Otis Carey, inner city tube

Tubes in the harbour

If I told you that you could get barrelled whilst surfing Sydney Harbour I’m pretty sure you’d think I’m a can short of a six pack.

Well, you can. The right conditions 1) a raging, excessively large SE swell, 2) howling south wind and 3) 1 x Otis Carey = you’ll get tubed amongst the Sydney Ferries. Ok, so admittedly it’s no Teahuppo, but watching Otis bang out airs and tubes with the harbour bridge in the background is a nice change of scenery. Yes, it’s a novelty wave. Big-time. Shifty, weak and usually packed. What else do you do on a rainy Friday? I think we got the best of it this morning with a pulsing incoming tide…and the aid of the Manly Ferry wake (actually pictured in the background of a Otis air).

It’s raining all weekend as well. Come see us at the Aquabumps Gallery in Bondi then head to the State Library for the World Press Photo, Max Dupain’s 100 year exhibition and Sydney Morning Herald photos 1440 – all part of the EOS festival of Photography.

Keep dry :: uge

Dane Brown heading to work in the city

Otis Carey, Manly Ferry wake air

Dane Brown back hand harbour tube

Fluffy from Dripping Wet, nose drilling

Remember, this is in the harbour

Barney and his whacky stand up booga slides

30 thoughts on “Tubes in the harbour

    1. Hi Padge, I don’t think it will be breaking tomorrow. Swell is dying. It was tiny this morning (and the swell is peaking now)

  1. Nice shots,

    Phew from up here in NW WA I am considering dropping everything to book a flight. I dont know how to get to this secret location but plan to print the photos and show them to a cab driver, hopefully he can figure it out! with conditions like that who cares what the bill comes to? I just got off the phone to another out of town mate, he was booked for indo this week but after seeing the pics reckons he might cancel, now I don’t want to get too ahead of myself or anything, but we have been searching for a new break to setup a surf camp at with barrels like #3 I have a feeling that this could be IT.

    Seeyall tomorrow

  2. It was better between 7 and 8 😉 but still looks fun – great shots Uge, specially the inner city tube of Otis. Yes, that’s my office – dang, wish I coulda stayed longer!

  3. Looks like fun at the The Park but I’m scared that if i left my car near this “secret spot”, the latte sipping grans at the cafe might slash my wheels..

    😉 Outta towner

    1. This ‘Secret Spot’ is going to be on news for Channel 7 AND Channel 9 tonight…the crews were down there this morning.

  4. You should definately blurr backgrounds in these….i didnt know this spot now I do. Silly move, well and truely sick of people killing the secret spots by posting pics online and facebook…..if you wanna show off a wave blurr everything but the wave and maybe and flip the image.

    1. Thanks Grant. Yep, I wouldn’t show landmarks if it was a secret spot. But it’s in front of a rather large city – Sydney. Everyone knows about it, it’s on all the TV news tonight.

  5. Love it when this spot breaks usually means that outside is big and ugly. Great shots as always Uge.

  6. I had a wave at ‘Foreigngemtleman Beach’ in about 1975 or 6. Great right off the point. Shared it with a couple of Hobiecats with the mainsheet tied to their drivers’ ankles in case they fell off.

    That day, a wave had closed out across the whole mouth of the harbour and the old Manly Pool was smashed. And that night Waltons Boatshed at Balmoral burnt down with an electrical short from the waves getting in to it.

  7. Don’t worry about them Uge, everyone knows this ‘secret spot’ it’s a great place to drop in on private school boys!
    Plus it’s not like it’s an amazing, or even decent, wave, it’s a last resort when the swell has overwhelmed all the real breaks.

  8. So secret that the Pharoahs of Surf (lesser known early 80’s pub band featuring JJJ’s Richard Kingsmill) even had a song called xxxxxx’s pumpin’. I’ve redacted the name of the break (????) in deference to Uge’s general policy of not naming names but can assure the contributor above that I was most likely one of the eastie suburbs private school boys he wanted to drop in on.

    My recollection is that the challenge was to try to grab the wire of the shark net on the the shore break on the wave in and then hold on long enough so the board dangling below you on your leg rope didn’t spear you in the groin before the next set rolled in and lifted the water level again

  9. This place aint secret – its been crowded every time it breaks for the last 25 years. I am annoyed though – I checked it at 7am and it was barely breaking – then i get to work and see these shots!

  10. hahahaa the irony of the secret spot! hey tom nice piece of history there. would have been amazing to witness a close out the full length of the harbour mouth. uge can you borrow a time machine to go back and capture that one for us?

  11. Secret Spot,what secret spot?????” I first surfed it in 1965. No leggies then,either. It’s when people say “locals only”, as was said to me yesterday, that it will be a problem. If this is your local break you don’t surf much as this hardly comes on. Really great pics though.

  12. hey” that would be rigth ! I went down there on Wed & Thrusday ,No wave to be seen !
    If you go down today , you will need to dook a table , It will be jam packed (private school boy & Rang Rovers)
    cheers Chiller

  13. why would you talk tars on the ‘private school kids’ what does that have to do with anything are you mad that you were not one???

  14. Howdy all,

    Yesterday we rolled up at 7:30am, was pretty darn flat, but we thought the incoming tide may have brought in the odd wave.

    It did. Was good for about 1 hr. When I say ‘good’ I mean rideable. Otis makes 1 footers at Bondi look like Mentawai Gold (so keep that in mind)

    But remember when you’re looking at my 7 photos above. These are the best waves of a 2 hours session. Don’t think it’s working today. or don’t think it was working an hour after we left. think we just got a pulse.

    Thanks for all writing in, cheers, uge

  15. “Secret spot?” Lads, we surfed that in 1964. Mostly it’s a recurring rumor that nobody believes, since it only breaks a couple of times a year. No worries about the secret leaking out.

    Besides, it’s INCREDIBLY hard to find. You’d have to be smart enough to look at the subtitle of the photo to figure that out and nobody but this lot here is smart enough to do that!

  16. My brother has photos of him surfing there in the 60’s I first surfed there in the 70’s. You guys calling it a secret spot blow back to “k bay’

  17. i surfed there on the weekend early saturday morning there were people from palm beach through to cronulla who had come purely after seeing it on aquabumps

    by the photos that were posted it gave the image that there was perfection in the harbor what could of been a fun surf was crowded and dangerous as majority of the people put there could not even duck dive and were ditching there boards

    the so called private school kids were actually well mannered and the better more respectful surfers out there

    there was even a group of asian tourists whom could barley paddle let alone stand up who somehow knew about it too

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