Dianne: Monster Waves

On Sunday 9th April 2006 my friend Dianne called me to invite me to go with her to Bondi Beach to see the high tide, which today had unusually big waves.

She had read that they were going to be the biggest (up to 9 metres) in 30 years.

We were not the only ones there. There were many people walking along the cliffs from Bondi to Tamarama. The weather was quite pleasant, although a bit windy. There were people walking, playing beach volley, taking photos and a few adventurous swimmers in the Bondi Iceberg pool. They had to get out at the end as the waves were getting into the pool and their strength was tremendous. Read this article, from the Sydney Morning Herald, Monster Waves Ravage city's beaches.

Were there any incidents? Did anyone get into trouble? Which was the only city beach open? What happened to ferry the Spirit of Tasmania? Were there any city ferries cancelled?

Listen to our conversation. The first bit is a bit noisy because we did it on on the cliff overlooking the surf. You can hear the roar of the waves breaking against the rocks. If you find it too difficult to understand, read the script here, Monster Waves.

The next bit is much quieter. We were in the Sydney traffic trying to get home avoiding the cross city tunnel. We will talk about that another day.
To help you with the listening I have prepared a listening worksheet with some of the words used in the dialogue.
Once you listen write a summary of the conversation in your blogs.
Download the MP3 file 995 kB, o:o4:14)


Music by my brothers'group Tresena

Dianne is telling me about a very special open air exhibition that takes place once a year in this area of Sydney, Sculptures by the Sea. My students wrote about it last year. You can read about it in their blogs: Karen, Jessica, Saeideh.

Click on the photos below and you can read some of the signs in Tumarama beach. Can you recognise any of them from our work on Water Safety?

As you can see on the last photo, the life guards didn't have much to do. There was nobody in the water...