Well, 2021 has been a wild ride for us all – there are positives amongst all the case numbers, lockdowns and mumbling behind masks. So after 22+ years of running Aquabumps, I had a massive break (during lockdown) from the daily routines and spent a lot of time with my monster children+wifie (and surfing!) I […]

Submerge yourself in 23-degree water today. What a terrific way to start the day! That’s getting close to as warm as it gets around here. Shed the rubber and dive in… Not many waves around, kneeish high dribbles. It doesn’t matter; everybody is swimming anyway. On holiday yet? Soon I am guessing. Drive safe if […]

As we head into the final straight for Christmas, the beach starts to get quiet. This morning, the waves were tiny as a new southerly breeze was ruffling the surface. There were pockets of light as the high cloud was forever transforming. Today’s post is a collection of images taken between now and last Friday […]

We are back to flat, grey light, a tough gig polishing up the beach in these conditions. Fortunately, we’ve got a little chest high wave to entertain us. The early morning high tide was killing it, though. Super wobbly, fat and a bit weak. Great news, today the sun will bake, and your grassy knoll […]

Change is good; change is now. A Southerly flow has rolled through town, cooling it down, roughing up our surf and spoiling the glorious beach weather from yesterday. How good was yesterday? It was so dreamy and very summery. Waves are now sloppy waist to chest high, and skies are dark and threatening. It’s a […]

It was a damn fine morning down the beach: calm, little or no wind. Water was an incredible 21.7°C – just right for a boardies and bikinis surf. Sun’s out – not a cloud in sight. Crowds were off the hook. The beach was pumping with fitness gurus, meditators, yoga bendies, squads, surfers, swimmers, early […]

There are waves suitable for riding today! It’s calmed down a lot, and Bondi had multiple peaks running with something for you to slay. The 7 am full tide wasn’t kind, putting HEAPS of fat wobbles in faces, making it random. Bit fools goldish. The lower tides should be more generous. Twenty-five degrees today, light […]

There’s a heap of grunt to the bump this morning. Bondi was huge! I saw sets in the double head+ height range, closing out the bay. Zero surfers out at sunrise; it looked junkie, even with a grooming SW early offshore. As I write, it’s gone cross-onshore with 8 knots of southerly, the swell will […]

I knew it was too good to be true… Waking up after a heavy night of rain, Bondi looked soooo sweet at sunrise. It was warm, dreamy, clean and bathed in sunshine. It looked like Utopia as the swell spiked and the lefts lined up (head high). It was orrn…(for a moment). I shot, I […]

I’ve got no clue what’s going on with the weather these days? It changes every minute: sunny, rain, thunderstorms, windy…all in the same hour. This isn’t Melbourne, and this isn’t summer! haha. A wet start to the day, but now I see people on the beach sun-tanning. There’s a howling 26 knot southerly and tiny […]

These waist-high, grey, lightless, southerly solid wind days sure are dull! Pass. It’s not a beach morning; the fact that barely anyone is down there is telling. How big was that flash storm last night – boom! We reckon the tin roof of our salubrious Aquabumps Gallery took a strike of lightning, knocking out some […]

Not much is happening down the beach today. It’s predominantly grey – no surprises there! We had a moment of golden rays, but it was short-lived. The onshores are lighter, producing more surfable conditions for the enthusiastic. It wasn’t great though, weak, waist to chest high and disorganised. Monday to Thursday looks very small, cloudy. […]

Some mornings I over-froth and can’t decide how to document my morning. Shall I set up a housing and capture from the water? Above or below the surface? In the air? On the south Bondi cliffs or from the shore? This morning I ticked all the boxes. Needless to say, I get excited when the […]

It’s one helluva day outside; I am not sure if it looks so good because we’ve persisted with endless days of La Nina drizzle and grey skies – but it’s a day to be outside! Do it. Icebergs have a reef in the pool! Well kinda. Snapchat is trying to raise the awareness of The Great Barrier […]

It’s the first day of summer, and I was glad to see a glimpse of the sun this morning. But, as you all know, it’s been a very wet, overcast spring as we head into a La Nina Summer – boooooooo! It’s surfable, contestable, small, weak and limping on a south bank. It’s suited to […]

Well, guess what? Another grey start to the day…looming dark clouds making the light very flat and bland. Good to see some clean waves around head high breaking at Bondi. Loads of crew up early and on it – we haven’t had many surfing opportunities recently, and this looks to be the best day of […]

Today is a big day both in the surf and online. There’s plenty of energy in both. With the odd monster set, Bronte to Bondi had some very chunky-chunks, easily double head high+. Not many takers as the work-to-reward equation were off – so much paddling, so little surfing! I feel it’s gonna drop off […]

We’ve got relentless rain for most of the Eastern seaboard of Australia. You couldn’t ask for a better day to host a BLACK FRIDAY onshore shopping bonanza. Everybody is busy emptying their carts, chasing the discounts as we all hide indoors. As I write, 25 knots of southerly is ripping Bondi waves apart. It’s chest […]

These rainy one foot days seem to be all the rage lately. I’m ready for our next phase though – how about 3 feet and sunny. Is that too much to ask for?  I’m glad our dams are filling, our farmer’s drought quenched, and the gallery garden is looking Amazonian. It’s official, this summer will be […]

There are only a few dribbles around this morning, leftovers from yesterday. The surf is very weak and small – even my kids had trouble finding waves worth slaying. It’s overcast, grey, humid, windless and not incredibly photogenic. The good news is, there’s a big south swell heading our way this weekend. Boardriders will be […]

