Quick video of sunny coast conditions this morning 18/11/11

There aren't too many things in life that are as incredible as the experience of being able to get up close and personal with whales. It's whale migration season right now and If you're planning on visiting Queensland over the next few months make sure you put time aside to go for a whale watching cruise at either the Gold Coast, Sunshne Coast or Hervey Bay. You'll be absolutely captivated by the power, the grace and sheer size of these beautiful animals.

According to the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service NPWS whale sightings heading North at the moment are hitting record numbers with more than 1000 whales being tracked past Cape Solander.

While we haven't seen any just yet when we have been out in the water surfing it won't be long before they start showing up. It was about 5 years ago that I was fortunate enough to experience almost 100 whales in several pods heading south just off the point from Point Arkright here on the coast. The were leaping out of the water just like the photo, it was incredible.

I've got a good feeling in my bones that this year is going to be a cracker for whale spotting.

 

Full Story over at www.coastalwatch.com

Image (c) www.coastalwatch.com, great site for latest surf reports and surf news.

Wow, glad to say that 2010 has finished, what a dud year it turned out to be for surf here on the Sunny Coast. I would have to say that this was probably the worst year for surf that I have ever experienced, sure there were a couple of outstanding days but we have had such long drawn out flat spells and constant onshore winds.

There were some real standouts too, especially the one day in August when I had to fly to Sydney out of Brisbane, which meant a 4:30 departure from home and I arrived homewell after dark, it was little comfort seeing absolutely perfect forming A frames as I was flying over the Gold Coast and Stradbroke Island from about 20,000 feet up. Thanks to everyone who sent me a text that day letting me know how good it was. Oh yeah it was gone the next day too.

So what will 2011 be like for us surfers, well I think our run of overnight onshores will continue for a few more weeks but I do hold out some hope for a couple of cyclone swells late Jan or early Feb. This will flush out the banks and the beaches and with luck deliver us some much needed waves.

Hope everyone had a nice New Years Eve and we'll see you in the water no doubt

We went for a late afternoon walk through to Granite Bay on Saturday afternoon, heading back to the car park we managed to time the sunset perfectly. Here are a series of shots from the iphone taken around the edges of Tea Tree bay. Really beautiful walk if you ever end up in Noosa. Its about 2 to 3 km's of pathway that skirts the edges of the bays. Normally I'm only up here when there is some surf. It's still really nice even when it's flat. Cmon Huey get the winter swells happening.

 

New babies on the farm

Our good friends in Palmwoods have a menagerie of various animals living with them including a very spoilt bunch of chickens. Amongst the hens is this new batch of chicks that have joined the chicken resort. Amazingly they know which one is their mum and can find her out of the 50 other chickens they have.

Not sure about the black and white speckled one though...

Report Jan 25, 1010
Small 1 to 2 ft waves once again on the Sunshine Coast. Open beaches remain the best option. Early tide was a bit full so should improve as tide drops. I'm sure I'm not the only one who'll be pleased to see some cyclone action.

Sent from my iPhone

Wish that PicPosterous let you put some detail around the photos, anyway.

We were in Brisbane city last week heading up Queen St Mall when who should be having their photos taken but a group of Stormtroopers and Darth Vader.

Given where we were I would have though Darth Maul (Mall) may have been a good choice too. They were using them to launch a new range of Nike sports wear featuring Star Wars characters. Now I love Star Wars but I though the hoodie was so so.

When I sent the shots through I thought we were out front of Rebel Sports but clearly it was Foot Locker, so maybe my heading doesn't work so well. Perhaps it should have been something like "Darth Vader slips in from death star to fit out his crew" 

Everyone was having some fun so thumbs up to Foot Locker for doing something different.

With overnight onshore winds I was pretty confident that there wouldn't be any surf this morning. So the dog is the lucky winner of a long walk on the beach.

Whenever you have strong onshore winds you always end up with a pile of unusual things being washed in on the high tide.

Here are some photos of some of the creatures and things that were on the shoreline this morning, lots of bluebottles and lots of little nudibranchs that eat bluebottles... believe it or not. I rescued about 50 of these little guys, unfortunately when they get washed around the shoreline they tend to start losing bits of their "limbs", not sure if they grow back or not.

Perhaps the worst visitor to the coast are our bluebottles, who float quietly on the surface with tentacles that can extend for up to 7 or 8 metres that are almost impossible to see. Fortunately there were no large ones today but lots of small and equally painful ones. Remember, ice, hot water or vinegar to neutralise the pain. DON'T rub sand.

Wonder where the coconuts came from? There were a few of these.

The little snail shells were interesting too, they all seemed to have a floating extension which may have been terminal for them as they ended up on the beach only to dry out with the falling tide. The bubbles were quite solid and seemed to be in the shape of what the animal was inside. Any ideas?

The animal in the video is called a goose barnacle, this one was still alive attached to some sort of round seed pod, you can see how the little foot/mouth comes out of the shell. Don't worry he's OK he went back in and is on his way to New Zealand. Bon Voyage.

Anyway enough of that time to get stuck into some work.

If you are holidaying on the coast be careful today.

Otherwise have fun.