peteg's blog - noise - beach

/noise/beach/2008-2009 | Link
After-work paddle with Jon at a very flat Coogee. Not as many people in the water as I would have expected for a fine final evening of the year.

/noise/beach/2008-2009 | Link

Late-afternoon dip with Jon at a very flat Coogee. According to last night's TV news, the water is 19 degrees, but it still feels cold. Quite warm out though.

/noise/beach/2008-2009 | Link
After-work duck-and-paddle at Coogee. The water was still a little cool, though it was pleasant enough out. The waves were reasonably large and strong (for Coogee) but not perilous.

/noise/beach/2008-2009 | Link
Early-afternoon swim and bake at Coogee with Daz, who's been in Australia for about a week now. Not as many people there as I would have expected a week before Christmas. A little surf, slightly cold, on-shore wind and some warnings of blue bottles.

/noise/beach/2008-2009 | Link
After-work bathe at Coogee. The water was a bit warmer, the wind on-shore, the sun out. Very pleasant, average Coogee surf.

/noise/beach/2008-2009 | Link
Another early-evening five minute dip, this time in a filthy Gordons Bay. I had hoped it wouldn't be so bad as it hadn't rained for a while.

/noise/beach/2008-2009 | Link
Very quick late-afternoon dip at a freezing Coogee beach. The off-shore wind was pretty stiff, but the resulting dumpers didn't stop a couple of the very few blokes in trying to body surf. I lasted five minutes. No idea why it was so much colder than last time.

/noise/beach/2008-2009 | Link
Mid-afternoon paddle at a flat and largely empty Coogee. It was supposed to be a rainy day but turned out much like the others of the past week — cloudy but dry. Apparently Penrith and Gosford got some rain.

/noise/beach/2008-2009 | Link
Late-afternoon swim at Gordons Bay with Jon. By then the heat had gone out of the day and the clouds were mounting. Quite a bit of swell and wind.

/noise/beach/2008-2009 | Link
Decided to brave Coogee, where the surf was averagely flat and the water warmer. Very pleasant way to end the day, when the expected rain did not eventuate.

/noise/beach/2008-2009 | Link
Keeping the roll on, went for a swim at Gordons Bay, then grabbed some dinner and watched the new Wallace and Gromit short with Pete R., Jack and Luca.

/noise/beach/2008-2009 | Link
Another after-work paddle at Gordons Bay, in a wife beater.

/noise/beach/2008-2009 | Link
Being the first day of summer, I had to brave the passingly-temperate water of Gordons Bay. The forecast was for blue skies but some ominous storm clouds blew past during my quick after-work paddle.

/noise/beach/2008-2009 | Link

An after-work dip at Gordons Bay. Quite pleasant watching the clouds mount from the west while paddling lazily around. I somewhat regretted not wearing a wife-beater.

/noise/beach/2008-2009 | Link

First non-wetsuit swim of the season, at Coogee. A moderate on-shore wind made for some fairly-hefty-by-Coogee standards waves, which proved my judgement to be quite rusty. The water was very pleasant once in, with a wife-beater, and the evening quite tranquil. Hopefully this sets the mold of after-work beach going.

/noise/beach/2008-2009 | Link
Midday snorkel at Little Bay. The water was OK, with some cold patches and some of the largest (half-metre) surf I've seen there. I wouldn't have lasted five minutes without the spring suit. Visibility was poor and the fish were hiding from the relatively rough conditions. My timing was a bit off, it got hotter as the day progressed.

/noise/beach/2008-2009 | Link

Mid-afternoon swim at Little Bay. They're getting serious about building houses in the makeshift carpark, adjacent to the golf course. Pretty soon the beach will be locals-only, due to limited parking. Saw a gazillion fish, including one with a cat-like face and a rippling skirt-like thing for getting around and the old small swordfish-like things. Loads of groper and mobile-seaweed-fish. Some days I wish I had a camera and some clue as to their names.

The water was warm enough in the bay (in a spring suit) but cold-ish past the rocks. The wind would've been painful without the suit, but didn't seem to hamper the best underwater visibility I've had this season.

/noise/beach/2008-2009 | Link
Early-afternoon snorkel at Gordon's Bay. Saw some tiny groper, some middle-sized and small fish I can't name. A middling-sized one had horizontal fore-fins and was patterned almost identically to the seaweed. Purportedly 18 degrees in, quite comfortable in the spring suit. Warm to hot out, I'd say 27 degrees or more before the storm rolled in.

/noise/beach/2008-2009 | Link
Mid-afternoon snorkel at Long Bay. Low visibility after all the recent rain, a little cold in but quite nice out. Saw some small gropers and other tiny fish I can't name.

/noise/beach/2008-2009 | Link
Mid-afternoon swim at Long Bay after dropping Peodair off at the airport. Very quiet, some wind but little whitewater. Saw heaps of groper. The water was cold, bearable in a wetsuit out of the current coming in from the sea. Hot out, 33 degreees.

/noise/beach/2008-2009 | Link
Midday snorkel at Gordons Bay. I lasted about 20 minutes in the spring suit. Saw some groper and a school of medium-sized silvery vertically-flat fish. The wind was picking up and the storm clouds rolling in...

/noise/beach/2008-2009 | Link
First swim of the season, an early-afternoon snorkel at Little Bay. Loads of people were on the beach enjoying the 33-degree heat. The water was a bit cold, but not too bad once in, at least in a wetsuit and boots. Didn't see much, was content just to be back in salt water.

/noise/beach/2007-2008 | Link
Early afternoon snorkel with Rob at Long Bay. We started at Little Bay but were put off by the relatively large surf and whitewater. Absolutely perfect day for it, cloudless and warm, modulo the idiots on their jetskis.

/noise/beach/2007-2008 | Link
Continuing to make the most of my time in Sydney, I met up with Sarah at Coogee and headed over to Clovelly for a swim in some increasingly rough surf. The water was a perfect temperature and the clouds threatened but passed on by.

/noise/beach/2007-2008 | Link
Brief early-afternoon dip at Gordon's Bay. Incredibly flat, would've been great to go snorkeling off the northern side.

/noise/beach/2007-2008 | Link
Got to make the most of my time in Sydney... back to Coogee. Almost identical to yesterday.

/noise/beach/2007-2008 | Link
Back to dear old flat-as Coogee for the first beach swim of the year. The crowd was fairly thin, the weather warm but pregnant with storm. The water was pleasant, the surf absent. In other words a fairly standard day.