FULL GALLERY OF JANUARY BIG SWELL PHOTOS, CLICK HERE

 

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One from the "GOOD IDEAS" Department:

PUT LOCAL COAST GUARD CONTACT NUMBER

IN YOUR SPEED DIAL:

02 9337 5033

Tuesday night just on dark I got a call from Jon at Fishermans. He was packing up his gear and was approached by an elderly couple who claimed to have seen a kite go down about 400m offshore between Fishermans and Collaroy. Jon couldn't see anything and hadn't noticed anyone out there previously but he rang me and we discussed what to do.

I drove up to the headland at Collaroy with my big torch and scoured the water in all directions as best I could and couldn't see anything. Jon and I hooked up at Narrabeen 5 min later and walked the beach looking for any sign of gear on the beach, or anyone else looking for someone and for kiter vehicles in the car park and after checking three carparks and three beach areas decided that it must have been a case of mistaken perceptions. Just in case, we drove back to S Fishermans where someone would have washed up in the prevailing conditions and checked again but found nothing.

It did however raise the thought of what would have been the best thing to do if it turned out to be a genuine emergency that required a rapid response sea rescue.

After some discussion we decided that it would be a good idea if all kiters had the Coast Guard emergency contact number in their speed dial. Additionally, it's also probably a good idea to have a number for the local police in your phone too, just in case.

SO, the Sydney Area Coast Guard contact number is:

SYDNEY COAST GUARD: 02 9337 5033

DEE WHY POLICE: 02 9971 3399

EMERGENCY SERVICES: 000 OR 112*

*(112 is the GSM international standard emergency number which can only be dialled on digital mobile phones.  112 can be dialled anywhere in the world with GSM coverage and is automatically translated to that country's emergency number.)

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Awesome conditions down the south coast last weekend of  Nov.

Here are the galleries:

CLICK HERE FOR SATURDAY PHOTOS

CLICK HERE FOR SUNDAY PHOTOS

 

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Last Wednesday at Long Reef was one of the best ever.  Unfortunately, the timing on the camera shots wasn't the best (takes a shot every ten seconds) and it managed to miss all of the big waves on the Bombies... c'est la vie.  Here's one of the smaller inside waves.

FULL GALLERY HERE

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DEE WHY THUNDERSTORM MONDAY NIGHT

 

Kat got some great shots of the storm last night. More here :

http://picasaweb.google.com.au/ksmelikova/Thunderstorm#slideshow/5404653983809063586

 

Here's one I shot from the park

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Lewis Pier Jump from oneclearshot on Vimeo.

RESPECT!

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GOPRO GALLERY FROM LAST SUNDAY AT LONG REEF
CLICK HERE

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Chris and I had a decent kite at Fishermans Saturday. Probably wasn't over 12 knots but we were going upwind on 13-14m Griffins and surfboards. Chris made it all the way to Little Makaha.

Just after we came in, a huge whale started breaching precisely where we'd been kiting.

I then strapped my iPhone on my arm in a waterproof casing and had a short trial run using a new app called Motion-X. Does all sorts of cool stuff which I've not had a chance to exlplore yet.

Here's what I got:

 

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MORE WEATHER: Click one of the links below for up-to-the-minute details.

Current wind readings and forecast:

SE AUSTRALIA WIND ANIMATION (Magic Seaweed) CLICK HERE

SE AUSTRALIA SURF ANIMATION (Magic Seaweed) CLICK HERE

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If you haven't renewed your NSWKBA membership yet, go here:

http://nswkba.com.au/signup

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Couple of weeks ago at Long Reef -- 20 knots WSW

Beautiful day but a bit dodgy direction for kiting.

 

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LOADS OF DOLPHINS AT DEE WHY POINT LAST WEEK

I thought they only did this in Flipper movies...

Having a bit of fun

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Early Wednesday morning at Dee Why the colour was even freakier

Dee Why at 0715am

Same camera settings later in the day at 1030am

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BOM have put up a new weather monitoring radar at Terry Hills with a host of new stuff on the map.

You can check it out here:

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SHARK ATTACK PREVENTION TIPS:

CLICK HERE

Tip 1: When you see something, look panicked and yell "SHARK!"

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WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Coert seems to have had some fun times over the past few months in WA and offers the following evidence:

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SLIDE SHOW OF SOUTH COAST WEEKEND CLICK HERE

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Long Reef early August:

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SUNDAY 19 JULY DEE WHY BEACH

FULL PHOTO GALLERY OF DEE WHY WHALES CLICK  HERE

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Dee Why sunset

Not quite as dramatic as Uge's Bondi shots but still pretty cool.

Bondi 5pm today  http://www.aquabumps.com

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Jacques got some great shots a couple of weeks ago at Curl Curl:

To view the entire gallery, CLICK HERE

 

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Long Reef in May

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Dee Why waterspout May 2009

MORE PHOTOS CLICK HERE

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UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS

With all the chaos and and turmoil surrounding the so-called "Global Financial Crisis", few people seem to actually realise how we got ourselves in to this current mess. If you're interested in learning a bit more about how it all happened, have a look at these videos.

MONEY AS DEBT

THE ASCENT OF MONEY (PART 1 OF 6)

UNDERSTANDING THE CREDIT CRISIS IN 10 MINUTES