Bianca Blows-Up

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TROPICAL Cyclone Bianca brought a perfect storm of kegs to the South West of Western Oz over the weekend. Taj Burrow is normally at home down this way about two months of the year thanks to his world tour commitments and managed to stumble along with Jay Davies and Jake Patterson into what some were calling a 'best ever' swell. "The west was a joke yesterday!!" Said Taj. Perversely in surfing 'best evers' happen more than once and some people have them every session, but there's no doubt this was something special. "The north-west angle of the swell from TC Bianca plus offshore winds meant beaches normally used to west or south-west swells turned onto their heads and ended-up looking more like top to bottom points." Said Mark Cooper of epicswells.com. This was a Category Four storm which had initially threatened to wreak considerable havoc along the coast and instead ended-up delivering perfect surf. © 2013 coops/epicswells.com

Swinging down and around the Australian coastline Bianca (at the time a massive system) hit Category Four status with 200kmph+ winds at the core. The whole coast hit max warning levels before the cyclone hit high wind shear and lower sea temperatures -- barely whimpering as it crossed onto the mainland. Bureau of Meteorology regional manager Neil Bennet said, "Perth and the South-West had somewhat dodged a bullet as Bianca's impact could have been a lot worse." Right now the east Coast is being threatened by TC Yasi one of the biggest cyclones of recent times, aimed directly at Queensland, a state barely recovered from the recent flooding. A storm which could be considerably less fun. © 2013 coops/epicswells.com

Cyclone swells like these come-up quick, peak and then drop back equally fast. This one really was only 24 hours of magic and you had to be on it as this gentleman demonstrates. © 2013 coops/epicswells.com