Not much surf to report since our last good swell really, a few small longboard days here and there but that's been about it.
I went for a run last night and was saddened to find a small but fun looking summer wave at rest breaking around 2ft on sets so perhaps I should have checked first! ;0
The Welsh National Surfing Championships are scheduled for this weekend but with a small swell forecast I have might doubts as to whether they will actually run anything other than longboard heats...
More hot n sunny weather ahead so it looks like I'll be cranking up the BBQ and having a few cold ones this weekend :)
Sunday looks like our best hope of a wave in South Wales so fingers crossed.
This in from my amigo in Oregon - the next big thing? I doubt it some how, imagine all the kooks getting out back and then getting into trouble when the batteries die...
"Powered by an integrated twin-lithium ion battery pack, WaveJet is capable of 20 pounds of thrust, has a continuous run-time of over 30 minutes, and recharges in a standard wall socket".
This bit sounds positively idyllic: "Kayakers will have an auxiliary power source beyond their paddles. So you can expend less energy fighting currents and have more fun riding them."
"SUPers can get up and running immediately and push the limits of their board's capabilities".
"You will no longer have to depend solely on the strength of your arms or be towed into big waves".
All in all it sounds pretty horrific to me!
http://wavejet.com
Thursday 21 April 2011
Friday 8 April 2011
3 in 3
Thursday night @ Rest Bay:
Waves: 1.2 m
Period: 10.8 seconds
Winds:Light SE
Tides: 2 hours before high
It's been a fun week for surf - three surfs in three days can't be bad and I actually feel paddle fit at least :)
After my paddleathon on Weds night I opted for Rest Bay last night and bumped into 'the plough' as I parked up. I'd not seen him in ages and it turns out he's still living in Bristol but now working at a male topless waiter in some dodgy bar in Barry?! I bet his parents don't know...
We wandered down to surf an average looking Rest Bay around 6pm and ended up finding some extremely enjoyable walls to bash. Despite the wind which eventually dropped and swng from light onshore to light offshore, the wave faces were actually pretty glassy.
The rip was as annoying as ever but I did my best to take tactical lefts and try to stay as close to golf as possible.
Saw a few of the WCSC crew out - Brad, Tom Blythe, Mat Hapgood, Steve Horn etc and we all had a good craic in fun surf.
Although a bit crumbly at times, the waves were quite fast on the inside bowls and allowed for a few manoeuvres to be unleashed. My first wave was a late head high left on which a koo proceeded to drop in, fall off and narrowly miss decapitating me.
I had a few words, he asked if I was okay and then proceeded to hoot like a maniac as he paddled off for more, clearly stoked at catching a wave and getting pummelled. Welcome to Rest - LOL
The only fly in the ointment was a sponger on my last wave who not only dropped in but turned around to look at me as I called him off and carried on going until I practically speared him up the ass! ;) cheeky so and so...
But my first 3 waves were better than anything I'd had in 2.5hrs on Weds night so I left the water a happy man!
Friday morning and stoked grandad salutes the surf!
Wave Height :1.1 m
Wave Period: 11 seconds
Winds: Light SE
Tides: 2 hours before high
Still keen for more I did the early today and donned my Spring suit with no gloves or good for the first time. A bit of a gamble but it paid off nicely although I was trying to avoid duckdiving at all costs on the paddle out!
I can't tell you how glad I am to have finally broken off the winter shackles of a 6mm suit, hood and mitts. I felt like a man reborn today and seemed to be popping up quicker too!
Saw rattz and aran, malc and gitto out the back and enjoyed a few fun sized 2-3ft and clean.
The sun was shining and a light offshore made it really nice. Nothing huge but some fun drops occasionally and a few nice rights to be had. High pressure coming into play now so doubt I'll get wet tomorrow but never say never!
Kev, Larry and James scored a nice Gower reef on Thursday at 6ft and had a great time by all accounts with Kev having one spectacular crowd pleasing wipeout. Great stuff! :)
Waves: 1.2 m
Period: 10.8 seconds
Winds:Light SE
Tides: 2 hours before high
It's been a fun week for surf - three surfs in three days can't be bad and I actually feel paddle fit at least :)
After my paddleathon on Weds night I opted for Rest Bay last night and bumped into 'the plough' as I parked up. I'd not seen him in ages and it turns out he's still living in Bristol but now working at a male topless waiter in some dodgy bar in Barry?! I bet his parents don't know...
