August 2018

Posted on June 5, 2018 by geoffcrow

Redhead beach flat as 07/08/2018

Redhead Beach flat as 07-08-18

Redhead Bluff cliff faces 29/7/2018

Redhead Cliff Faces 29-07-18

Patterns in the Sand Redhead beach 29/7/2018

Patterns in the sand Redhead 29-07-18

Purple sky Redhead Beach 18/6/2018. Some more bad weather not far away.

Purple Sky Redhead Beach 18-06-18

Some pictures from old surf magazines showing how good a surfer Col Smith was. Thanks to the surfing photographers and the magazines.

Col Smith big Sunset Beach 1976

Col Smith Lip Bash Surfabout 1978

Col Smith Aussie champ comp 1977

The Col Smith Memorial contest was resurrected this year at Redhead Beach thanks to all the organiser’s for their hard work.

Surfboards as prizes for the winners in the Col Smith Winter Classic 8/6/18. Surfboard makers donated some awesome new boards.

Prizes Col Smith Contest 09-06-18

The crowd at Redhead Beach watching the surfing at the Col Smith contest 9/6/18. A good crowd considering the cold and damp conditions.

Crowd Col Smith Contest 09-06-18

A reasonable surf for the Redhead Beach Col Smith contest 9/6/18 considering the weeks of recent bad weather

Surf Col Smith Contest 09-06-18

The surf turn testy on Sunday – cold wet bumpy and a fast building swell. Competition surfers making it look much better than it was

Comp surfers Col Smith Comp 10-06-18

Rique Smith, Col’s son between heats at the Col Smith contest 10/6/18 Cold and wet but with the same smile as his dad’s see photo below.

Rique Smith 10-06-18

Redhead’s Col Smith at a party 1978, don’t think that was coffee he was drinking.

Col Smith Redhead party 1978

Cold Chisel’s Don Walker with cheap wine but as yet no three day growth Mawson Hotel 1978

Don Walker Mawson Hotel 1977

Cold Chisel’s Jimmy Barnes Cardiff Workers Club 1978

Jimmy Barnes Cardiff Workers 1978

April/May 2018

Posted on April 28, 2018 by geoffcrow

Billy Reid came down with some of his old slides and we scanned in a couple of classic surfing photos:

Steve Butterworth and Col Smith surfing in a comp at Old Bar around 1978 Note Steve has switched feet on this one with his leg rope on his front foot.

Steve Butterworth Old Bar comp 1978

Steve Butterwoth Old Bar Comp 1 1978

Col Smith same comp Old Bar 1978

Col Smith Old Bar Comp 1978

Martin Littlewood had just shaped this classic 12 channel beast around 1978. See http://www.deltadesigns.com.au for info on Marty’s boards.

Martin Littlewood 12 channel 1978

Martin Littlewood on the inside Redhead classic Redhead 1978

Redhead surfers 1978

Thanks for the photos Bill

I also scanned in some old slides I took of Redhead’s best surfer Col Smith.

Col Smith at Redhead 1978 The surf was solid and grey

Col Smith surfing 1978 at Redhead

Col Smith 1976 the night before going to Hawaii with Jim Pollard Fluid Foils Channel Boards

Col Smith Fluid Foils for Hawaii

Col Smith sponsored by Tracker who gave him the airline ticket to Hawaii

Col Smith in Tracker Jacket 1976

Col Smith and family 1983 Christmas Day visit.

Col Smith and Family 1983

Lake View Swansea 21/5/2018 View through the trees and blue water to pelicans on the sand bar.

Lake View Swansea 21-05-18

A surfer as far back as possible in a solid swell Redhead Beach 10/5/2018 I don’t know if he made it.

Surfer Redhead Beach 10-05-18

A shell in a shell washed up on Redhead Beach like a bouquet of flowers.

