That south swell is edging in a little more this morning, it was very shy over the weekend and never really made a big appearance on the Coffs coast. Some south-swell magnets had some fun waves on the right tides, but it was far from solid. This morning seems a little better, the open beaches were turning on some hollow little kegs in the morning offshore breeze… and that breeze was chilly!! it was 3.5 degrees at 6.30..way, way warmer in the water, such a relief in fact when you dive in. Hope your Monday is treating you well so far. seeya!

oh have you entered the free board comp yet?? click here to get your ticket (its freee!!)

3 degree air temp… 21 degree water…bit of golden sunlight and a hollow shorebreak… yep its May

offshore plumes

scruffy mutt

nice light first thing this morning

crazy sunrise colours… dude getting pitched in the lip

Jono Chan sneaking through a sick little backdoor

Us surfers must be “social beings” today was a great example. I was on a beach that stretches at least 1km long yet all 20 people that were surfing were right on top of each other. Yes there was an okay peak happening there, but I can tell you there were far better waves breaking 100-400 metres down the beach with no one interested in them. The more amusing thing is, there would have been people out there grumbling about the crowds. If you don’t like crowds, don’t complain just walk 100 metres down the beach… I see it every day, there are so many miles of sandbanks that never get surfed and they will only start getting surfed when a carpark is built in front of them.. maybe we are social or maybe just lazy… but we are so much luckier that what most give credit for in this fine country.

have yourself an amazing weekend!!

A nice little pulse of East swell was around for the early birds today

Empty barrels – and no interest from any punters this morning

This lill chick seems ultra keen…down there at dawn most days

Wilcannia kids can surf!!

22 kids from Wilcannia made a 18 hour bus trip to surf Woolgoolga beach for 2 days with the Solitary Island surf school. 95% of these kids had never seen the ocean before and when they hopped off the bus yesterday morning they were that excited!! some run straight into the waves fully clothed!! Quiksilver and Vegemite had organised Tom Carroll to come and meet these classic groms and push them into their very first waves. These kids were dead-set naturals, stomping waves right to the beach from the get go. It was amazing to watch. There will be a film clip coming out of this soon that was filmed by legend filmmaker: Bali Strickland. I will be sure to post it on the website when it hits.

Jamie and Mason saying G’day from Wilcannia town.. they are cool and now they can surf too!!

Darryn showing the kids of Wilcannia some of our beautiful coastline

I swapped dawn for dusk again yesterday to bring you todays shots. Normally its the morning shift, but a change to the evenings gives a different sort of light and normally a different crew of surfers, although the only two surfers out last night at this popular beach were Brett Caller and Matt Sibbabld.. two fellas that do the morning shift everyday as well. The guys were having a ball out there, not because the waves were pumping, but because they were riding single fin longboards.. just goofing around and surfing when most didn’t bother.. Matt’s quote – “I just can’t help but smile every time I kick out of a wave riding this thing”

Matty Sibbald swapping his “air act” for some stylish noseridering late yesterday evening

a boat

The photogenic Brett Caller

Brett taming a very old..very heavy old mal

Matt Sibbald looking for that backdoor 

Yesterdays overcast skies held tight right up until the last half hour of light. I put off picking up the camera for the whole day, but when that dusk light started to shimmer across the ocean I quickly loaded up my water housing and got my shots for todays post. Waves were only tiny, but it was enough for the arvo crew to wash off after a day of work/school. Weather is looking bang on for the next 4 days at least… stacks of sunshine and offshore winds…beach days ahead! might be some better swell arriving Sunday. (Todays main pic: Shaun Cansdell slicing the dusk glass off)

Nick Coulson golden light entry

Nice time to be in the ocean

Shaun Cansdell – tail release

“Synchronised Surfing”…. it’s the new rage

The two pics above are of Craig Freeman… A tops dude who cruises around in a van full of boards and guitars. He plays his music mostly up and down the east coast and has a EP called “any other day” I got a copy off him last night and gave it a spin on my drive back home… really cool stuff from a Coffs Coast local. Check out his website www.craigfreemanmusic.com . He is actually playing tomorrow night (Thursday 16th May) at the Hoey Moey from around 6.30pm

Jack Veale late last night – couple more shots from last night HERE

Its a John John Florence clip… and its good..

BEGIN AGAIN from John John Florence on Vimeo.

Mondays “colour dollars” were all spent in the first 10 minutes at dawn today and no expense was spared. One of the best sunrises of the year so far I reckon. Judging by the way the sunrise pics lit up my Instagram feed from way down past Sydney to the north coast I’m thinking the whole east coast got the same treatment. Nice way to start the working week indeed. After that amazing start everything went to a dull shade of grey. There were a few glassy waves around, just no one really surfing at the beaches I went to, so with the sunrise shots in the bag and no chance of getting any surf action shots to match the vibrancy I already had, I just went surfing all by myself….Jeez I’m so in love with this part of world! (main pic is a self portrait backed by some awesome morning glory)

My favourite beach at around ten past six this morning

little glassy waves with no one around

worth setting the alarm clock for

Coffs Coast magic

new surf health post from little Em

This week Emma Caller from Essential Health talks about the benefits of Spirulina. I drink two teaspoons of this gear with water every day and keeps me going like a big train and gets me up for morning sunrises like the one above no worries at all… get the good oil here

Not totally inspiring for surf/beach photography this morning, so we have done a little trolling through the archives from the months of March and April to bring you these inspiring moments instead. 10 picutres that try to sum up the surf, light and mood of the first 2 months of Autumn.

