Sunday: Green Ball

Check the video of Green Ball on Sunday. Many thanks to our anonymous uploader!

Slater IS the pipe master

Slater the freak has done it again. I found this report on magicseaweed, so I'll let them tell the story...
One of the best Hawaiian seasons in years, culminated in fantastic waves, which pumped throughout the final day. After yesterday's storm the blue barrels were replaced by brooding brown pits and the wrong wave choice was heavily punished.

Kelly Slater surprised everyone by riding a revolutionary, 5' 11" Al Merrick with a wide nose, long rails, and a pulled-in tail, called The Deep Six. This allowed him to get forward on the board and pump the tube for speed using his front foot. He blitzed Backdoor and Pipe with some critical, deep, barrel riding; scoring one amazing 10 point tube in the semis, making sections no-one thought possible.

Here's some amazing KS action from the comp.

Perfect 20!

Joel Parkinson scored TWO perfect 10 rides in a heat at Backdoor. Check the video.
I've also added a link to female surfing champ Layne Beachley's blog under "Oz and NZ" in the sidebar. It's worth a read: you can link from here too.

Pipe Masters

Day 2, solid clean swell, video here.

Beached!

A ship aground on the top coast near the wind farm was an amazing sight as Dave and Dan searched vainly for a rideable wave. Brought back lots of bad memories of the Pasha Bulker...

Pointies was maxed out, Green Ball looked good but had two nasty rocks right in the take off zone at low tide. Pillbox was blown and a couple of die hards were out at Shalun beach. Lots of driving for no result, but Dan headed off to the airport: wonder if he found something?

Pointies fine day

What a glorious day! Dan and Dave arrived to find Tobes and Gary getting out after an early fine session. T & G had their beautiful retro planks, Gary with his new 5 stringer. The wind had already got up and conditions had gone off, so D & D went to check Cliff, Rocket etc. No good, so back to find Pointies deserted. They stayed out for hours, getting a few left handers in the centre that dropped onto a fast bank. Not bad, great to be out on such a clear day.

Taj Mahal and Green Bay rights

Tobes, Gary, Andrew and gang got some good conditions yesterday morning on the east coast at Taj Mahal. Mid afternoon today Dave got a few nice rights peeling off the wall at the far end of Green Bay, at the rivermouth. The wind had got into it, but this place was sheltered (getting cold though isn't it?!)

Way down West

Somewhere down in the south west, waves like this are pumping in to rivermouths, usually around typhoon time. Surfline did a feature on Taiwan, specifically the south and south west recently..check it here.

Oil and water....

A few fun waves at the cliff this afternoon. Pointies (top) was clean and pretty but a bit too small. The cliff had a few full ones out the back but a nice little peak peeling both ways. A couple of oil spots in the water, but apart from that , great to get out on such a beautiful day. Dave finally ding repaired the MR Spitfire too, which was long overdue! (Josh's buck's weekend slide show has been taken down, but can always be accessed, as can other shows, at the pointyhat slide page. Link on the right, or hyperlink here.)

Shark biscuits?

This is the biggest shark ever caught in Taiwan, possibly the world, in Seven Star Lake in Hualien in 1997. There have been a number of recent shark events, including the capture of a 2 tonne, 5 metre champion down at Ilan. (more info here). There also could have been a feeding frenzy down at Kaohsiung on 18 fishermen...check this. Sharks really creep me out, but awareness is a good thing. I always told myself that all the sharks were gone due to the voracious appetite in these parts for their fins....no such luck it seems. Thanks to Danno for all the research here.

Better than a poke in the eye...

Dan saved Dave a trip with a "stay in bed" text, but the boys did get a few wind-swept, reasonably sized waves down at the far end of Pointies on Saturday. Waiting for the set and getting a few before the wind got right into it, Dan, Tobes, Gary, Vics and Mel as well as special guest from Baishawan, Dino, all got a few. The worst part was hauling the boards back to the vehicles through the howling onshore: a bit like a Saharan sand storm I heard!

White Sand Bay Sunset

Tobes went to Bai Sha Wan yesterday, late afternoon, no wind, low tide. Small, clean right hand peelers all to himself. Longboard, beautiful sunset, surfed till dark. Had a great time. Now, that sounds good...
(pic for mood purposes only!)

Return to Jinshan...great!

Dave and Dan headed over to Jinshan this morning and scored a great surf. Usual crowd was thinned out by a number of peaks breaking across the beach. Some real ground swell action, both boys commenting it felt like a "real" surf. Lots of left shoulders, some walling up right into the shore, with the occasional right as well. The point was trying hard to work, but the swell was not quite coming from the right direction. Looks a bit scrappy in the pics, but it was better than this.
pics: Nicky

New Tassie Monster Wave

Check this story. Thanks to Lewy, the official Pointyhat "Tasmanian big wave spotter".

Wild Thing!

Faster than an out of control set at Greenball, more powerful than a harbour wall wave in a typhoon at Wushi: speed, power, thrills...it's Greg's new superbike. More fun than you've ever had out of the water, maybe Greg will sit you on the back of this super accelerating power Trumpy. Dave was lucky enough to take this savage beast for a little spin and despite being very tentative, nearly ripped his arms out of their sockets with a twitch of the accelerator...don't expect to see Greg back in the water for a while, this is just too much fun!!

Beware the river outlets...

