Rain through early December helped wash a bit of sand out of the Onkaparinga Estuary, and in the second week of the month the makings of the fabled rivermouth left at South Port were underway. In the following week a small swell showed some potential, with waves peeling off for 60 – 80m on the right tide. But it was fast and fickle, and if so much as a drop of water was out of place, the wave immediately reverted to an unmakeable closeout or an endlessly reforming fat hander. A bigger swell later in the week revealed some improvement, with some waves linking up 2 or three sections to deliver rides up to 100m.
The last hurrah for the bank was following the cool change, on Sunday the 27th. Winds kicked around to the South after the change and helped push trains of peaks down the North-running bank. It was chest high and about 1 out of 4 waves wound off nicely before closing out on the shallow inside section.
In the days that followed, it appeared the winds had pushed more sand off the end of the natural spit, and into the shallow gutter that gave the wave its shape. The result was a short, but mostly unmakeable first section followed by an inevitable closeout.
With fading swell and a cool change to sign off on 2015, it’s most likely the elusive left will remain a sad keepsake of its former, brief glory. But… we live in hope…