As of January 2017, the Flat Rock, Shipstern Bluff has altered: http://www.themercury.com.au/news/famous-tasmanian-surf-spot-shipstern-bluff-altered-by-rock-fall/news-story/4cef9af5d31a29683f942608d610f73c
On the Tasman Peninsula, looking south. I first came here as a 13-year old kid. My Uncle Bill and Aunt Iris lived nearby at Stormlea and one day the family got together and decided to go on an outing. At the end of it, I had a roaring headache, attributed to 'sunstroke', given I had had no hat. For decades after I have been sensitive to heat on the back of the neck, so maybe that was accurate. Also important is the fact I don't remember any drinks being dispensed and it was probably a similar timeframe to today's walk which is a four hours+ roundtrip. Anyway, I finally got back there. The tide was totally different. The approach was totally different. As a kid, I remember getting there on the western side and the tide was below the rock shelf. This time we came down to the eastern side of the bluff and the tide was coming in. As a teenager, I remember going to the edge of the rock shelf and seeing the water heaving slowly, benignly up and down like an inky pool and being impressed with its inert force. Rocks the size of houses were scattered on the flat shelf as testament to a winter's storm ferocity. At this time, it wasn't the surfer's Mecca that it is today. I think it is now high up on the list of world impressive surfing spots. Before going back there this day, I could never figure out where, in fact, there was place for surfing. This time, we saw the surfers in action and I was impressed at their skill in avoiding the rocks. There were three surfers. Two took (very infrequent) turns catching waves, and the third operated a jet-ski, coming in after one of them had followed a wave through, picking them up and taking them out beyond the breaking line to wait for another. I reckon it must be a dangerous place. We spent about an hour and a half watching the action. Most of that action was the tide, not the people. You might get bored by shot after shot of waves. Like Ronald Reagan and Sequoias, maybe you think,'seen one, seen them all'. For me, they visuals are also accompanied by an awe at the sound. The power is at times, scary. The sound has to be imagined on this site. I've taken some vignettes and have concentrated on them to show the sculptural forms the foam takes. Others, the colour is what fascinates. The other thing about that day was the serendipity of capturing the second in line of the yachts in the Sydney-Hobart yacht race, Comanche, as it rounded th cliffs of Cape Raoul and came across in front of us then rounded the corner to go up Storm Bay into the Derwent River.