A shell in shell Redhead 16-03-18

Rainbow over Redhead Beach 28/4/2018

Rainbow Redhead Beach 28-04-18

January/February/March 2018

Posted on January 2, 2018 by geoffcrow

Redhead Beach sunrise clouds ships and chop 10/3/2018

Redhead Sunrise Ships and Chop 10-03-18

Redhead Beach sunrise 19/2/2018

Redhead Beach sunrise 19-02-18

30/1/2018 Peter Keelan sent me some great surfing photos taken at Leggy Point

Peter Keelan Leggy 2010

Peter Keelan Leggy Point

Peter Keelan Leggy Point 2017

Pete’s collection of fine channel bottom surfboards, all of these are made by master board maker Sam Egan

Peter Keelan with his Channel Bottom Boards

23/1/2018 Redhead First Creek has stopped flowing, never seen that before, sure need some rain.

Redhead first creek dried up 23-01-18

1920’s Arial photo of Blacksmiths Breakwater and looking past Swansea Heads from hunterlivinghistories site. A lot has changed since then, just out to sea past Caves Beach you can see the reef break we surfed that became the breakwater know known as Spoon Rocks.

Blacksmiths Breakwater 1920s

1989 BHP Newcastle Surfing Comp signed poster, some fine names on there.

1989 Newcastle BHP Comp poster

October\November 2017

Posted on September 30, 2017 by geoffcrow

Sea Slug Swansea 21/11/2017 Like a garden slug with wings only bigger

Sea Slug Swansea 21-11-17

Walking the dog on Redhead beach 12/11/2017

Shadows walking on the beach 12-11-17

Jimmy Lewis SUP Paddle goes as good as it looks.

Jimmy Lewis SUP Paddle 21-10-17

Redhead Beach early morning soft colours 15/7/2017

Redhead Beach in colours 15-07-17

Redhead Beach clouds 14/10/2017. Stuff happening in the sky.

Redhead beach clouds 14-10-17

Redhead Beach pollution 1/10/2017. The worst case I have ever seen, this “algie bloom” has been pushing up on Redhead Beach for 5 days. No idea where its coming from. Surfing in it not recommended.

Polluted Redhead Beach 01-10-17

September 2017

Posted on September 14, 2017 by geoffcrow

29/09/2017 Regarding the photo of the Blob – we went for a paddle at Swansea again and found the water turned purple near shore.

Sea Hare squirt Swansea 29-09-17

On a closer look something under the sand was squirting out a purple ink

Sea Hare squirt Swansea 2 29-09-17

I put my paddle under it and found this beast known as a Sea Hare

Sea Hare Swansea 29-09-17

The Blob 27/9/2017. On a sand island in Swansea Chanel we found this moving blob of gristle, no idea what it is and never seen one before.

Lake Monster Swansea 27-09-17

Swansea 27/9/2017. The Skydive plane drops parachutists and the bird population from the small sand island scatter.

Plane & Birds Swansea 27-09-17

Razor Clam shell Swansea channel 27/9/2017

Razor Clam Swansea 27-09-17

Sam on his kayak spinning for flathead Black Neds Bay 3/9/17

Sam fishing from Kayak 03-09-17

Some decent boats on the way out of Swansea Channel 11/9/2017.

Boats in Swansea Channel 11-09-17

July/August 2017

Posted on July 1, 2017 by geoffcrow

Huge surf Redhead 20/8/2017 About as big as is gets here.

Big seas Redhead 20-08-17

A huge wave pushes over the beach and up the dry Redhead Beach Second Creek bed then comes back down 20/8/2017. A day to be careful walking on the beach.

Big wave up 2nd creek 20-08-17

Big surf again. Redhead Beach 19/8/2017

Big Wave Redhead 19-08-17

Rock shelf Redhead Bluff

Redhead Bluff rock pool 20-10-14

Big, cold wild waves Redhead Beach 1st July 2017

Big waves Redhead Beach 01-07-17

May/June 2017

Posted on May 11, 2017 by geoffcrow

A wet start to the June long weekend 10/6/2017 The clouds seemed alive.

Redhead Beach Clouds 10-06-17

Fisherman in sea mist Redhead Beach 27/5/2017. The land temperature was about 5 and the water was 18 degrees so when the water hit the beach it created a bigamist.

