I've recently launched a new surfing section in my BBC Wales Nature & Outdoors website.
I've named a few breaks that weren't featured in the previous batch of guides I wrote about 6 or 7 years ago but felt that with all the information about them being readily available on the web - wannasurf etc - it wouldn't do any harm
And let's face it - if a spot has 50+ guys surfing it on a good day then it's no longer classified as an x spot, is it?!
The old guides are pretty poor cousins in comparison but plenty of people still read as they do well on Google SEO, so I hope these offer an improved service.
The BBC Wales Surfing website will be coming down at some point - the end of an era but I'll try and re-purpose some of the best bits.
It was great fun to do and I appreciate everyone who participated via the Off The Lip message board, sent in photos, profiles, travel stories & features - it really was a website by surfers for surfers and we had some great nights out too!
Feedback and comments on the new stuff appreciated as ever.
Friday, 10 September 2010
Giant waves hit cruise ship
Old news now but I'd not seen the footage before. Scary stuff!
Amateur video shows waves which reached eight metres - hitting a Cypriot-owned cruise ship in the Mediterranean.
Two people were killed as the waves hit the Louis Majesty during its 12 day trip in the Mediterranean.
Amateur video shows waves which reached eight metres - hitting a Cypriot-owned cruise ship in the Mediterranean.
Two people were killed as the waves hit the Louis Majesty during its 12 day trip in the Mediterranean.
Wednesday, 8 September 2010
I've hit rock bottom...
Swell: 0.9m
Period: 9.9 seconds
Wind: light SE
Tide: On the dropping tide, HT @ 6.50am, 10.2m
The winds eased over night and a small clean swell was pushing through this morning. Large tides had reduced Rest Bay to lines but the occasional set broke inside hinting at what could be.
The scarweather wave buoy was only ready 0.9m and around 10 seconds with light SE winds so I met up with local booger enthusiast - Will, for some high tide reef action.
Rest Bay @ HT today:
We arrived to find 2-3ft lefts peeling along a very shallow reef - it was less than waist deep in places and at times more like knee deep!
Paddling out I scraped fins :( and finger tips but made it out the back in one piece.
The waves definitely favoured the sponge today as Will could sit deeper, sitting on top of what became a dry slab at times. He even scored a few cover ups today, pulling in nicely under one chunky 3ft lip before being eaten up.
I had a few nice ones but was torn between take off area and keeping my fins in one piece! The reef in front of me was sucking dry and new rock obstacles appeared and disappeared with each surge of the tide.
Nevertheless, I managed to pick off a few nice rides with one left in particular holding up beautifully and throwing a nice hollow lip over. I didn't have time to pull in but had a nice ride anyway.
As the tide dropped, I began to move a little deeper but went one step too far...
As I got to my feet to make the drop, I spotted rock boils all around me turning into dry islands - all I needed was my deck chair! Time to bail but I'd run out of ocean. I was landlocked.
I jumped off; going as high and as flat as I could but landed with a thud onto jagged reef - Ouch. I felt a vertebrae bang beneath me and then realised the key inside my aqua-pac had softened the blow. Money well spent. No harm done luckily but that was a very close call.
In all my years surfing that's the first time when I've ever really hit rock bottom! No pun intended ;0
The tide dropped back but rather than improving the waves broke into deeper water and stopped delivering by 9am. A few peaks on the beach began to break but it was time to go. rest looked terrible but a few 'desperados' were in giving it a go, as usual.
Period: 9.9 seconds
Wind: light SE
Tide: On the dropping tide, HT @ 6.50am, 10.2m
The winds eased over night and a small clean swell was pushing through this morning. Large tides had reduced Rest Bay to lines but the occasional set broke inside hinting at what could be.
The scarweather wave buoy was only ready 0.9m and around 10 seconds with light SE winds so I met up with local booger enthusiast - Will, for some high tide reef action.
Rest Bay @ HT today:
We arrived to find 2-3ft lefts peeling along a very shallow reef - it was less than waist deep in places and at times more like knee deep!
Paddling out I scraped fins :( and finger tips but made it out the back in one piece.
The waves definitely favoured the sponge today as Will could sit deeper, sitting on top of what became a dry slab at times. He even scored a few cover ups today, pulling in nicely under one chunky 3ft lip before being eaten up.
