wind: 33kmph SE easing around 9.30am
period: 10.5 seconds
tide: mid tide, incoming
I was awoken at 5am by my wife's gentle coughing in my ear, so decided to get up and make some breakfast.
As I was up it felt only proper, that I woke up some friends and shared this lovely morning with them...only 2 managed to answer their phones and I could hear a girlfriend in the background sounding less than impressed...but like the old proverb says - you'll die in bed one day, so the less time spent in it, the better!
The wind was absolutely howling this morning but at least it was SE. After copious amounts of tea to keep my now tired mind and body going it got near enough to 9am to make a trip to the beach worth while.
I met up with Doc and just as we were leaving for the walk down, met johnny raincloud and harv looking beaten.
They spoke of heavy dark waves, 1.5 x times overhead and near death experiences and wished us luck....Doc and I just smiled and remarked "we're the anka point crew, 12ft is nothing!" ;)
At this point Doc revealed his secret weapon (no, not that) This was something else - dark black, wellington boots. Winter rubber is now officially out, so Doc had the next best thing. Besides giving excellent warmth, they had a lovely chunky grip and you could leave them on, and do some gardening straight after surfing.
It's a win, win situation and I'm pretty sure we're going going to see alot more of this in winter lineups as people catch onto the idea. The only thing you must remember to do is gaffa tape up the tops of each boot - this is important!
We arrived at the beach to find a despondent looking sven pacing up and down the beach looking very down trodden. I asked if he was collecting shells but he wasn't. The waves had beaten him into submission and there was nothing more I could do for him.
Doc and I paddled out into seemingly heavy 5-6ft but the paddle out was surprisingly simple apart from a few heavy sets.
Out back we were greeted by some fairly hefty looking sets, easily 6ft+ and hollow. Alot of the waves were spitting air out of the barrel but catching them was another matter altogether...
It felt great to be out there, dak grey seas, holwing offshore and rain with rogue set waves to keep you on your toes. This is why we do it!
Doc eventually broke the mould and stroked into an absolute peach for his first wave, a 6ft+ left hand wedge that seemed to rear up and add a few feet to it's height. The takeoff was late and steep and then the whole thing walled up perfectly for him.
Wilky and I were positioned in the channel alongside and screamed our lungs out as he took off, made the turn and then flew along the face before aiming slightly too high up the face, being grabbed by the wind and then unceremniously slammed off the front of the board...crunch!
But Doc surfaced shrieking like some sort of demented howler monkey with a grin from ear to ear.
We opted to sit deep after that and wait for the bombs and they came, not often but they came and we both had some lovely drops into big meaty lefts.
I had one beautiful right hander, took off left, faded towards the lip and then corrected as the wave broke too early so ended up with an almost 'glassy' overhead right, as consolation.
Wilks and sven sat way inside so not sure what was happening there but they seemed to pick off waves now and then.
Doc had a lovely forward roll off the end of his mal at one point - on a wave of consequence. I screamed him in and he paddled like a banchee, jumped to his feet to take the drop and rolled off head first down the face ;) Luckily for him the wave moved on without him and he was left unscathed.
The session continued for around 2hrs and we were pleasantly surprised by the wave height and cleanliness considering the strong winds and forecast.
Nice. I did something really stupid resulting in a near death experience (quite literally), several miles of paddling & walking followed by a trip to A+E. And I totalled my board. On the whole, your day sounds better. :)
ReplyDeleteStill can't believe I'm not dead.
At least I got one good wave.
Sounds heavy. Tell me more!
ReplyDeleteI was at Sheep's Jaw; went a little too far out of the bay and got caught in the rip. After 30 mins of paddling I was beaten and got slammed into the cliffs. Ended up in a cave which alternated between being 2ft deep to having 6ft bombs slamming me against the floor, walls and ceiling.
ReplyDeleteWas getting little bits of air, but not enough. Started halucinating and really had to concentrate to remember where I was and what was happening. Then all the pain went and I was somewhere warm, quiet and peaceful. I was vaugely aware of my body being thrown about, but it was a long way away. Something was telling me it was time to go, but then two thoughts raced through my head. 1, Sam wouldn't let me hear the end of it if I died like this and 2, my son would never see his father.
This made fight again and I sort of flashed back to where I was. Put everything into one last effort and got air. Had 2 or three more hammerings, but with breaths in between, and then there was a slight gap before the next wave so paddled like mad. Somehow made it back outside and headed west before I got thrown back in.
I half drifted, half paddled round to broughton and by the time I washed up on the beach the halucinations had pretty much stopped. I was semi euphoric/hysterical walking back to gennith.
Got patched up at Morriston, nothing major. Superglued my head back together. Will have to get my thumb sorted as there are bits of bone floating about in the joint. My hands hurt the most, lacerated them trying to climb the cliff. Other than that, I just have some brusing.
The board lost it's outside fins and a large part of the nose. I think most of the fin plugs are salvageable but haven't checked it over properly yet.
I left out the drowning part when I told Sam as she was already more traumatised the I was. Gonna let her get used to what happed before I tell her just how close it was.
christ, that sounds heavy with a capital H. I guess you won't be surfing that spot in those conditions again, eh?
ReplyDelete