Streaky Bay - South Australia

, originally uploaded by m_hagen.

There's been plenty of swell the past few days but the winds have been howling all directions and I haven't found the spot with the right combinations of swell, wind and tide. Looking down at a left point with no one out I decided I had to do something. One of the local guys pulled up while I was checking it and he told me the wind might lighten up or turn a little more from the south which would be a good thing for this spot. He said he'd probably see me out there in a little while. I thought that was encouraging so I suited up and ran down some stairs to the rocky beach below.

It wasn't perfect but it was overhead and empty. I asked Hedda to keep an eye on me since this is a notoriously sharky spot and no one else was in the water. I'm not sure what she could've done if I actually was attacked but it felt better all the same. The paddle out was nice and easy through a channel just to the south. I did see a pretty big shadow somewhere in that deep water so I kept pretty close to the reef. I ended up catching a few waves before getting kinda spooked out of the water. The winds came up really hard onshore and I was pretty much just duck-diving most of the sets. For some reason I wasn't real comfortable sitting waaay outside to wait for the bomb sets.

This place is called "The Granites", and I found out why when coming in. The whitewater surges onto these huge granite rocks. When making my way in I ended up in one of the channels between the waves and the rocks where the water was well over my head. The rocks were totally smooth which was a good thing, but it also meant there was nothing to grab onto! I got lucky and without getting hit by a wave, was lifted up in a surge and onto a rock where I ran before the next wave hit.