Dave surfs in the background of the river of death: He is just surfacing today after 4 days totally incapacitated from a vicious bug picked up surfing in the filth of the Rocket's outfall... and it wasn't even that good!

Ten ten

The cliff had some nice clean swell, but it tended to be a bit full. A move round the corner to the Rocket was great for Dave: the waves a little smaller but breaking on a bank, quite glassy and moving quickly across the inner bank. Lots and lots of fun little lefts all to himself!

Tobes, Gary and the boys were out at Fulong where Dan and family went yesterday as well. Dave was on his way today, but couldn't rouse Tobes on the phone... understandable: he was probably out surfing!

Kids Cut Loose

Tobes is taking some great still and video footage on his in-water wrist camera. Jack and Luke are really showing some great balance and ability these days, while GP continues to style. Only trouble with taking these shots is that we don't get any of Tobes himself!

Slater: 9X

One of, if not the, greatest sportsmen to ever live has taken out an unbelievable 9th world title. It's almost impossible to use enough superlatives to describe this achievement, so I won't try! Check this article instead...

Gary and Tobes really enjoyed some nice clean waist high shooters at Pointies yesterday. They were getting some 25 metre rides after a steep takeoff...sounded like fun!

Rumour has it that one of the Pointyhats has turned to the dark side: high powered motorbikes being ridden all weekend long? Guess who has a new toy?!

Saturday Swell II

Looks like Danno got to surf the legendary Dog Bay just out of Dasi. This wave is the one where Dave and Ross got some heart-in-the-mouth lefts some years ago. Only works about once a year. Dan reports in: "Hitting a small spot just before town we happened to see a guy tuck in to an outstanding wave and hit the water. It was breakin pretty heavy and close to the rocks but being a respite from months without surf I was into it, despite the lack of fitness that left me grasping for breath after the heavy poundings. Each set got bigger and bigger and eventually after a couple of hours it was just not handing the size and the only thing to do was to paddle in. Only a few people paddled out during the session with the rest watchign from the safety of the shoreline. One local dude was absolutely ripping the place up with an impressive desplay of solid surfing. On the way back past Dashi the beach was empty and sizeable waves were washing in."
See video above.

Saturday Swell

It was a very interesting day. Dave headed to Greenball via Pillbox. Dan went to Fulong, then Dasi. Scott was at Pointies, then Little Yeliou. Pillbox, above had a touch of offshore, but was messy and swell in the wrong direction. Greenball was pumping some typhoon generated surging waves, it was very windy and a strong current. Dave met JB at Greenball and Scott reported some smaller stormies coming in at the top coast. Dan was headed to Dasi as Fulong was maxed out.

Dave joined a small crew out at Greenball, but was a total kook, hardly getting a decent wave on his brand new MR Spitfire. It was however, great to feel some surging water power again, but probably not the best choice for a wave after two months off! The camaraderie of the guys out there was great: lots of help to pull boards up over the pods, as the water really surged up to the exit spot. To add insult to injury he managed to crunch two dings through the glass on the bottom of his pristine newie...

Finally.....!

Tobes reports in from yesterday afternoon: "Nice swell yesterday… with occasional shoulder/head high sets. Started off too crowded, but by late afternoon the crowd had thinned out. Really fun day. The local boys said today should be more of the same. Perhaps a little smaller, best in afternoon. Attached are some photos/vids taken with the “gopro” from the beach in very low light so the quality is not so great. That camera needs lots of sunshine to be at its best."

I'll try to post a little video Tobes took as well. It's great to see a few waves breaking at long last!

Sinlaku sighs

Dave left Dan in the lurch at 5am on Saturday, but there wasn't much on. Surf was big and wild as expected, but the boys in blue were everywhere. No more joy this morning as Green Ball had a small, but nice shape...just taking this photo inspired a local roller to stop and wait till I got back in the car. Pillbox was too full and everywhere had the most water flowing over rocks and banks that I've ever seen. Local news reported some foreigners not heeding police calls to get out of the water: unfortunately, it wasn't us!

Stand up wind swell

Tobes and Gary got some standup action at Jinshan proper really early on Sunday morning. It was pretty much just a wind swell, but still a bit of a wave. Pointy of the Month coming soon....

New Header!

We have a new header featuring our guys on our local breaks with lots of different styles portrayed. I think it gives a good idea of our philosophy (having fun), and also shows what we can get if we're patient enough!

Dan Robbo reminded me of the magic seaweed site, and I've moved their Wushi graphic down on the right under the Wavewatch graphic. There is also a link under "Taiwan" on the right. Check it out: they have great reports and links to all sorts of other pics, blogs and sites.

Lazy Hazy Crazy days of summer

The flat spell continues on and on, but the cliff had a friendly crowd today, hooting each other on to little swells with the most gigantic, light boards. They were just perfect for the conditions! It's also like having a warm bath at the moment...

Wake up the gimp

Dan Robbo let loose on a few beauties over the break...see video above.

dare to dream...

A tiny bit of swell for the weekend? Here's a prediction for midday, Saturday.

Bali tales

Lewy shredded some massive Kahunas during his stay in Bali, but the swell had dropped off dramatically by the time anyone thought to grab a camera. His mesmerizing surfing so captivated the locals that he was later to sit round a campfire at the beach as he enthralled one and all with strange tales of far off lands, horses such as Drizzle and Georgia's Boy and their many, amazing achievements.