A weekend of two halves

Saturday's conditions:
Wave height: 1.5m
Wave Period: 12.7 secs
Wind: Southerly, decreasing in strength
Tide: Small, around 7.5m and pushing in.

Saturday delivered as promised. I met up with local sponger Will, Doc fresh back from his travels to China and Jon who'd I not seen for ages.

IOur local spot didn't disappoint and as we staggered up the last dune, we found fairly clean 3-4ft waves - maybe a little bigger on the sets.

The tide was pushing in but the banks were nicely groomed and there were a few nice hollow wedges piling through.

Finally we had some decent sized waves with power behind them :) which thinned out the weekend crowd considerably - as most learners were washed in and took up refuge on the beach.

I even noticed a wooden bench above the dunes - normally empty, had at least 6 wet bums on it today - all dressed in rubber. No, it wasn't a gimp convention! They were definitely surfers.

As the tide pushed the waves increased in size and we were all caught out by the first sneaker set - a solid 6ft and at least 5 waves came through.

I was quite far out and trying to get into a position to catch one but alas they all side stepped me but but at least I was far enoguh out to remain unscathed.

I turned around to see the white water and foam left inside and laugh at all the scattered bodies and boards - recovering from nature's version of a steam roller!

Will got into his stride early and seemed to be taking off on everything, scoring a few nice cover ups for his troubles. I picked off one or two but didn't really sink my teeth into it until about an hour later. It seemed as I were an anti wave magnet - perfect waves barreling everywhere I wasn't, so I gave up paddling and waited.

Doc paddled out and sat deep with will hoping to pick off some bigger sets but was struggling to get into them and the rest of us moved onto a nice inside bank and waited.

I decided to sit amongst some groms who will seemed to think were Polynesian?! but they had cardiff accents so I wasn't convinced. Nice guys but lacking in confidence who at times they looked to be crapping themselves as the bigger set waves steamed through.

I attempted to give them a little pep talk, telling them to paddle hard/head down and get stuck in but I've a feeling it fell on deaf ears...Fear is a wonderful thing (providing you can control it).

The upside of this was that a peak with 4 surfers on it only had one actually surfing - me :) so I had the pick of it.

A nice right walled up and began to barrel so off I went. I went flying down onto the inside bank and figured I'd only get one manoeuvre in so bottom turned hard and blasted a kind of cutback/layback snap thing at a ridiculously acute angle and somehow made it?

I wasn't expecting that but my board had other ideas and carried on it's merry way with me hanging on in slight disbelief; lining up another lip bash befores liding up and over the roof - narrowly avoiding the shoredunp inside which was over my head and best avoided. Whooopee!

I'd waited a good hour for that wave but it was amazing. I paddled right back out and the same thing happened again - another fast, hollow right appeared on cue waiting to be destroyed.

I knew it was too good to be true and it was. It didn't last and as the tide moved in; so the rip dragged us down the beach.

Jon hasn't been in for a while but was getting some nice drops - making some and getting pitched on plenty too from all accounts but enjoying himself.

Will continued to snag everything that came his way and poor old doc sat and waited patiently, hoping..Eventually he paddled in to the inside bank and snagged a lovely right hander, milking it through to the inside.

He'd been in China all week on business so that one wave definitely helped him overcome his jetlag and forget all about the poor frogs he'd eaten.

The shorebreak was fast and furious and a solid 4ft and we all took turns at testing ou luck - some waves held up, some didn't but my final cramp inducing right hand wave told me that it was time to go.

I paddled hard into a perfect looking peak only to find my right leg locking as cramp bit into my calf muscle - causing me to squeal in pain, grabbing my leg and falling off mid take off! :(

We'd been in 3 hours and all had some nice waves but will 'the slab hunter' had definitely had the best of it, taking off on absolutely everything and making a fair few.


Sunday, 7.30am
Wave Height 1.3m
Wave Period: 9.7 seconds
Winds: Every which way, starting off strong but easing considerably before strenghtening again?!

I dragged Will out of bed today as punishment and took him to another spot - an ugly industrial wasteland on the promise of 3-4ft barrels. The wind had other ideas though and actually turned from E to NE to SSE to SE to SW in the space of an hour ruining any chance we had of getting a decent surf.

The 2ft dribble didn't inspire so we called it a day after an hour and traipsed back to the van in the pouring rain. The puddles we'd splashed through on the way down were a good couple of inches deeper upon our return!

But that's the beauty of surfing - it's completetly unpredictable. It makes the good times seem so much better abd the bad times...worse and bad as ever!