Weekly Wash: Cyclone Winston hits South Coast surf

Welcome cyclone Winston. While most sane people are heading for the hills when they hear of a cyclone heading south, surfers start randomly laughing to themselves and a creepy, distorted grin appears as they prep their surfboards and head to the source of the mayhem - the ocean. As the cyclone made his way down the coast, the seas came to life bringing a north-east swell.

Sunday morning and waves showed up that looked like the ones you drew over your school books. A strong, six-foot plus was being caressed early by offshore winds giving us a hint of Indonesian conditions. A location where many surfers headed to was Point North East and Wade Henry was one of those whom heard it’s seductive whisper as the light winds puffed up. It was a great call by Wadeo as he found some long left handers funneling off down the beach like a loose thread on a rose bush (that's a lame one) and it really didn't take long for him to dive into his wetsuit and paddle out.

Saturday the waves took a bit of time to get their way down the coast but when they did it was memorable. The surf kept building until it climaxed all over the reef where Nathan Marks so happened to be sitting outside Flints point. A thick evil wedge of beast came hurdling towards Marksy as he casually swung his surfboard around to a deep gulp. He swallowed his fear and stroked into one of the ugliest tube rides seen for many moons. Luckily, or I should say skillfully, Marks came flying out of the gaping hole looking like he had seen a ghost to continue off down the line into the safety of the channel.

Ulladulla Boardriders are holding their second event of the year this weekend, meeting at Rennies beach at 7.30am. Due to the massive intake of members, the draw was re-written four times last month to accommodate late surfers. Please be registered by 8am as there will be no late entries taken when the draw is complete. We are taking new members and you can pop up to Akwa Surf and fill out an entry form. We also have entry forms for the Nocturnal Surf Tag at Akwa which is beyond doubt the funniest surf event of the year and open to all surfers.

The 2016 Newcastle Surfest champion has been crowned in front of record crowds with World Surf League Championship Tour competitors Matt Wilkinson taking out the Maitland and Port Stephens Toyota Pro. The final day was held in some of the best conditions of the event with light winds and clean four-to-six foot waves at Merewether Beach. Number one seed Wilkinson came up against Italian sensation Leonardo Fioravanti in the final.

Both surfers stood out, but it was Wilkinson who had been building serious momentum through the finals, who posted a huge score in the quarters and semis. The final was no different with Wilkinson demolishing the right-hand walls with massive vertical backhand re-entries to post two excellent range scores, an 8.83 and a 9 to take victory.

Stay classy Milton Ulladulla and if anyone would like to add anything, call into AKWA surf, call on 44545222 or email kurt@akwasurf.com.au till next week, stay wet.