The gloves are off!

I went for my 1st 'apres work' dip last night after about 10 days of dryness and found it hard going. The 15 min walk tired me out in full winter rubber with the hot sun beating down on me. Occasionally we have hot sun in Wales...but I told myself to get on with it and get this one out of the way.

You kind of know when you're not going to have a great surf and this was one of those days.

The wind seemed to be blowing into my face as I neared the coast so I was expecting slight onshore slop but arrived to find 2-3ft glass with definable lines and only 1 other surfer in. I sat and watched a few peaks breaking and paddled out.

The gloves are definitely off now! I'd worn my in which only added to my warm, tired discomfort, so I eventually paddled in and stashed then under a rock on the shore, praying I'd remember where I'd left them and that the tide didn't push in too far.

My surfing was shocking, it's amazing what a week or so out of action does to your ability and I was getting increasingly frustrated, which is quite unlike me in the water normally.

A crap frame grab from the cam, before I left work last night:

Lovely waves we're appearing all around me but I just seemed to be out of sync and missing all of the good ones. Eventually my pre-surf banana must have kicked in as I found some form. The other guy left and a mate of mine, Aran arrived with his sexy new red twin fin, so we surfed in solitude until around 7pm.

The waves began to ease off around high tide but picked up again on the drop and we enjoyed some much better rides, with long walling rights and the occasional left. You had to work the board to generate speed to blast along but there was a fun end lip to bash and a few hollow ones to pull into.

A larger set wave broke out back, so clean and glassy it looked like oil. I cursed myself at missing it as did Aran who was closer to the peak but luckily for me the shoulder reformed.

I took off late, dropped down in the lip and raced a beautiful 3ft wall and then prepared for a nice little bit of cover inside as the wave dropped down onto the next ledge. The lip came over and in I went, flying out the side curtain further down just as it shut down inside. Sweet :)

And I remembered to go and find my gloves. The walk back was tough going! Back at the car park I encountered a strange but nice old lady who appeared to be living out of an old motor-home along with 3 dogs - a Jack Russell, a Husky and a Lercher. All lovely, friendly pooches.

I lent her a screw driver to do some running repairs which seemed to take forever... but she was very grateful and said I'd made her life a lot easier, so that was nice.

Amazing how some people live though, eh?