Swell: 1.2m
Period: 10.5 secs, 259 degrees
Wind: Light S, 6-7 kts
Tide: Low to mid, rising > HT 4pm
Beautiful day in S.Wales today as Rattz and I went off in search of river mouth perfection.
Earlier cam checks revealed lines stacked to the horizon just about everywhere so we knew it'd be really nice out there today and with a surf competition on at Rest Bay, we were keen to find some uncrowded perfection.
We decided to try a new route to the break and after a bit of exploring parked up about as far down a track as we could go, and walked off into the forest, hoping we were heading towards the sea...
I tried to locate our position on my phone but Google maps had us somewhere entirely different?
Rattz using his binos to try and find the nearest beach:
The walk down was interesting as we plodded through a nature reserve, scaring just about every species of bird and mammal we encountered. I saw a hare fly off at break neck speed, just ahead of us on the muddy track. Eventually mud turned to sand and we knew we were getting close.
Ahead of us lay the river and various reed beds. To save time I wanted to paddle across, 'Vietnam stylee' but rattz had his Bill Oddie head on today for some reason and said not to scare the ducks! so we walked around. It was probably a good call as I'd have only ended up being stuck up to my waist in stinking mud.
The sun was high and it was getting hot. After around 20 mins we found sand. Hallelujah!
The back of beach was covered in huge chunks of driftwood and assorted crap dumped over board by passing ships but beyond his lay some lovely looking left and right handers.
Swans at the back of the river by Bic:
We paddled out in front of the river, to the left and were immediately greeted with fun sized 3ft+ clean peaks. Nice fast take off's and high speed walls were the order of the day and it felt great to put the bonzer through it's paces and try busting out a few moves and throwing some spray.
We had it to ourselves and 4 lads on a peak nearby quickly dispersed leaving us spoilt for choice! The wind had picked up a little more than expected and was light onshore but soon dropped and the slight choppy faces turned glassy.
The waves were bowling up nicely on the inside track and if you went late on a bigger set wave, stood a good chance of driving down and around the bowl at high speed and blasting the bejesus out of the lip waiting on the other side. There was also a chance to get you head into some, for some head dips too, so great fun.
After about an hour we decided to try our luck on the other side of the river and surfed some tasty rights, nudging 4ft on sets. We both caught some nice ones but it began to get a little frustrating as there were peaks galore but they always seemed to be 20ft away from us as the rip kicked in on the pushing tide.
Rattz went in for a few strolls along the beach to try and beat the rip but always ended up back where he started, next to me, so knocked that on the head once his arms got heavy!
After 3.5 hrs surfing we were both pretty done and I was starting to go insane from sun stroke, singing in my deepest operatic tenor voice: "Noooooooo" or '"Yeeeeeeees" to Rattz to indicate if I thought they were worth paddling for or not.
He seemed to enjoy it and it kept me entertained ;)
If you go down to the woods today:
The walk back wasn't too bad, we managed to follow a decent trail alongside a giant sand dune, passed through a stagnant pool and forest and apart from being mobbed by gnats/mozzies arrived back at the car in one piece.
We met some dog walkers on the way back who seemed genuinely surprised to see us as we emerged from the woods - bare chested with boards under our arms, and asked us if we knew how far from the sea we were? ;0
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