Thanks so much to all of you that follow this website, We are stoked you are on board with it…. and to try and reward you, we have set up another “surfboard giveaway” All of our email subscribers have one entry into the draw automactically (and many thanks to the influx of new subscribers we have had over the last few days) If you want another entry you can share our facebook link here… goodluck!!

Also another 10 of you beautiful subscribers would have got an email last night notifying you of Vertra suncream win!! we will probably have enough to do one more draw next week!

Coffs Creek 19th April

morning glory on the 23rd April

Reef nugget 15th march

April dawns are on the money

Solid east swell that came half way through march

Brett Caller – style to burn – small day early April

Autumn hollowness – best time of year!

Still some swell pulsing in out of the south-east this morning.. a little more than what has been predicted by the weather gurus. How’s the pulse last night.. did you get any of that? This morning has got the wobbles, hopefully just a bit of morning sickness and best waves are still to come. Find a semi protected southern corner and you should have a fair amount joy. The town beach I was at today wasn’t really doing, no one coming in with rave reviews, so after capturing a slice of that nice morning light I moved on.. should be a few waves around for the rest of the week.. have a great day! (Madison Williams layback larry in todays main shot)

Dark “rim lighting” on a wobbly south swell

Jesse Kelly

This was shot yesterday morning… some really nice storm clouds around

Straight up

swell

another one from yesterday

more pics from this morning here

I don’t normally shoot a whole lot of surfing over the weekends, but Saturday morning was just begging to be recorded. A crisp offshore breeze at first light was grooming a fun-sized south-east swell, the water was insanely gorgeous looking, the sun was blaring and Johnny Craig was getting barrelled off his head. So in I came swapped the board for housing and got Monday mornings post done two days early.

We still have a few tubes of Vertra suncream to giveaway..the 12 people that ordered prints & canvases off the website last week are all getting one..so if you fancy one of our pictures get in quick to get this little bonus! (worth $30 to ya)

This little grom got some screamers!

tube views

Luke “Mellow” Anderson 

happy booger

Johnny on the foamballs

The wall ahead… you just wanna ride that thing don’t you??

what a morning!!… more like that thanks Huey!

see some more weekend tunnels HERE

I could see that southerly change and cloud starting to move in on the weather maps last night, so I did a quick bolt down the beach with my water housing last night to catch the last half hour of sunlight…and I’m glad I did, it looked super pretty out there on dusk, much better than the thin overcast and choppy surface conditions we are faced with today. The first day of May was certainly a good one for the beach. For the next 4 or 5 days the surfers attention will be turned back to the southern corners, this wind change should increase the swell throughout the day and we should see some okay waves for the weekend with lighter winds. (Nick Coulson today’s homepage honk)

Wanna chance to win a brand new custom ESP surfboard?? hell yeah!! well go on facebook here and share this link or email subscribe to our website here

Harley’s “Slob grab” air late yesterday arv

Cooper’s hairstyle looking good even when he’s dripping wet

The golden hour – got shot of Ned Snow at sunrise yesterday and then this one at sunset

Kyle James totally in the moment

Last light of the first day of May – Speed blur of Sammy Arvidson 

See more shots from last night and yesterday morning at THIS GALLERY

We did what I like to call a bit of groundwork this morning…some might call it wasting time, but I know these driving missions up and down beaches searching for good sandbanks eventually pays off. We started out on the road at 5.30am and didn’t wet a board until 10.30!! many beaches were checked, noted and stored in the memory banks for when the conditions do favour. So while most of our mates were scoring fun waves all morning we were doing the homework, so next time hopefully we will be on it from the get go. Luckily when we did get out there the winds were still good the sun was still blazing and there were some great little waves to be had.

Stoked to announce we have just started a little partnership with ESP surfboards. And its good news for you!! one of our facebook followers or email subscribers will win a custom made surfboard from Ed Sinnott at ESP. join our emailing list here or go to the facebook entry here. More on ESP coming over the next few weeks and months. (winner announced 1st August)

Ned Snow and his girl Wendy sharing a sunrise moment early today – these guys are out here for the month of May from Hawaii.. you might see a few shots of him over the coming weeks.. the lad rips!

beach check number 8 for the morning

John Schmidenberg is a team rider for ESP surfboards..and doesn’t he ride em well??.. a brand new one of these could be yours!

drove along miles of sand this morning.. on the road for hours

Nice sized east swell with us today.. I bet most surfers are happy!

Oyster catcher dodging a set wave

Rod Deighton pocket jams

nothing much down the end of this sandy track

the search continues.. Plenty more of todays action photos HERE