UAE | Environment
Surfers head to coast to catch waves
Surfers made their way down to Fujairah over the last two days in the hope of catching some waves and making the most of Cyclone Gonu but were faced with too much water to handle.
- By Emmanuelle Landais, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:38 May 3, 2009
- Fujairah escapes further deluge as Kalba floods again
- Storm history
- Fujairah resorts relocate guests and cancel weekend bookings
- Efforts on to make flooded areas habitable
- Markets struggle to meet demand as prices soar
- Hundreds of flood-hit families relocated
- Floods recede as weather improves
- Weather stabilising, say forecasters
Dubai: Surfers made their way down to Fujairah over the last two days in the hope of catching some waves and making the most of Cyclone Gonu but were faced with too much water to handle.
Click here to see the direction of Gonu (pdf)
Jason Offard, 37 from Australia said as a big wave surfer he was eager to get to the East Coast to surf and get the most out of the 12 foot waves but instead was faced with an uncontrollable mass of water.
"It was pretty full on and the waves were about 10 to 12 feet high but impossible to surf them because they were spilling out onto the beach rather than forming good waves," he said.
Surfers apparently congregate in Al Aqah at an area called Tim's reef which usually offers good surf.
"On Wednesday there was nowhere to paddle out to so I had to put it off but it should be quite good this weekend. A group of surfers are planning to go down. In Australia the waves are usually the same size but the cyclone makes it hard to ride the waves - they were out of control," said Offard.
He said the waves were coming right up to hotels along the coastline and pulled beach furniture in when it was not tied down.
Staff struggled to keep things from getting swept away and repeatedly jumped into crashing waves to retrieve chairs or signs.
"There were some tourists in the hotel who were just wondering what was going on but apart from that there weren't many people. On the roads we saw police telling people to go back and there was a fair amount of cars on the roads," said Offard.
"It wasn't as fierce as I thought it would be. The winds weren't as strong as I expected but I've never seen waves like that in Dubai," said Offard.
Related Links
More from UAE Environment
More from UAE
Latest news
- Dubai Police to public: Help identify dead man
- Chance of fault on Metro: One per 4 million kms
- Al Ain Zoo launches evening visiting hours
- Emirati students not ready for university
- Recycled gravel to be used for paving roads
- UAE Interact available on smartphones
- Green ambassadors blaze the nature trail
- UAE, UK explore joint cooperation in education
- Dubai Police help foil cocaine smuggling bid
- Carpenter charged with killing friend
- Job scam victim clears name
- Dubai crime, accident rates drop
- Parents should be more vigilant
- ICT forum: What will the future look like?
- Huge rush at ID centres as deadline looms
Community Reports
-
Parents should be more vigilant
Reader's picture highlights risk of negligence by caretakers
-
Warming up to ‘Mobilise the Earth' theme
Dubai school dedicates a whole week to celebrating Earth Day with can-collection drives, sapling plantation and painting competition among others
-
Drivers using mobiles put others' lives at risk
Speeding is dangerous for the driver and other motorists
-
Supporting the needy with food supplies
Group of families engaged in serving isolated labour community hopes to motivate more people to help underprivileged and hungry