I had a few nice ones but was torn between take off area and keeping my fins in one piece! The reef in front of me was sucking dry and new rock obstacles appeared and disappeared with each surge of the tide.
Nevertheless, I managed to pick off a few nice rides with one left in particular holding up beautifully and throwing a nice hollow lip over. I didn't have time to pull in but had a nice ride anyway.
As the tide dropped, I began to move a little deeper but went one step too far...
As I got to my feet to make the drop, I spotted rock boils all around me turning into dry islands - all I needed was my deck chair! Time to bail but I'd run out of ocean. I was landlocked.
I jumped off; going as high and as flat as I could but landed with a thud onto jagged reef - Ouch. I felt a vertebrae bang beneath me and then realised the key inside my aqua-pac had softened the blow. Money well spent. No harm done luckily but that was a very close call.
In all my years surfing that's the first time when I've ever really hit rock bottom! No pun intended ;0
The tide dropped back but rather than improving the waves broke into deeper water and stopped delivering by 9am. A few peaks on the beach began to break but it was time to go. rest looked terrible but a few 'desperados' were in giving it a go, as usual.
Monday, 6 September 2010
Bore hunters breathe a sigh of relief
The government will sound the death knell for the world's largest tidal energy project this month.
The tidal energy barrage was to be built across the Severn estuary between Somerset and south Wales but will be scrapped when the government rules out public funding for the controversial £20bn plan.
www.guardian.co.uk/environment
The tidal energy barrage was to be built across the Severn estuary between Somerset and south Wales but will be scrapped when the government rules out public funding for the controversial £20bn plan.
www.guardian.co.uk/environment
Surfer rescue
Gower surfers rescue some clown who'd made a home made raft and was stuck in a rip off Gennith on Friday...heading out to sea.
These people should be named and shamed IMO!
These people should be named and shamed IMO!
Saturday
The promised swell never really materialised in the end. I think Friday was the day TBH with reports of four foot perfection later in the afternoon.
The swell was meant to build and winds remain light but typically - the winds increased a lot - the strongest winds all week long arrived, but at least they were SE and offshore.
Rattz couldn't make it so I arranged to meet up with Doc at the same spot I'd surfed on Friday morning.
A few cars were already parked up but not too many. I fiddled with my new camera mounting for a while and decided not to bring it as I was concerned about losing it if the swell was as big as predicted - it wasn't.
Nevertheless we were greeted with clean, howling offshore 2-3ft. We found a nice peak to ourselves and surfed small clean waves for an hour before the tide spoilt our sand bank.
Doc was surfing his new board - a shocking pink flowery, 'Pot Bellied Nugget'. He'd bought it for a good price - virtually new but not seen the colour ;)
I've re-named the board 'Big Gay Al' for him as it's much more fitting than 'Penelope'...
Doc paddled out with his longboard mentality, sitting deep and struggled to begin with, mistiming his paddle or getting his feet positioning wrong.
New boards can be tricky - either heaven or hell. I've had to work on pretty much much all of my last 4 boards as none have been the same as I've been used to riding but that's what surfboard experimentation is all about! Mastering different shapes.
He's gone down from a 9ft mal to a 5'6" egg shape so a bit of a mental re-adjustment and foot positioning was needed.
He got into it after a while though and found his feet. I picked off one lone right which was perfectly shaped and had a nice long ride off the back, landing a floater to finish. The rest were okay, just a bit small for my liking.
The wave shape to our right was perfect with little mini 'Kirra' barrels firing all the way down the line but it was just a bit small for us which was frustrating.
We were getting a bit cold and the time had come to call it a day or gamble. I figured we should gamble and get out and walk down the beach for a new peak; just in case it was bigger.
Thankfully it was and Doc picked us out a nice peak with a left and a right and no-one on it! The sets were bigger, 3ft+ and nice and hollow but at times hard to get into. The inside was firing though.
We paddled out and instantly felt more power as the waves exploded on our backs. We both enjoyed the last hour with Doc opting for more lefts and me tending to go right. It's funny how some boards ride.
I managed to sneak into a couple of quick cover ups and Doc ended on his best ride of the day with a nice long left with a good lip bash to finish!
The wind had chilled us both and I now sit here with a cold. Not a bad 2 hour+ session but not as classic as we'd hoped for.
Still when you have a new board, just getting it into waves is always nice and I think we might be seeing Doc riding 'Big Gay Al' a lot more this winter!