Redhead fisherman in sea mist 27-05-17

Redhead Beach pearl like sun 31-05-17

Redhead Beach pearl like sun rising 31-05-17

Redhead Beach sand sculpture 03/06/17 Mother Natures own Picasso on the beach

Redhead Beach sand sculpture 03-06-17

Redhead Bluff 24/5/2017 pink early morning glow after a thunderstorm.

Redhead Bluff Stormy Morning 24-05-17

Last nights Chardonnay on the beach. Early morning Redhead Beach 7/5/207 The tide had come in and gone back out and the glass of chardy remained upright and half empty.

Wine glass in the sand 07-05-17

Redhead Beach sun rise 23/04/2017. The sun shining through and over a low cloud bank and the only set of waves to come through.

Redhead Beach sunrise 23-04-017

March/April 2017

Posted on March 8, 2017 by geoffcrow

Mark Richards and me with my photos at Surf Art exhibition for Surfest around 2008

Mark Richards & Crow at Surf Art exhibition

From DPI Fisheries – Regarding Drones detect sharks at Redhead Dec/Jan 2016-2017

Thanks for the comments on your shark encounter. We at Hover UAV were the drone operators conducting the shark surveillance. We spoke about your need for a siren on the drone for immediate alerting to water users at the time of your encounter. Since we have developed such a siren that will immediately alert water users of a hazardous shark.
You may also be interested in this video that shows your second encounter with a Bull shark shortly after the first.

Drones detect sharks at Redhead UTUBE:
https://youtu.be/LWahkcrRKfA

The drone trial alerted me and others in the surf when sharks were about. I hope drone use is implemented into beach patrols as often and in as many places as possible – Crow

Storm coming 22-03-17. I looked out the front door and noticed Mother Nature wasn’t happy.

Storm Clouds Redhead 22-03-17

Red Sky in the morning – Shepherd’s warning – followed up by 10 days of bad weather. Redhead beach 13-03-17

Red Sky Morning Redhead beach 13-03-17

Redhead Beach unknown surfer 4/6/2011. I took this one 6 years ago but I cropped the original photo to show up the surfer better, in an awesome pit.

Redhead surfer 4-6-11

Redhead Beach 7th March 2017. A wild storm overnight heaved up the “pog” lying on the bottom of the ocean and whipped up a wild batch of horrible brown foam and dumped it on the beach. As Frank sang it … don’t you eat the yellow snow cause that’s were the husky’s go.

Redhead Beach pog 07-03-17

Hopefuly the last of the too hot weather days this season. The sun coming up hot Redhead Beach 16th February 2017.

Hot day ahead Redhead Beach 16-02-17

December 2016/January/February 2017

Posted on December 20, 2016 by geoffcrow

The first Stand Up Paddler?

The following article appeared in Surfer Magazine in January 1988, words and photo by Robert Beck. The photo shows Bob Ah Choy at Waikiki standing up using a paddle taking photos of tourists surfing. The article states Bob has been doing it for 2 years and took over from his brother Leonard who did it for 10 years, probably making the him the first SUP rider starting around 1976.

The first stand-up paddler

Redhead Beach sunrise cloud burst 7/1/2017

Redhead beach clouds at sunrise 07-01-17

Sam on SUP Black Neds Bay Swansea 4/1/2017 swapped his rod for a paddle for a change.

Sam on SUP Black Neds Bay

Redhead Beach Shark spotting Drone Trial.

The shark sighting arial drone trial at Redhead Beach has proved helpfull today and hopefully will save lives. I was out in the surf at 08:30 Tuesday 20/12/2016 when I saw a 3 metre shark just a few metres away, just behind the break about a 100 metres out from the Shark Tower. Lucky I was up on my SUP and could see the dark shape lurking below nearby and I dont think I would have seen it sitting on a surfboard. I started to paddle in and alerted the only other nearby surfer and we paddled in together. The government funded drone trial had just started for the day and one of the operators was running down to the waters edge to alert us. They also had just sighted the shark. The Drone operators then put an alert on their shark phone app and when the Life guards arrived soon after to start work they were already aware and immediatley launched the jet ski to search for the shark. Hopefully the drone can operate longer hours and alert people in the water with a siren if the Lifesavers are not present.

Photo taken from Drone as in Newcastle Herald 22/12/16