Well not crazy big but 20 to 30 knot northerly forecast. Thinking of a Ricketts to Mornington - about 23k, dead north right across that open part of the bay so the swells will be rockin in that open water. Start telling everyone at work you are feeling a little sick guys and probably won't be in tomorrow. The Surf Race 14 is already twitching

I might be a starter, my back and neck are a little tweaked from a crash at the snow so that could be a good excuse.
Only thing is my back and neck are a little tweaked so might be difficult!

Change of plan - Sandringham to Frankston.

Dave and I will drop the car and trailer off in Frankston early and be ready for a 10am start at Sandringham - Jetty Road. Come on you guys it will be great, about 25k and 25knots!

if a northerly is predicted wouldn't you be better to head in a southerly direction?
this looks very much SW.

Right now (8am) it's blowing 20 knots true North at the top of the bay and at the bottom of the bay.. but Frankston is only 5 knots NorEast.

It's looking like Sandy to Mornington is do'able.. I think I'll use my 17' Glide.

DJ

We made it.. Sandy to Frankston in 3hrs.

DJ

Well done ! Good time too.

The final frontier - Indented Head to Sandy, just over 30km, or just under 20 miles.

To celebrate President Frank Costa's stint at Geelong Footy Club, two luck people got to play off for holidays... The Winner got Frankfurt, and the Runner Up got Frankston !!

BWDave said...

Third place was 2 weeks in Frankston and forth was 3 weeks
Kind of tough sea today. Think I need an anti inflam and a good lay down

Hey Dave,

don't reckon the straight north wind would of helped much today,

good effort though, well done.

I was just looking at the graphs and it looks like you had consistent wind of around 25knots blowing straight North all morning between Sandy and Franga. As you were heading pretty much south south/west, I'm curious as to what you think may have caused the confused swell coming at you at an angle. Would it have been better had you gone more south and headed to Mornington?

Picking a good day for a downwinder seems like a bit of a black art.

I believe it's something like that but my opinion is slightly different.

The longer period waves/chop that are generated over the length of the bay wrap slightly NW towards
frankston as the water gets shallower while the surface chop generated from the localised wind tries to
maintain the N direction.

Hence why the waves on the beach from Aspendale to Frankston break almost straight on the beach while
500m offshore the waves are still going N'ish.

Did you guys do all your paddling on the left side?

Good effort making the distance! Just a walk in the park for you Jonathan!

Minkee said...

Good effort!

where are the pimping pics though?

I only got to take two pics.. but I did manage to get a Naish logo in the second one..

When we headed off and got good runners my 17 was flying.. I waited for the guys to regroup at Rickets and soon after passing Rickets and we got hit with that awful side chop I headed more straight towards what I thought was Frankston in the distance and Jonathan and Dave went more left.. I seemed only minutes had passed and we were separated by about half a kilometer and each runner that I caught took me further the wrong way and away from them.. so I gave up on catching runners and did the long haul across the side chop and into the paddle from hell.. Dave and Jonathan waited together for me to catch up to them but I was pretty buggered by then.. We headed for a building on the horizon that we agreed was Frankston and Dave and I stayed together for about an hour or so and Jonathan was heading much further south and away from us.. Once I was ahead of Dave and the finish in sight I put my head down and paddled hard.. in between the constant balance checks and head high waves that would lift the tail and drive the nose under.. I looked back to see how far Dave was behind me and noticed he'd headed off towards Jonathan and I though maybe I'm the one heading the wrong direction.. It turned out the the building was north Frankston and the car was at the pier at south Frankston.. So now Jonathan was closer to the pier and Dave not far behind and me almost the same distance from Jonathan as what Dave was.. Jonathan landed first and Dave a few minutes after him with me on his tail.. Catching the waves into the shore was a nice way to finish off one hell of a tough paddle... All good fun though.. .. I'm feeling pretty stuffed today..

DJ

I just love the fact that on a pretty gloomy winters day you can get out there and have an adventure with a couple of mates. Sure it was a bit of a paddle and the direction wasn't quite right (sorry that was my fault!!) but we had a blast. There were heaps of penguins out there yesterday, first you would hear their very distinctive call then about a dozen of the little guys in the water fishing like crazy.

And every so often a good clean swell would come along and you could blast off left and make some ground up, sure it was pretty cold and the sea state was crazy at times but there was plenty of hootin and hollerin going on.

You guys that have been holding back on the open water down winder stuff, just get prepared with pfds, plan for the day, waterproof covers for your phones and get out there. Doesn't matter if you don't have the latest greatest down wind board. I kept thinking yesterday of the first big down winder we did over a year ago, because we ended up in Mornington then. Every trip is an experience and as long as you manage the risks, just fantastic.

You might have gathered .....I had a blast yesterday Managed to get onto an absolute whopper wave just in front of the Frankston Pier, who knows what the guys fishing on the pier made of some idiot in a rubber beanie hootin away on a 10 foot face on 14 foot board on a freezing winters day.