beaches, even the protected corners aren't spared.

Only sign of life at Coffs most popular beach 5.30am

we had colour today.... for about 3 minutes

Saturday, January 2, 2010

JC


Caught up with me mate Johnny Craig today, John has been working up northern West Oz for a good part of the last 6 months and has only been surfing a handful of times. He was stoked to get back in the water this Christmas and as always he was in some good form.

These were taken around 11am. We still have a little east swell running.

we found a nice high tide bank and had some fun

Friday, January 1, 2010

Jack the ripper


More pics from the Wednesday road trip south. This layout is of Jack Lynch, he is only 16 (till next week) and is already drawing some beautiful lines in the ocean.

Surf update : first morning of 2010 was really fun. Waist high to shoulder high on the sets and super clean conditions, thats if you were up early enough. The northerly has now sprung up a bit, so norhern corners will be the go for those that didn't rise before 9am.