Well that's Xmas over for another year...
The Xmas Day swim at Coney Beach was great fun if a little cold underfoot - I actually had frost burn on some of my little pinkies for a few days afterwards but the water itself wasn't too bad and warmer than expected.
After that the swell came in and we were blessed with clean waves for around a week! Boxing Day was small but perfectly formed and from then on in the waves picked up in size.
On Monday I checked Ogmore and nearly came a cropper trying to get the van up the steep hill in the melting snow. The waves were clean but it was too cold to bother at 2-3ft so I headed back to the 'Cawl with Kev in tow.
The tide was pushing in fast but there was much more swell around so we hit a local reef break. It's normally quiet but was we rounded the corner - horror of all horrors! There were 7 guys on it?!
We decided that we'd come this far and faffed around enough already so paddled out and across to a right hand point that was holding a wave, breaking very close to some large, mean looking rocks. We picked off a few, biding our time really for the crowd to either thin or the tide to start dropping.
Eventually there were only 2 left on the reef, local rippers Greg and Rhino so we joined them and had a fun session in hollow 4 foot waves which were beginning to spit air out of the tubes towards the end.
My first wave was a left which came from nowhere and was prob my biggest and best wave. I'm not really sure what happened as it was all so quick.
The wave jacks incredibly fast and before you know it, you're either picking seaweed out of your teeth or flying along a clean face, grabbing the inside rail backhand for stability before flying out into the channel!
Kev then had a few nice long lefts and came back smiling, mumbling about his love for his 'nugget'!
I had a few nice waves including some rights which I've not ridden here before as it means taking off and surfing towards shallow rocks on the point, so not a natural wave but it can be done when the tide is high enough and it holds a good barrel.
I think my next session was on Wednesday at Rest Bay when we had a solid 4-5ft swell and clean with light but chilly NE winds. The waves were fantastic but I was not!
I felt completely worn out after not surfing for nearly 6 weeks and Monday's first dip back had felt much better. The tank was well & truly empty and I gave it my all but never really found my stride. Paddling against the rip was incredibly tiring and the cold drained what little energy I had left.
There were some lovely looking waves coming through especially the rights but I probably only had 4 good waves, 2 lefts and 2 rights with about 10 being ridden in total so well below my normal wave count. It seems from talking to people that the cold & lack of surf time meant most people struggled that day too!
I gave it a miss the next day, caught up on some sleep and was better for it on the Friday. My local spot was absolutely firing. Only 3ft but perfect and I found some form, carving up some nice long rights and scoring plenty of cover-ups and a few barrels for my troubles.
It began small and clean, gradually building into nice bowling lefts and rights. I changed between the two as the tide pushed, sharing waves with Aran, Sven and Chris. On one wave I did the unthinkable and dropped in on Chris who'd had the previous right and was way too deep anyway....honest!
Luckily he didn't make the section but was behind me long enough to see me pull in and out of a nice right hand tube - sorry Chris! ;)
Aran had some nice waves and wipe-outs to boot, falling off an insanely perfect right on his backhand having made the drop, only to do it later (for the pair) on a perfect left but he had his share of good ones too!
Sven struggled, having worked all over Xmas and lacking water time and surf fitness but was always hovering on the shoulder, trying to drop in, so kept me on my toes! ;)
After 2.5 hrs I was well and truly stoked but my pop-up was getting more and more 'sloth like' so it was time to go!
My last surf was on Sunday, same spot, bitterly cold with a dead E wind and clean 2-3ft surf. The wave period was hovering around 18 seconds! so we hit it on the pushing tide about 1.30pm. Kev found solitude on the reefs that day reporting 4-5ft perfection
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The waves sven, wilks, blods and I had were okay, hard work as you had to paddle hard and be up fast to work the small wave face but it did improve towards high tide and looked really nice as we left. I had a few decent cutties on my forehand but there was a limit to what you could do in small surf.
I also had my first bout of cramp for 2011 but a quick stretch on the beach and I was okay for a few more.
Wilks picked off some nice lefts and one lovely right on his way to the beach. Blods was catching a few lefts but not happy with the wave size.
Sven eventually got going, struggling with fitness and having a leaky cold winter suit, boots and gloves but did have a nice left to finish on, laying down a 3 nice turns on the face and making the inside section to go off the lip before the sniper got to him!
2010 ended terribly but 2011 has started well. Here's to more perfection!
On Friday I'm going on safari so thought it a good time to say hi to all my international friends!