I was so happy to see sunshine this morning, even though it was only a brief gap in the clouds. I can do onshore, but onshore AND dark is hard to polish up. The nemesis 10 knot ESE winds affect all Sydney’s beaches. The beaches are junkie. You cannot hide from this wind – it’s […]

It’s been onshore for a few days now, and the ocean looks like a junkyard. Eighteen knots of SSE is making things unsurfable, unenjoyable and keeping me highly productive at work, inside. There was a short twinkle of colour at sunrise, it was brief, so many of you would have missed it. The beach was […]

It was a tough morning to shine up the overcast mundane conditions into a series of riveting images. Sluggish one footers broke on a couple of peaks, best suited to 20-kilo groms. The skies are dark, and we’ve had patchy rain already as the mercury creeps to a balmy 25 degrees. Winds are north and […]

The good times continue as we have a combination of small waves, sunshine and clean morning conditions. It doesn’t have a lot of push, sets are infrequent, but it was a refreshing start to the day. At 5:30 am, there was an excellent spray of pinks from the horizon. You gotta get up early to […]

Finally, some half-decent surf (for Bondi) this morning. It was a welcome sight to see waves breaking around head high at sunrise before the tide came in and fattened up anything moving. Some of the shoreys improved as the tide went high – short rides, though. There was 5 knots of southerly early, so it […]

Firstly, how good was yesterday? It is a freak combo of stunning water clarity, watercolour, perfect sunshine, and flat like a lake, making it look like an idyllic postcard from the south pacific. As I took a few shots, people walked by, frothing about how spectacular it looked – the colours popped. Today we finally have […]

It’s flat az. It’s a lake. It’s so flat you could mistakenly think that you just woke up in The Med. It’s rare to see our ocean this flat and energyless. Surfing – ha!Swimming – ah-huh! It was a glorious spring morning with a chill in the air. The west winds always bite deep. Those […]

12.11.21 – PalindromeIn between rainstorms, I managed to rattle off a few frames. They’re not pretty, and you probably won’t frame them, but at least you get a little window to the beach. The surf is relatively clean as SSW winds blow. Waves are around the waist to a small persons chest high. There are around […]

We have another day of tiny conditions and dark grey skies. Oh, sorry, today we have something new, 25 knots of ‘smotherly’ making mince of anything worth riding. I stood on the shoreline at the right and barely snapped a shot – it looked awful, unrideable, diabolical. It’s been a pretty horrible run of conditions […]

Finally, a break in the weather, the rain held off and the constant onshore winds subsided – for a bit. I even saw the sun today; bingo! It was short-lived as 9:30 am we got wet again. We’re stuck in this volatile weather for a bit more, probably until following Monday. There was a slight bump worth riding […]

After a very dark start today, we’re evolving into a nice, sunny day with tiny waves and southerly winds. It remains quiet in the neighbourhood, as many opted for a snooze in. Possibly a sunset swim will prove fruitful as the weather improves. Wanna surf? Maybe (emphasis) perhaps a wave on Friday – but this time of […]

My photographic inspiration was very low this morning as grey skies drizzled rain on half footers. It’s a dreary Bondi day out there, barely anyone in the water and on the beach. It was too small for my 20-kilo groms – that’s saying something. I shot 4 or 5 pics and then returned to the […]

It’s not pretty out there with dark grey skies, intermittent showers, and cooler temps. The promised batch of ESE swell hasn’t arrived just yet…and it’s still pretty tiny in the surf. Hopefully soon, real soon (said whilst tapping my desk). Winds are NNE 8 knots, so that’s clean at Bondi. Tomorrow looks like a decent […]

The cloud cover has arrived and the swell subsided. It was a comfortable warm morning with glassy surface conditions. A mild day ahead with the small possibility of rain (0-3mm). Tomorrow is likely to be a wet one, so lap up today. There is talk of a new ESE swell tomorrow afternoon, growing into Saturday […]

There’s small leftover surf breaking this morning on a pulsing tide. I think there will be nothing left on the lower tides. I saw the odd chest high set – infrequent. The groms were out in force, big time. In a few years, there are going to be a lot of good surfers around Bondi […]

It’s a cracker of a day in Sydney. Go outside—glorious spring sunny skies with gentle breezes. The leftover SE swell is limping into Bondi, occasionally breaking around the shoulders, more often around your waistline. It’s very infrequent and best suited to the groms. No shortage of frothing groms around Bondi these days! Just like the skatepark. […]

I was a little late to the party this morning as the skies blew up hues of pinks.  5:45 am I was pedalling ferociously towards the beach; I could see a thin cloud off Benny Buckler putting on a colour show…bugger! I’m still slapping myself as I write this riveting editorial. The first light is […]

Bondi sure is a busy place, especially in the mornings. The prom is choccas, every day. I get it, no better place to see the sun come up, grab a java, have a chill before diving into your day. It’s what I’ve done for 22 years! Today started with bland light under a thick cloud. […]

If you tried and couldn’t make it out there this morning, that’s ok, it’s big and rather straighty-180. I saw a lotta surfers leaving the beach with dry hair, foamie between their legs – when in doubt, don’t go out! Huge amount of water moving on the sets. The swell has grown overnight into the […]

Today is a big day in Sydney, SCHOOL IS BACK. After drop punting the ferals over the school gate, I’ve painted my face blue and white, screaming FREEEEDOM! FREEEEDOM on the streets of Bondi. Parents are high-fiving, parents are in the surf, parents are drinking champers in the bars – we’ve got our lives back! […]