A bad mix of small wind-chop-come-swell and onshore winds early. Unfortunately it’s only going to get worse with a 30 knot blast later this afternoon. Difficult to shoot in the morning when it’s so damn dark. Even after cranking the ISO up to 1600+ on the Mark 3 and you’re still too slow to capture […]

Not a very inspiring morning down the beach. Bondi was 2 foot and messy…the banks are totally shot. I’m hoping that the bulldozer moving sand back in the water may create something…anything…cause surely its gotta be better than what we’ve currently got. The swell is from the ESE, so Tama/Bra would show more size (maybe […]

Meet Blake, Blake Thornton. He’s a good surfer and good bloke from Maroubra who’s doin’ well on the WQS at the moment. Like a 5th in The Margaret River Masters, 25th in the Quiky Pro (Durban) and a 3rd in the O’Neill Highland Open in Scotland. 24 year old Blake’s dream is to make the […]

What great conditions we have this morning. Super clean, smooth surfaces…decent supply of ESE swell (9.1 sec period)…and the sunshine has even come out to join the party. How disappointing are the banks though? The weekend’s storms have robbed Bondi of any decent sand formations – especially that tubing left in the corner – which […]

After days of onshore bashing finally the winds are offshore at Bondi (NW/NE). Yes… offshore! So you don’t have to hide out at novelty harbour surf breaks and brave the exposed beaches. There is still very few options on the cards though…Bronte was all over the shop, Tama same same, South Bondi was very random […]

Not much to talk about this morning. I mean, Sydney is still being bashed by rain and onshore winds. The only surfers out are at North Bondi – not sure if I’d call that surfing. With all this wind the ocean swells are rising. Tomorrow is the peak of it and 10 foot plus waves […]

Seen better days that’s for sure… The wind and rain are taking over this town. Last night I thought my windows were going to cave in. At least the salt has been washed off the car, momentarily. The winds are howling easterly, which pretty much give you no options for surfing today. The swell is […]

Surfing shouldn’t be high on your ‘list to do’ today. It’s probably tucked in there under ‘wash the car’ or ‘alphabetically sort your cd collection’. Pouring rain at daybreak, howling winds and 3 foot mush-slush. Not pretty. Usually storms at this time of year come from the south, but this one is from the NE […]

A little 2-3 footer was breaking in the southern corner of Bondi, in front of The Icebergs, short-lived though…as a 15-20 knot Easterly made a mess of things early today. Large crew out early enjoying the shallow sand bank that is throwing a lip (rare), making the head dip the manoeuvre of choice. Not much […]

That swell arrived Saturday afternoon and is continuing to grow. Bondi was 3-4 foot today and a lil’ junky (gettin’ bigger). The left in the corner randomly threw a wide lip whilst most closed out on the bigger sets. Cold morning, brrr, and very few people out. The water remains a balmy 21 degrees though…quite […]

If you were up for the early you would have found some fun little 2 footers down at Bondi. Bondi loves these SSE swells, squeezing every ounce of a dying bump. Todays waves are short lived –  by lunchtime there will be nothing left and flatness will prevail this afternoon. Most other beaches would have […]

Today’s update concludes our 10th annual pilgrimage to the Mentawai Islands off Sumatra (sigh of relief I hear from some of you). It always amazes me how perfect and consistent the waves are up here. Out of all my travels, not many destinations offer good waves…every day – with such variety. Even when the swell […]

Sumatra is famous for storms being so close to the equator. (We’re currently 1 degree south of it) It can be perfectly sunny one minute, then horrendously stormy the next. Today a storm rolled through the Mentawai Islands – but didn’t leave. Makes getting a wave quite difficult as the dead calm glass turns into […]

Yep – we’re still up here in Indonesia cruising around the group of islands off Sumatra called the Mentawais. We’ve been on the boat for 8 days now, and only set foot on land once. Today’s surf break is a long righthander that grinds down the side of a picturesque tropical island – probably one […]

After surfing a mechanical left all morning the crowds got a bit heavy so we headed north. 1hr of motoring and we came across a remote idyllic paradise island with a 300 metre right hander down one side and a short left down the other. (not a soul in sight). The kind of setup you […]

The swell came back today up here in the Mentawai Islands. (Thankfully). The 25 boats in the area travelled overnight to their favourite breaks spread out in the archipelago. We arrived at dawn to a 3 foot mechanical left which is so perfect, it’s as if it was engineered specifically for practising your backhand whacks. […]

It doesn’t happen often…but today the Mentawais have gone all quiet. After a few days of hollow bliss it is time to rest and watch a whole season of Underbelly. Not much else to do in a 20 square metre cabin with 6 surfers. Swell charts show a small pulse arriving tomorrow…and we’re at the […]

The weather in the Mentawai islands is highly unstable – normally, but we’ve had a good run of clear skies and relatively little wind. This combination makes for clear underwater visibility – great for shooting chargers flying down the line – from behind. It all happens quickly, focussing can be tricky as fins thrash before […]

Welcome to the Mentawais…for the next 12 days Aquabumps will be drifting in the Indonesia archipelago searching for decent waves. Based 90 miles off Sumatra, these islands host some of the best waves in the world. Not much else out here…plenty of coconut trees, razor sharp coral reefs and warm water. Our first day was […]