X-OldHeader: From bjames@exponent.com-DeleteThis Wed Nov 8 09:20:13 2000 Return-Path: <bjames@exponent.com-DeleteThis> Received: from opus.labs.agilent.com (root@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis [130.29.244.179]) by jr.labs.agilent.com (8.9.3 (PHNE_18979)/8.9.3 AgilentLabs Workstation) with ESMTP id JAA21018 for <wind_talk_ls@jr.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis>; Wed, 8 Nov 2000 09:20:13 -0800 (PST) Received: from msgbas1t.cos.agilent.com (msgbas1t.cos.agilent.com [130.29.152.59]) by opus.labs.agilent.com (8.9.3 (PHNE_18979)/8.9.3 AgilentLabs Workstation) with ESMTP id JAA27651 for <wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis>; Wed, 8 Nov 2000 09:20:12 -0800 (PST) Received: from mail02-oak.pilot.net (mail-oak-2.pilot.net [198.232.147.17]) by msgbas1t.cos.agilent.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id F39604BA for <wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis>; Wed, 8 Nov 2000 10:20:11 -0700 (MST) Received: from menlomail.exponent.com (unknown-107-9.exponent.com [198.70.107.9] (may be forged)) by mail02-oak.pilot.net with ESMTP id JAA19269 for <wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis>; Wed, 8 Nov 2000 09:19:59 -0800 (PST) Received: by menlomail.exponent.com with Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) id <W23V575H>; Wed, 8 Nov 2000 09:08:16 -0800 Message-ID: <6717C84A8642D2119F1700A0C9D5D9F4036F6059@menlomail.exponent.com-DeleteThis> From: Brad James <bjames@exponent.com-DeleteThis> To: "'wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis'" <wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis> Subject: RE: Trip to Australia Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2000 09:08:16 -0800 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) charset="iso-8859-1"
Well Jeff- Since you asked....
How good is it?
Western Australia is very good! Great for surfing and windsurfing. It's
very windy there. The wind tends to crank straight offshore all night till
about 11am (perfect for morning surfing), and then it clocks around
sideshore around noonish for the rest of the day. It's port tack
wavesailing, which took me less time to get used to than I thought.
What areas did you sail?
Unfortunately, I was only in WA for about a week, not nearly enough time to
check the whole place out. (I was able to convince my wife to take a detour
to WA, while we were in Sydney visiting her sister). Since I was there in
early November of last year (which is supposedly a little early for optimum
wind, maybe kind of like late April here) I was told that I'd have the best
chance for wind north of Perth. So I went to Lancelin and Geraldton, about
1.5 and 4 hours north of Perth, respectively.
I really wanted to go to Margaret River - but the people there told me that
the wind could be flukey there in early Nov. (Margaret River is about 3
hours south of Perth). Supposedly, the WA coast gets windier as you go
north, but the surf tends to be better in the south. (They say Margaret
River never gets below head high, and is usually mast+ because of its close
proximity to the roaring 40's between Australia and Antarctica.) The water
temperature also varies wildly up and down the coast. Lancelin and
Geraldton were almost tropical in terms of water temp (probably mid 70's),
while people in Margaret River supposedly sail in 4/3's like we do on our
coast. Perth, Geraldton, and Lancelin are a desert area - looks a lot like
Baja, while they say Margaret River looks like Northern California with
hardwood forests.
You can tell that Geraldton in particular is super windy - every tree there
taller than 5 feet seems to be bent over 90 degrees in the prevailing wind
direction. A local shop owner there (who probably weighed 200+) told me
that he mostly sailed a 4.4. They say in Geraldton that they get almost 300
days per year of *sailable* wind.
How does it compare to Maui/SanCarlos?
Well, I think I got lucky down there and caught it during a real good swell.
I have some buddies who went later (Feb, 2000) and they didn't catch it as
well, so I guess it depends on who you talk to... But, I thought that
Lancelin easily compared with Maui and SC. When I was there it was logo
high, and you could follow the same wave over several reefs as it got to
shore, you could get a lot of bottom turns. The swell died off a little
when I was in Geraldton - so the surf wasn't as good, but it was windy.
Is it crowded?
It's very un-crowded. Perth has about a million people, but the rest of WA
is virtually empty. Geraldton was the next biggest town I saw, and it's
only probably 20-30,000 people. There were a fair number of Euros there who
were basically spending the Australian summer in WA to windsurf. The level
of sailing there is very high - lots of very good sailors.
A lot of people there get 4wd vehicles and start somewhere like Lancelin,
and then just drive up and down the empty coastline for miles and miles till
they find someplace that looks good, and then just go sailing. Once you get
outside Perth, it's basically 50+ miles of empty beaches between very small
beach towns.
Are there any good wave spots that are more intermediate (wife)
oriented?
Yes - Lancelin is a lot like Kanaha in that there is about a 1/4 to 1/2 mile
of flat water inside the break. The wave at Lancelin is alot like Kanaha or
San Carlos in that it's pretty gentle - especially away from the peak.
Also, Coronation beach in Geraldton is a pretty gentle wave, with great
jumping - kind of like a super-Spreklesville.
Outside Perth there's not much culture.... Lancelin is a small town (like
1000 people) so there's not much to do. My wife got pretty bored there
after a couple dasy. She liked Geraldton a lot better. Geraldton kind of
reminded us of what a cute SoCal beach town probably looked like 75 years
ago. I hear that Margart River is a big tourist spot, with lots of winerys,
etc.
After all that- I sure wish I could go back!!!!
Brad
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