February 23, 2004
Surfing in Phillip Island!
Shelly Beach, sunday afternoon
Wollamai Beach, sunday afternoon
Arrived back late last night from a weekend trip with a mate of mine to Phillip Island in southern Victoria. Phillip Island, known for it's Fairy Penguins and Motorcycle Grand Prix track is also blessed with many excellent surf beaches! (map)
On Saturday we toured various beaches such as Wollamai, Smiths, Shelly's, Cat Bay, Flynn, etc, checking the conditions. It was amazing for me to see how different the surf conditions were around the island. Wollamai for example, was totally out of control, with a large swell pounding the bay into wild white water. Smiths Beach was better, and there was even a surf competition on while we were there which was great to watch.
After checking Shelly's though, we settled there. Shelly Beach is a protected from the ocean wind by a point wrapping around the bay. The swell comes around the point and into the bay - over the weekend it was one of the cleanest surf spots on the island. Swell size was around 5/6ft although it changed with the tide. Had some excellent rides there.
Sunday we visited the same beach to find a swarm of people there, Cat Bay was also pumping, but since it was a left break we surfed Shelly's again to get some more right hand breaks in. :)
Looking forward to getting some more surfs in before heading back to Germany!