We wandered down to surf an average looking Rest Bay around 6pm and ended up finding some extremely enjoyable walls to bash. Despite the wind which eventually dropped and swng from light onshore to light offshore, the wave faces were actually pretty glassy.
The rip was as annoying as ever but I did my best to take tactical lefts and try to stay as close to golf as possible.
Saw a few of the WCSC crew out - Brad, Tom Blythe, Mat Hapgood, Steve Horn etc and we all had a good craic in fun surf.
Although a bit crumbly at times, the waves were quite fast on the inside bowls and allowed for a few manoeuvres to be unleashed. My first wave was a late head high left on which a koo proceeded to drop in, fall off and narrowly miss decapitating me.
I had a few words, he asked if I was okay and then proceeded to hoot like a maniac as he paddled off for more, clearly stoked at catching a wave and getting pummelled. Welcome to Rest - LOL
The only fly in the ointment was a sponger on my last wave who not only dropped in but turned around to look at me as I called him off and carried on going until I practically speared him up the ass! ;) cheeky so and so...
But my first 3 waves were better than anything I'd had in 2.5hrs on Weds night so I left the water a happy man!
Friday morning and stoked grandad salutes the surf!
Wave Height :1.1 m
Wave Period: 11 seconds
Winds: Light SE
Tides: 2 hours before high
Still keen for more I did the early today and donned my Spring suit with no gloves or good for the first time. A bit of a gamble but it paid off nicely although I was trying to avoid duckdiving at all costs on the paddle out!
I can't tell you how glad I am to have finally broken off the winter shackles of a 6mm suit, hood and mitts. I felt like a man reborn today and seemed to be popping up quicker too!
Saw rattz and aran, malc and gitto out the back and enjoyed a few fun sized 2-3ft and clean.
The sun was shining and a light offshore made it really nice. Nothing huge but some fun drops occasionally and a few nice rights to be had. High pressure coming into play now so doubt I'll get wet tomorrow but never say never!
Kev, Larry and James scored a nice Gower reef on Thursday at 6ft and had a great time by all accounts with Kev having one spectacular crowd pleasing wipeout. Great stuff! :)
Thursday 7 April 2011
A river runs through it
Waves: 1.3m
Period: 13.7 secs
Wind: Light SSE
That's how the rip felt last night @ sker!
Still it was a lovely evening and I shared the waves with only one other surfer for a while before the after work crowd turned up. The waves ranged from 3-4ft with shifting peaks, the odd rogue set and lots of pristine waves on offer but always one step ahead of gull!
The first few waves were nice. Fast, punchy bowling rights. Short rides but steep jacking take offs made for plenty of fun drops.
Then we had some glass as the waves almost went oily for a time, then back to a bit more chop but clean waves on the face and so it went on getting bigger, dropping off a bit as the tide pushed in.
I felt like I was chasing ghosts but caught enough to keep me happy - just but came away feeling like I'd beeb slightly mugged again. I was determined to try and catch one big set wave before I left and by the time I did, it just turned into a nice drop and then deep water.
One guy paddled out, sat next to me and the took a lovely 4ft right which I'd been waiting for and paddling after for about 30 mins. He had a really nice long ride and that kind of summed up my session - always in the wrong spot. He didn't catch many more waves though but it's just down to luck some days.
The far left was cranking, with some lovely jacking lefts barreling through but again, tricky to catch and noone really nailed them. Ianto had a few nice drops though.
Will snagged a couple of nice barrels on his lid though and seemed to be enjoying himself. Aran & Chris lookde to be having a similar session to me, surrounded by perfect waves but paddling their socks off trying to ride one!
An odd session but nice to get in and I had a good 2.5 hrs paddling so I'm one step closer to getting my surf fitness back :)
The wind was on it a bit today with WSW first thing but it looks like it's cleaning up now on the dropping tide:
Waves: 1.3m
Period: 11.8
Wind: Light to moderate WSW
Period: 13.7 secs
Wind: Light SSE
That's how the rip felt last night @ sker!
Still it was a lovely evening and I shared the waves with only one other surfer for a while before the after work crowd turned up. The waves ranged from 3-4ft with shifting peaks, the odd rogue set and lots of pristine waves on offer but always one step ahead of gull!
The first few waves were nice. Fast, punchy bowling rights. Short rides but steep jacking take offs made for plenty of fun drops.
Then we had some glass as the waves almost went oily for a time, then back to a bit more chop but clean waves on the face and so it went on getting bigger, dropping off a bit as the tide pushed in.
