Deep Blue.

Monday, February 1st, 2010  Posted by stuart

Souther Ocean Outer Limits – Andrew Chisholm

Under warm blue skies on the 30th of January a call was made, were we to hit up Shipstern with everyone else or should we hit up the further reaches of the Tasmanian shelf to the rocky icon Pedra Branca.  Sure enough a 60 foot abalone boat called “Passage” was organised at the last moment and after numerous texting and phoning amongst the guys we were ready to hit the Southern Ocean.  One problem the harbour masters would only let us out at 3pm or 7pm, it was now 345.  After some sweet talking by captain Greg Hughes the port authourity lets us go at 430, slightly behind schedule but we were away. This would mean a bit less sleep for the crew.
After steering the vessel for most of the morning through a obviously large swell i was happy to see everyone rise just in the nick of time as we neared Eddistone Rock.  The swell on first inspection wasn’t really quite there, or so we thought.  A couple sets reared through and we were thinking they are a bit bigger. Then we saw a big dark lump brewing from the SW, after it roared through the line up we were out there.  Fully amping we launched the skis off.  Even on a big boat at the best of times is often a struggle to get them off, let alone now with 20 foot of swell making the Passage roll continually.  With the skis off everyone was excited.  The winds were near glassy probably around 5 knots and the water was a deep electric blue.  The swell would come from both the W and the WSW, Pedra Branca can be seen in the back ground and the swell lines looked like they came from either side of the island and head straight for the reef at Eddistone.  The ones with more west would seem to have more of a peak and a smaller wall but they ones coming from the WSW were more lined out and had a longer ride.  Mike Brennan and James Hollmer were first up behind the skis. Each drawing their own attacking lines they seemed to be determend to hunt the barrel.  But the speed of the swell and the speed the guys generated was unreal i have never seen people more so fast over such a big area.  The waves were in the 15-20 foot range but the power of these waves still blows me away and how thick they are.

Tyler Hollmer and Dan Griffiths got behind the ski after about and hour, the swell was really weird, coming in and pulsing for a couple sets then going flat sometimes up to 30 minutes.  Half way through the session everyone freaked out the back as someone spotted a 3 meter shark crusing under the skis.  After the freaked out effect wore away they cautiously started surfing again.  By around 3 o’clock everyone was visibly drained the scorching sun and the power of the waves had given everyone a solid work out.  Even Stu Gibbo and myself were wiggin out and we had the easy job.  At around 4 on the way home all the crew were passed out on the deck of the boat being burnt to a crisp by the blazing sun.

Expedition to Eddistone Rock from Andy Chiz on Vimeo.