Sunday 19th December and it's another weird Melbourne Summer day. Top temperature predicted of 23 with rain, thunderstorms and possible hail on the way in the afternoon. I check the swell forecast and surfcams at about 8.15 am and it looks ordinary everwhere, with the wind up and no great swell. I decide to try Phillip Island as you can drive around there and generally find one part of the Island that is a bit more protected and suited to the wind. I wake up Sam and we head off about 10.00 am and I'm thinking we will go to Kitty Miller Bay.
Good trip down the highway and we are on the Island about 11.20 and we get to Kitty Miller a little after 11.30 - it's quite a spectacular little spot with black basalt rocks on the point of a really nice, little half moon beach. There are about 3 blokes out but its' a bit of a paddle and the waves don't look great. We leave and check out Flynn's reef and Cat bay and there is nothing happenning- it's not looking good. We drive back towards Smiths Beach(break no.1) and just before Smiths is YCW and we take the turn off to check it out.
YCW beach is a great spot - the car park's big in contrast to Smiths and it's a similar set up of a semi circle beach at the bottom a decent set of stairs. YCW is a bit more rural in feel in terms of a bush background and rocks at both ends of beach. It's raining when we get out of the car and we can see about 10 or so in the water an indication that it's about the only spot happening on the Island, and also of surfer desperation as the waves aren't that great. By the time we get changed and head down to the beach the crowd in the water has dropped to 4 and the rain is really coming down. Its about 2 foot with an offshore wind that its impacting on how the waves are holding together.
It's a pretty easy paddle out the back and within a couple of minutes I find myself up and on a wave and going right - it's an extremely short ride as most of the waves are closing out quickly but watching the waves coming through and a longboarder out there, there is the occassional longer wave going right towards the rocks, dividing YCW from Smiths.
Sam and I spend about an hour in the surf and we both get half a dozen waves and a couple of mine are quite good rides. Sam sticks a bit closer to shore but tells me he got heaps. I see him a get a couple inclduding one quite long ride in the whitewater. It's cold when we get out and the rain is really coming down. We get changed and put the boards on the roof in pouring rain.
We both need some warming up and so we head to the shop at Smiths. I get a cafe latte and Sam his usual chips plus some chicken nuggets. The coffee is good and the chips great. A successful day done and we head home with rain still coming down. Break 10 next week before Christmas and then we look for 20 before the end of Jan.
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