Images of Quiksilver Pro site Sunday during Tsunami….

Spectators waiting for tsunami © ASP/ Kirstin Scholtz

Quiksilver Pro / Roxy Pro Gold Coast
Presented by Land Rover

ASP World Tour Men’s event #1
ASP World Tour Women’s event #1
Snapper Rocks Queensland
27 February – 10 March 2010

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Images of the Quiksilver Pro Contest Site Sunday during the Tsunami Warning & tsunami update

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 28 February, 2010 : – - Coolangatta, Queensland, Australia – Spectators gathered at the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast contest site at Snapper Rocks early this morning to watch for signs of the predicted Tsunami, caused by magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck off the coast of Chile early Saturday morning, resulting in a tsunami warning for the East Coast of Australia effective today.

Event organizers, coordinating with the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology, were forced to call both the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast presented by Land Rover and the Roxy Pro Gold Coast events for the day, with the potential tsunami projected to hit at 8:15am.

“We’ve been monitoring the situation with chief meteorologists throughout the night and all projections are indicating the effects to hit the Gold Coast at approximately 8:15am,” Rod Brooks, Quiksilver Pro Contest Director, said. “What those effects will be, we cannot be sure. We’ve been advised that the biggest surge could hit anywhere from six to 12 hours after the initial surge, so we’ve called competition off for the day. The event site is closed for the day, and we’ll check back tomorrow at 6:30am.” More info here

Joli’s Blog report:

We had a Tsunami warning here today which resulted in the clearing of beaches and the cancellation of the Quiksilver Pro. For some reason they let surfers into the water at D-Bah for some free surfing practice while they kept people off the sand and out of the water at all the other Gold Coast beaches.

This image of Snapper Rocks taken from a nearby high rise was shot at the estimated time of the tsunami. It was right on the high tide and we had no noticeable difference. The national weather service stated later that New Zealand had blocked parts of the east coast of Australia from the tsunami’s effects. The Quikie Pro will probably be back on tomorrow. We’re about to get swamped by rain from the monsoonal trough. Definilty not a dull time here on the Coast at the moment.

High tide: The event site was closed Sunday. Next call at 06h30 on Monday © ASP/ Kirstin Scholtz

Tsunami updates:

Australian East Coast was given the ‘all clear’ in terms of tsunami warnings following the enormous Chilean earthquake. Beaches were closed and people hoping to view tsunami conditions were ushered off the sand as small tsunami waves began to hit the east coast of Australia. The highest surge recorded was 50cm at Norfolk Island. The biggest problems were always expected to be dangerous currents.

Japan evacuated over 50,000 people from vulnerable areas. Tsunami shockwaves struck islands in French Polynesia, bringing waves up to 4m high and minor damage but no injuries. JATWC issued tsunami warnings on Sunday. It was predicted that dangerous waves, strong ocean currents and foreshore flooding could hit coastal areas stretching south from Rockhampton, in Queensland, to Victoria and Tasmania.

People were told not to rely on massive waves or destruction as an indicator for the true danger of the expected tsunami conditions. The dangers are for people swimming, surfing, diving or boating, and the unforeseen dangers. It’s not simply a wave that people observe, it’s a sequence of events that is likely to take place, especially strong currents, which can be dangerous.

This kind of threat can last for a minimum of four hours and up to 24 hours with significant changes in water levels. As a result of vast amounts of water shifting strong currents develop. It’s like shaking a bath of water. Once it’s been shaken, it slops around for quite some time and that’s exactly what the Pacific Ocean did for quite some time.

New Zealand hit:

Waves up to 1.5 metres high rammed into New Zealand on Sunday as the tsunami generated by the huge earthquake in Chile intensified. There were no reports of serious damage. New Zealand’s entire east coast was at risk with walls of water up to three metres expected to hit the Chatham Islands and Banks Peninsula, near the main South Island city of Christchurch

A Chathams Island resident reporting everyone had a perfect view of the ocean movement said, “The water is starting to disappear from round the bay, all the rocks are uncovered, the water is definitely moving out. Now the rocks are covered up again. There’s no big wall of water yet. It looks very unusual, very unusual. It’s kind of high tide here at the moment but sort of in no time the rocks became uncovered but they’re covered up again.”