G’day world, like that scorn from the sun on your back is ya warm blast of surf talk known as the weekly wash, proudly brought to you by AKWA Surf keeping you informed with all the surf happenings locally and on the pro tour.
This is the year that keeps on giving, it's almost exhausting. Just as one swell seems to meet its demise another is spawn, and with the incredible water temp hovering around 24 degrees you have to double blink and wonder if we are living on the South Coast or the Indonesian tropics.
It was also nice to see a bit of south in the swell as this pricked up a few more locations so a variety of waves were as overflowing as a toddler getting acquainted to toilet paper.
Saturday morning’s south-east wind whipped up from the low pressure system out at sea gave a bit of fluff on the lips of waves.
Normally guys see this as an onshore and decide to roll over and stay in bed for a few more hours, but not Cory Dawkins. He saw it as an opportunity to channel his inner John John Florence and zoom through the air like a jumbo plane doing acrobatics at a Red Bull show.
Cory stroked into some of the better waves and threw so much power and oomph into his turns a tuff of thick manly hair instantly spurted out of his fringe on his normally barren noggin.
Ulladulla Boardriders kicked off the year in super fun waves at Collers on Sunday. It was fantastic to see all the new and old members roll up with heaps of new and exciting ideas in the pipeline for the club. It should be a great year to join.
One thing that had to be said was the maturity of the younger guys who have stepped up over the three-month break. The depth of the club has jumped up a notch and the regular stand outs still tearing harder with more velocity than a person accidentally running through a spider web.
Kelly Slater solidified his first win in two years at the Volcom Pipe Pro after a full day of standing ovation performances that many are calling the absolute best of the winter season.
Slater surfed against three of the top Pipe mavericks in the world: Jamie O'Brien, Bruce Irons and Makai McNamara in a nerve shattering final that saw barrels fire off like cannons and detonate on the shallow reef.
The 30-minue final got started with two low scoring albeit immense waves from O'Brien and Irons, respectively, then saw McNamara answer back with the second highest wave of the heat, an 8.67. The 20-year-old took an early lead on his opening wave, with Slater taking a quick second on his first ride, a 7.83. Halfway through the final, the 11-time world champ secured the win with a backup score of an 8.73, while the other competitors fought hard for runner-up position.
The Mollymook Surf Club will hold a free course on water life-saving skills on February 10.
The course will start at 5.30pm and run for 2.5 to 3 hours. It includes CPR awareness course and board/rescue techniques. Bring a wetsuit – participants will be asked to participate in mock-up rescues in the surf; surfboard – using your own board is beneficial.
Stay classy Milton Ulladulla and if anyone would like to add anything to this column either call into AKWA surf, buzz us on 44545222 or email me kurt@akwasurf.com.au till next week, stay wet.
