After days and days of 'beasterly-easterlies' and no surfable swell I decided today that I was going in for a thrash (well you couldn't call it a surf) I knew it was going to be a bit nasty, the swell had finally got in because of a strong S/E wind blowing for the last few days, but the cross-shore wind was N/E. These two factors really mess up the waves and create some challenging conditions. 
There were some big sets coming through and although I might have made it out the back with my small 'fish' which I can duck-dive, I wasn't prepared to try and take off on the set waves anyway. They looked like this (sorry, not my pics) so I stayed further in and tried to get some medium sized waves, diving under the big ones that had already broken by the time they got to me.The wind was howling, the waves were dredging sand and both rips were really mean. I managed to get up on a wave only twice, did lots of duck-diving and paddling to get into position, but gave up after about 45 minutes. It was slightly difficult to get in because of the cross-rip near the shore. As I was patiently paddling across it I saw a young girl on a boogie board and advised her to move across - she was very close to being taken out by the rip that sucks out alongside the rocks. I was struggling to maintain my footing on the shifting sandbar by then and I didn't like her chances.
These weren't life threatening conditions - as usual they could be if you got into trouble. With all the hyper-ventilating and negative ions stirred up by the waves it was an exhilerating experience. But you have to know your limits and I am always astounded by the amount of people who don't and who also allow their youngish children to go into the water on days like this. I got out because I sensed that although I was handling it, it wasn't getting any easier to negotiate the conditions. Sure there are people there to help, but the surf patrol had gone home and things happen so quickly. Robin thought he was going to have to rescue a frail elderly German tourist who was very close to losing his footing in the rip.
I have seen things change very quickly, like the day we were surfing at Nanarup point a few years ago and conditions became really dangerous in about 20 minutes. My instincts made me come in and Robin wasn't far behind me. When I got into shore I couldn't believe the insanity - the sea was out of control. There was the most powerful undertow-rip I have ever seen, sucking back from the shore. If you found yourself there without some flotation, it would certainly have dragged you under and out to sea.
This was in the early days of our surf career and Robin wasn't as fit as he is now. He was still trying to get in and found himself in the calmer water alongside the reef, but stuck in a vortex of water in the rip. He was tired and just wasn't making any headway so he put his hand up for assistance - much to my horror! Because I knew I was going to have to go back in. I strapped my legrope back on, grabbed my board and launched it reluctantly.
At the same time a red-headed man who had been swimming but had also got out dived back in without any flotation. I got to Robin first. The water there was calm but the rip wanted to pull us out. I tried paddling with Robin holding onto my board but the current was just too strong. I took one look at the waves out the back and just knew that if we got sucked out we would have had to wait for rescue out there in the worsening conditions. It would have been incredibly difficult to get back in across the breaking waves where we woud have been hammered on the sand by the now quite big waves. So I made an executive decision.
Normally we try and stay away from reef, it hurts when the waves smash you onto it. But there was no choice but to head for it and wait for a wave (they were much much smaller there) to push us up onto the reef. It was close so I paddled in that direction with Robin still in tow. We didn't have to wait long for the next surge with the help of which I hauled Robin by the scruff of his wetsuit onto the limestone. I scrambled on next, scratching my own board and not caring. It was then I thought about the red-headed man. My god, where was he?
I saw him treading water calmly in the vortex and yelled out to see if he wanted any help. He yelled back that he was alright and headed back to shore. He was obviously a very strong swimmer though it did take him a while and he looked pretty whacked by the time he got there.
We crossed the short expanse of calmer water between the reef and the beach. The sand never felt so good.
