Even today people who were surfing in Calif in 1975 remember that famed New Zealand Swell. I don't think there has ever been a larger south swell or one that kept pumping day after day after day after day.
In those days there was no real surf forecasting your forecast was the morning surf check or worf of mouth. from others places along the coast. Like " We should be seeing a north soon they say Rincon is 6 foot maybe by tomorrow it will hit us."
I can still recall an morning session with my friend Billy heal we were surfing Ponta. The waves were nothing special nice maybe chest high, nothing to write home about. Little by little the wave started to build the chest high waves turned to head high and then over head. as they built up The tide was dropping and we saw this out side peak start to work. A peak that I had never seen at Ponto. we Paddled out and spent the next couple of hours working the now well over head waves. The swell kept building. about the time that we were both exhausted we looked toward the beach and it wasn't looking good. There was nothing but a massive shore pound with waves sucking up sand It was one big rip current until the next massive wave jacked and over came the current. It wasn't looking good. We talked over our options, maybe paddle down to grand view try our luck there. Maybe there was a way in further north? In the end we chose to just take the beating. Somehow we both made it in without to much damage. Later that day I drove down the coast to Swamies. I have never seen surfers sit so far out side and still be caught inside. That was just the opening day!
The New Zealand swell lasted for about a month. A massive Cyclone had stalled north of New Zealand and kept pushing waves toward the west coast.
I'm sure that others here also have memories of that all time epic South Swell.
I was 13 years old. My older sisters boyfriends all surfed. They got the call that Ralphs was breaking and invited me along for a surf. We climbed down the cliff via that old POS rope at Ralph's and I proceeded to take a beeting of a lifetime. I also got some smaller non set waves... but that place has never been that good since Hurricane Hernan 2001. 2-3X over head and breaking all the way to the caves in the inside.
I was just at my beginning of surfing and I thought all summers had swells like that............what a foolish young man.
Your memories have made me consider Aotearoa New Zealand’s current weather pattern, go to www.metservice.com and check out the seven day rain forecast. I am attempting to attach an image and would like someone who knows their way around Swaylocks to post the images in this thread as I think they maybe important for our greater understanding of impacts of weather patterns. This current system, which is the size of the Australian Continent and is locked to the south west of us could well generate the Aotearoa New Zealand Swell 2010. We have had some wierd environmental things happening here, earthquakes where I live in Christchurch, this weather pattern which is expected to produce a significant spring dump in Queenstown and areas down the bottom of the South Island, heavy rainfall on our West Coast and the rest of Aotearoa New Zealand. I would imagine that the Dougie Young and his group of big wave riders are probably already down the bottom of the South Island waiting for the swell to hit. We have a weather guy here, Ken Ring and I am not a believer, who operates this website, www.predictweather.com he is of the opinion that there are significant effects of the moon having been the closest to earth for a while, last Wednesday 8th September 2010 to be precise. His snow predictions for September has had the skiers in the south waiting with bated breath for the September super dump for a month or two.
With today’s technology it will be interesting to monitor the effect of this depression and see where it leads. I am not a swellmap follower so the swell extrapolations may already have been made for this particular system.
Certainly looks like its going to be a big swell! The Media here are talking biggest weather pattern on Earth! But all the hype aside, I think it sounds different to the above mentioned 1975 one. I dont think this swell will have much effect on the west coast of the States from what I know about reading maps etc, but I can see huge barrels all through the pacific! ie Tehaupo etc…
Started showing this morning in San Diego too. Shoulder high and building through-out the dawn session. It was glassy too which makes it even more sweet. The direction seems just right for most of the south facing breaks.
Gee, you guys have good memories. I mostly remember good days, not swells. Let’s see, Sept.75 on a Wed. I was mostly likely at football practice. My buddies would be driving by with their boards strapped to the roofs, honking, flipping me off, and yelling 'fuck you, Rooster!" I new that was going to be my last season of football. Mike
Hey Mike the Rooster, That story had me rolling reminding me of a similar one. In the early 70’s when the military draft was still on, a group of us went on surfari south to Baja. While passing through San Diego, we pass a U.S.Navy personnel carrier on the road and see a buddy who “decided to beat the draft” and enlist in the Navy. He’s in the back of the truck and we pull up and start yelling and showing the cases of brew and chicks with us laughing our asses off. This pisses off the whole P.C. and they are all yelling back and flipping us off. One of the girls takes her shirt off and flashes them and we race off yelling "SURF’S UP SQUIDS!!! Ah, the good 'ol days.
