Macquarie Island Pumps

May 2
When you see pictures of perfect waves like this do you wonder where the crowd is, or how many people are really out there and why no one is on this wave? Is it a freak set or did half a dozen fuckwits spoil it for each other? Well when you look at pictures of Point Handspike at Macquarie Island you can be sure that nobody is out there, and in fact nobody ever has been - at least as far as we can find out. What's more none of us are going to be able to get out there because Macquarie Island is 1500km SE of Tasmania and 1300km from Antarctica, and the only person on the Island with a surfboard is Tim. When he gets his trusty old Stranger board patched up and manages to scam an immersion suit to brave the subantarctic waters he'll give it a go.

Here's the latest from Tim:
"I've just been out for a post lunch walk to handspike point under the guise of science. Meant to be looking for hooker sealions. Any sort of hooker's'd do though. Saw 1, so that wasn't too taxing. Thought about a walk out that way as soon as I woke up and noted that the wind had finally changed direction... swung to the SE. Bugger me! Off shore at the point. Bit of sleet and a chilly 2 deg Celcius but always good to go for a wander. Wasn't disappointed either. Probably only a good 4ft on the sets, but every 20 minutes or so, a bigger set would slide on through and smoke. Marko, still messing around with cameras. Haven't got the digital movie thing happening yet. Thought we had some today but at this stage it's not looking promising".

If Tim can get the movies working we'll be sure to post something on the site.
Mark