Bullies for you

It’s still surprising to me after all these years of my involvement with the sea how the swell can pick up overnight or even in just a few hours. Thursday it was heading for flattazza conditions down south and on Friday it was good in the Mid, even though the swell maps and weather forecasts were to the contrary.

We didn’t even consider looking at the Mid, as I thought the swell would have dropped from Friday. Anyway it was too dark to see what was happening and I felt like riding a wave down south after having an ordinary session in the mid the previous day.

Just one look from the top of the hill that overlooks the south coast told us that the surf was huge and seeing it from Middleton only confirmed it, so without further ado we went around to Bullies.

When we arrived there, there were about 8 guys sitting out the back and just as many on shore watching but there didn’t seem to be much action at that moment. The wind was slight and coming from the northeast and the tide was almost at its lowest, which made those ugly rocks in the shorebreak look like a rotten set of huge teeth. The next minute a medium sized set came through, one of the blokes picked it up one of the larger wave’s of the set and rode it reasonably well, which prompted us to go get the cameras and large lenses out.

It wasn’t very consistent with the sets coming through every 15 minutes or so but when they did it was certainly worth our while to stand there with the chilly breeze at our backs and snap a few of the better rides that these bloke were catching.

Most of the photos were taken from the lookout over the beach, where we were joined by some of the other regulars who ride the break there. They were fairly critical of the crew out in the water, as they regarded them as the "Flea" mob because they were riding the break when they themselves considered it wasn’t up to their standed.

Even though Bullies may not have been up to scratch in some of the bloke’s eyes it was still big enough to command some sort of respect. I noticed that some of the blokes that were going out would swim rather than paddle out through that treacherous shorebreak with boards trailing behind them on their leashes. Every now and then the "Phantom" would break and almost precisely 10 minutes later a large set would roll in. The Phantom was a wave that broke periodically out from Granite Island and would forecast to the blokes who were riding Bullies that a bigger than larger set was on its way in.

Just like a lot of reef breaks, the first wave of the set at Bullies will have a lot of water in it while the latter ones have less, and with the tide so low even these medium sized waves were breaking over the shallow reef like hollow wet cement. This made most of the take-offs very critical and some of the riders had spectacular freefalls that brought some jeers and cheers from the mob watching. Even if they managed a reasonable take off, that was no guarantee that they’d survive the rest of their ride. Getting barrelled at Bullies is fairly rare but it doesn’t stop many of these blokes from trying to do so, even if they know they’re going to get punished later on for their attempts.

I tried to get some of the more spectacular wipeouts on film and it seemed like these blokes out there were trying to oblige me, as nearly every second ride ended up a close fatal episode. One young bloke who had finished his session came up the steps with blood gushing from a savage wound on his foot. When queried about what had happened to him he said that he had been slashed by his own fin during a wipeout. The girl followed him with a couple of bandaids as he hobbled to his car, but he was going to need more than bandaids to fix up that slash.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it takes a different type of surfer to ride a place like Bullies. There are no Life Savers or emergency services on hand when this place gets big and these guys ride this break at great peril, knowing this. On this particular day there was surf on all coasts and while these blokes were getting their thrills here, there was a state title competition being held in the Mid. We called in and had a look at it on the way home and after witnessing what I saw at Bullies I know which display of surfing I’d rather watch.