Cold but fun

Very light SE wind
Dropping tide from high at 7.30am
3ft+ clean waves
1m on the wave buoy @ 13.2 seconds, 264 degrees

Apologies I'll stop mentioning the cold soon - once it gets bloody warm again!

More snow on the way apparently for SE Wales but at least the windscreen was ice free today until...I put my wipers on accidentally and instantly lost all my driving vision on the way to the beach!

I'd arranged to meet Aran who'd slept in as usual so took my time, got changed at home and drove down to sker. Aran eventually arrived looking like he was more asleep than awake so I walked on down and paddled out into an almost empty lineup.

Clean 3ft+ waves were breaking with some lovely lefts coming through fairly regularly but I opted for a middle bank with rights as it seemed more comfortable with my knee.

Took me a while to get into a decent wave as the first few lefts I had were fast but I was in a bit of pain with my leg so couldn't do much. A little frustrating tbh as I was gagging to whack some lips and go late on some but had to play it safe and be sensible.

Eventually I snagged a nice long, shoulder high, smooth right hander and managed a few top turns before kicking out before the pebble bank :)

Chris joined us and caught some lovely long rights while aran just sat there feeling dizzy with cold! It was freezing though, below 7 degs now and at times my chest felt like there was no neoprene on it at all. It was only after a shockingly cold flush that my body started producing some real heat and I warmed up!

A couple more paddled out but there were plenty of waves as the tide dropped back. I snagged a nice right on my last wave, nudging 4ft with a late take off.

I had a comedy wobble at the bottom, nearly losing it completely but hung on and rode some face passing some grinning surfers who'd witnessed my unorthodox take off technique.

I rode that one in and was glad to be back on dry land with no more damage to my tendon (touch wood).

Had a quick chat with Aran in the car park before leaving, who told me he 'couldn't surf in the cold any more and felt dizzy and sick in the head!'
Looks like he's going to become a summer surfer. Old age has finally caught up with him ;)

Stayed in my suit for the drive home and got changed under a steaming hot shower - the joys of living locally :)

9 days till Fuerteventura not that I'm counting...

A chilly start to the day

I'm nursing a tendon injury below the knee currently so not been surfing much in the last month. I had a dip @ Freshwest 2 weeks ago but only in 2ft weak, surf - off F.point and wasn't particularly comfortable turning or attempting manoeuvres so I've been hitting the pool instead x 3 times a week to keep surf fit.

Off to Fuerteventura on 18 Feb for a week. It's been 4 years since my last visit so I'm stoked to be going back and pray that my beloved Isla de Lobos is working at least once during our trip and that my knee is a bit better by then...

The WCSC have asked local surfers to keep a record of surf and rough numbers in the water in order to use as data for the Atlantic Array windfarm modelling which we can feed into. SAS will then check their computer models independently to see if the data is accurate and we hope to be able to build up a picture of surf conditions and possible outcomes if the wind farm goes ahead.

There's been a small, clean swell the last few days and yesterday we had an Hawaiian style 19 second wave period!

The swell angle has been a little off so we've only been getting 2-3ft and this morning is similar only 2ft. Hardly a breath of wind out there and what there is, is offshore but it's damn cold, barely nudging 2 degrees all day today! And more talk of snow on the way...

Today's swell @ 8am:


1.m + dropping with the tide
Swell angle 264 degs
HT: Big tides, 10m at 6:30am
Wind: Very light SE
At the beach: Clean 2ft and plenty of lines but not much power or shape