Howzit tblank, I joined the Marines in 68', got pnuemonia in ITR and that made me unfit for Southeast Asia duty, then I went on leave and got my van stickered to take on base at Pendleton. Then got bronchitus and a medical discharge. The great thing was the sticker was good for almost another year so I was surfing Tresles all the time and could drive right up to lowers. Something good from the military,I woud drive up to the gate and they just waved me through. Would just hangmy dog tags from the rear view mirrorand never got hassled.Aloha,Kokua
That’s funny. Yah, I’m kind of ashamed of some of the treatment we gave the sailors right after they finished basic. Lucky they weren’t Navy Seals or Marines that just got back from their tour. Some of them were still in the war zone. My brothers and I squeeked by Viet Nam as it winded down for us as we came of age. I try to shake our service guy’s hands now. No mercy on the buses loaded with tourist back then. Horn blaring, asses bared and cheeks spred!!! The looks on their faces was priceless. Mike
Hey Mike, What I didn’t tell you is little did I know, it wasn’t long after that I became a sworn member of (PROUD MEMBER) of The United States Marine Corps.
Aloha tblank, And a big Semper Fi back to you my Marine brother, When I knew it was a fact that i was going in the military I figured it would be smart to get the best training possible and the marines were the answer( had a lifer uncle) and I was ready to put my life on the line for the USA. When I found out the extent of the training the other branches were training I knew we were really taught to be prepeared for combat and I was a squad leader in boot camp and even won the physical fitness contest and scored second in machine gun school, but the the medical dishanrge happened and must I say that having a free pass to tresles out did it all. The guys going through boot camp today don't know how easy they have it and even we were lucky since it was a lot worse in the 40's and 50's.Aloha,Kokua
Hah! Kokua, Semper Fi Devil Dog. Talk about having tough, I heard it all the time and occasionally still do…My Dad was a G.I. D.I. from P.I.!!! We didn’t have humidity, we didn’t have sand fleas, we didn’t have the freezing cold ect. GOD BLESS ALL OUR BROTHERS IN THEATER!!! COME HOME SAFE!!!
Howzit tblank, From what I know P.I. was a lot harder place to go through Boot Camp then USMD in San Diego.Just think about the DI who drowned all those recruits years ago. Our D.I. told us there was a time that D.I.s could have 5 recruits die on them a year with no questions asked. One thing Iwill always remeber is the D.I. telling us to never be a John Wayne. But then again we were told that if we got ambushed that we should run right at the enemy yelling our throats out since they were not used to that and it would confuse them. Then we had an instructor tell us to hit the ground instead. My uncle was also a D.I. at P.I.. There is a brother hood that will never be broken among us Marines. Semper Fi Brother. I can say I got the crap beat out of me 2 times in Boot Camp by the D.I,'s and I think every recruit got it at least one time. When we were at the range to qualify the head D.I. came in drunk one night and challenged anybody to a fight. Well one of the guys was a golden gloves fighter and beat thecrap out of th D.I. bu then a few other D.I.s saw it and pulled him off the D.I. and the MP's cme and took him away to never be seen again. The same D.I. hurt another recruit really bad and the guy went ot the hospital and once again we never saw him again. I have some stries that would make a non marine shake in their boots. Where did you go through training at? Aloha,Kokua
Wonder how many here are Viet Nam era Vets I was was drafted in early 1970.
I recall a lot of GI's would take R and R in Hawaii then would go AWOL. There were also Vets that went Bush in Hawaii. The only place they felt safe was in the bush, hidden someplace in the jungle.
Back to The New Zealand swell. I'm sure that had to be one of the biggest if not the biggest south swell and one of the longest lasting swells. For a good month the waves were consistent, some days were over head others a bit smaller. For that whole swell I do not recall they ever lacked in quality.
Hi Kokua, I went through USMCRD San Diego and Pendleton. Got my ass kicked by DI Gunny Sanchez because my platoon member dropped his rifle AGAIN. I got pissed at him and shoved him into the boggy area in San Christianitos Cyn. Every time he dropped it, they would tag on another mile. Another time, during pugil stick evolution my combatant knocked the stick out of my hand and I swung on him with fists. Got my ass kicked for that too but the DI’S were all smiling at me and later told me that was the COMMITMENT they were looking for. When I was there, morale was at an all time low and some of the DI’s were pretty pissed off and could get very mean. This was when it was still no holds barred. Now they can’t even cuss them out! Not even one swear word!!
Back to the “swell” for a moment. During the swell a good friend of ours was body surfing at Marine st. He was getting ready to leave the beach went down to the water to rinse the sand off his feet. A 10’ wall of water slamed him into the ground. He has been in a wheel chair ever since. Paralized from the neck down. “if I had gone home with sandy feet I would still be walking”. Enjoy every ride like it could be your last.
