Swellnet

25/09/2025

Comprehensively tested on tigers and whites, the new range of shark bite-proof wetsuits - including Haydon Burford's Shark Stop wetsuits - offered encouraging results.

Less flexible, more expensive, yet effective where it counts, the decision ours to make.

Whenever a shark attacks a surfer it sends shockwaves throughout the surfing community. In the aftermath we become united in sympathy and also shared anxiety - a feeling of helplessness against an apex predator.

25/09/2025

Between two hurricanes...

In five days the Challenger Series will kick off again at the Ericeira Pro, Portugal, with the five day waiting period falling between two hurricanes.

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Reflecting the stop-start nature of the Challenger Series, the tour opened with three events in two months and then no events for the following two months. CS competitors are now regrouping in Portugal to compete in the fourth event of the tour, the EDP Ericeira Pro, held at Praia Ribeira.

23/09/2025

Don’t believe what the people are saying. This is not the golden age of television, nor is it the golden age of beer, this, my good friends, is the golden age of surfboards.

Never has the range of surfboards been so broad and so free of prejudice, never has the quality of those boards been so high, and never has the choice of materials been so vast.

The latest golden material is pineapple cloth, which, despite this colourful li'l intro, isn't really golden at all.

Click to read more:

Don’t believe what the people are saying. This is not the golden age of television, nor is it the golden age of beer, this, my good friends, is the golden age of surfboards.

18/09/2025

"It becomes vital to distinguish if we’re merely in a cycle or something more enduring.

"If it’s the latter and once-protected corners are being hit by increased wave energy then the issue will continue until a new equilibrium is found.

"Coastal home owners will hope the new equilibrium doesn't settle inside their property line."

An increase in east swells may have NSW surfers cheering but owners of vulnerable property - and there are many - watch anxiously as the sea gets closer.

The report’s publication was widely covered across all news publications, however in the process a complex science was reduced to simple arithmetic: Average temperature will increase by x amount, sea levels will rise by y cms, insurance premiums will surge by z dollars.

16/09/2025

Sometimes it's the day in between that delivers the goods. With a big swell before it and one due after, photographer Steve Arklay documents an overlooked day that couldn't get any better.

Not only has the Southern Ocean has been active but the storms have largely formed in the Goldilocks zone - not so close that they arrive with the weather, not so distant that they get kneecapped by swell decay.

14/09/2025

Peahi, Mavericks, Nazare...Queenscliff Bommie.

Tommy Myers takes the Ride Of The Year silverware at the Big Wave Challenge for a wave at an unlikely surfspot.

It was a throwaway line, said as much in jest as hope, as the official big wave spotlight rarely strays from Hawaii, Northern California, or Nazare if they’re measuring sheer vertical height. Further, when it lands in Australia then it’s always somewhere in the south: Shippies, The Right, Cow Bo...

11/09/2025

Bit o' bank building going on at Surfers Paradise this morning (via our SP North cam).

05/09/2025

This year marked the end of the WSL's 'Final Five' system, with next year reverting back to something more traditional, albeit with a tweak.

That tweak means the Final Five isn't quite as dead as we think it is.

“Farewell Final Five. I shall miss you,” wrote Steve Shearer in his last CT recap of the year, yet it’s not a sentiment that’s shared by many.

04/09/2025

Long after the dunes were mined Cronulla's sand keeps disappearing. Yet now a small cadre of surfers are seeking to fix the problem before it gets terminal.

Last year on Swellnet, Steve Shearer wrote an article that detailed the infrastructure provided to Australia’s fishing and boating communities. Aside from breakwalls, boat ramps, channel dredging, and fish aggregating devices, there are also 153 artificial reefs around the Australian coastline. As...

03/09/2025

Picture a Venn diagram where offshore wind overlaps with perfect swell. Yesterday, the centre of that diagram sat over Victoria and Steve Arklay photographed the results.

After enjoying settled weather but small waves through the last weeks of winter, a number of high-riding fronts passed over Victoria as the season drew to a close.

27/08/2025

Today's the first day of the waiting period and, after a short separation, the global wave models have reached some agreement over the coming swell. Click for details.

After a short separation, GFS and ECMWF - the two global weather models - are in broad agreement about the coming Final’s Day swell. 

22/08/2025

Four days till the WSL Finals Day waiting period begins, and ten days till the first swell moves into the cross-hairs. For the finalists, it'll be a long, frustrating, possibly skull-dragging, wait for that swell.

Will it be worth it?

Since Monday’s forecast a few things have changed in the waiting period. There’s been no fundamental shift as on the whole it’s not a great outlook for Fiji. But then again, Finals Day is just that - one day.