I felt like I was chasing ghosts but caught enough to keep me happy - just but came away feeling like I'd beeb slightly mugged again. I was determined to try and catch one big set wave before I left and by the time I did, it just turned into a nice drop and then deep water.
One guy paddled out, sat next to me and the took a lovely 4ft right which I'd been waiting for and paddling after for about 30 mins. He had a really nice long ride and that kind of summed up my session - always in the wrong spot. He didn't catch many more waves though but it's just down to luck some days.
The far left was cranking, with some lovely jacking lefts barreling through but again, tricky to catch and noone really nailed them. Ianto had a few nice drops though.
Will snagged a couple of nice barrels on his lid though and seemed to be enjoying himself. Aran & Chris lookde to be having a similar session to me, surrounded by perfect waves but paddling their socks off trying to ride one!
An odd session but nice to get in and I had a good 2.5 hrs paddling so I'm one step closer to getting my surf fitness back :)
The wind was on it a bit today with WSW first thing but it looks like it's cleaning up now on the dropping tide:
Waves: 1.3m
Period: 11.8
Wind: Light to moderate WSW
Wednesday 6 April 2011
New swell
Looks like we've got a few dyas of decent surf comnig up before high pressure comes to the party and spoils eeverything!
The swell is 3-4ft and winds are light Southerly so it looks like I'll be surfing after work today :)
Nice pics from Hugh @ Porthcawlsurf today:
The wave period was nudging 11 seconds earlier with a 1.7m swell and hardly a breath of no wind but time was not on my side this morning.
Might see some of you in later!
The swell is 3-4ft and winds are light Southerly so it looks like I'll be surfing after work today :)
Nice pics from Hugh @ Porthcawlsurf today:
The wave period was nudging 11 seconds earlier with a 1.7m swell and hardly a breath of no wind but time was not on my side this morning.
Might see some of you in later!
Last weekend
Mixed bag of late. Friday evening was okay for a quick dip @ coney...yes coney. I snagged one or two okay rides but my best was probably a left which held up long enough to whack the lip a couple of times despite some kook paddling right across me dressed in a rather severe looking helmet - and no it wasn't Hazel! This was a bloke.
My next session was on the Saturday at Rest Bay. The sun was blazing and although onshore, the wave faces looked clean. I bumped into Agger son the walk down so we paddled out together near the golf course.
You could see it was a hefty swell by the number of surfers actually out the back - very few! Most were being wshed up on the inside amongst the mountains of white water.
I joked to Aggers that I'd come back and find him in half an hour but he had the last laugh! He set off first and I followed after a quick warm up. What followed was a shoulder burning 20 min endurance as I battled wave after wave of white water smashing down on me, every time I mistakenly thought I'd made some progress!
There was no out the back, just different areas of breaking wave which got quite frustrating as I couldn't actually see where I was paddling to - no end point!
I almost felt like giving up and had aggers not made it, prob would have gone in and tried further down but I persevered and eventually found my spot in the lineup. There weren't many faces, prob only 6 or 7 guys out there and I bumped into Tristan, Greg Hill and Rhino.
The waves were qute chunky, not massive ( 4ft+ on sets) but had plenty of underlying power and I had a few nice big drops, just about hanging on and making something of a ride out of them before the tide got too full. Great fun though and the biggest I've been out in in ages so well worth it.
My next session was on the Saturday at Rest Bay. The sun was blazing and although onshore, the wave faces looked clean. I bumped into Agger son the walk down so we paddled out together near the golf course.
You could see it was a hefty swell by the number of surfers actually out the back - very few! Most were being wshed up on the inside amongst the mountains of white water.
I joked to Aggers that I'd come back and find him in half an hour but he had the last laugh! He set off first and I followed after a quick warm up. What followed was a shoulder burning 20 min endurance as I battled wave after wave of white water smashing down on me, every time I mistakenly thought I'd made some progress!
There was no out the back, just different areas of breaking wave which got quite frustrating as I couldn't actually see where I was paddling to - no end point!
I almost felt like giving up and had aggers not made it, prob would have gone in and tried further down but I persevered and eventually found my spot in the lineup. There weren't many faces, prob only 6 or 7 guys out there and I bumped into Tristan, Greg Hill and Rhino.
The waves were qute chunky, not massive ( 4ft+ on sets) but had plenty of underlying power and I had a few nice big drops, just about hanging on and making something of a ride out of them before the tide got too full. Great fun though and the biggest I've been out in in ages so well worth it.
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