That afternoon we popped down to Swansea to visit 'Laidback Larry' who'd helped organise Baefest and I hogged out on pig roast and paella! :)
A nice event with a cool atmosphere and a perfect way to end the day. I've now got man flu so out of action for a couple of days me thinks.
The swell was meant to build and winds remain light but typically - the winds increased a lot - the strongest winds all week long arrived, but at least they were SE and offshore.
Rattz couldn't make it so I arranged to meet up with Doc at the same spot I'd surfed on Friday morning.
A few cars were already parked up but not too many. I fiddled with my new camera mounting for a while and decided not to bring it as I was concerned about losing it if the swell was as big as predicted - it wasn't.
Nevertheless we were greeted with clean, howling offshore 2-3ft. We found a nice peak to ourselves and surfed small clean waves for an hour before the tide spoilt our sand bank.
Doc was surfing his new board - a shocking pink flowery, 'Pot Bellied Nugget'. He'd bought it for a good price - virtually new but not seen the colour ;)
I've re-named the board 'Big Gay Al' for him as it's much more fitting than 'Penelope'...
Doc paddled out with his longboard mentality, sitting deep and struggled to begin with, mistiming his paddle or getting his feet positioning wrong.
New boards can be tricky - either heaven or hell. I've had to work on pretty much much all of my last 4 boards as none have been the same as I've been used to riding but that's what surfboard experimentation is all about! Mastering different shapes.
He's gone down from a 9ft mal to a 5'6" egg shape so a bit of a mental re-adjustment and foot positioning was needed.
He got into it after a while though and found his feet. I picked off one lone right which was perfectly shaped and had a nice long ride off the back, landing a floater to finish. The rest were okay, just a bit small for my liking.
The wave shape to our right was perfect with little mini 'Kirra' barrels firing all the way down the line but it was just a bit small for us which was frustrating.
We were getting a bit cold and the time had come to call it a day or gamble. I figured we should gamble and get out and walk down the beach for a new peak; just in case it was bigger.
Thankfully it was and Doc picked us out a nice peak with a left and a right and no-one on it! The sets were bigger, 3ft+ and nice and hollow but at times hard to get into. The inside was firing though.
We paddled out and instantly felt more power as the waves exploded on our backs. We both enjoyed the last hour with Doc opting for more lefts and me tending to go right. It's funny how some boards ride.
I managed to sneak into a couple of quick cover ups and Doc ended on his best ride of the day with a nice long left with a good lip bash to finish!
The wind had chilled us both and I now sit here with a cold. Not a bad 2 hour+ session but not as classic as we'd hoped for.
Still when you have a new board, just getting it into waves is always nice and I think we might be seeing Doc riding 'Big Gay Al' a lot more this winter!
That afternoon we popped down to Swansea to visit 'Laidback Larry' who'd helped organise Baefest and I hogged out on pig roast and paella! :)
A nice event with a cool atmosphere and a perfect way to end the day. I've now got man flu so out of action for a couple of days me thinks.
Friday, 3 September 2010
Perfection personified for while
We've had some weird wave periods this week - 17 seconds + but a low underlying period deivering 2-3ft and clean most days
5am start today. I actually fell asleep with the alarm clock in my hand so I could switch it off quickly and not wake the missus! It kind of worked...
Switched on my mobile to find the usual barrage of texts from Rattz saying he's coming, he's not coming, it's too small, he's coming, he's on his way, he's in the van...
That's what too much fast living as a youngster does to you kids! Let that be a warning to you ;)
So anyway... we met up at one of our post apocalyptic industrial haunts and wondered down the old track and onto a new track arriving to see a perfect 3-4ft set unleash hell on the sandbar at which point Rattz uttered: "I'm glad you got me up. That was worth getting up for!"
Now I had planned on taking some video today but re-charged the wrong sized batteries last night so apologies. Will try again tomorrow - on saturday.
We paddled out. I attempted a dry hair paddle out and stood off my board as a set wave exploded, at which point the white water nailed me and sent me flying backwards - wet hair. I should've just duck dived it instead!
I was out back just in time fora perfect wave to roll through. the wind was light SE and the sun not quite up but this thing was glassy loveliness personified. Took off and went flying down a fast long wall blasting the lip as I went, 3 or 4 times and paddled straight back and did it 3 more times. Yes!!!
I tried my luck at a few stalls and cover ups up today was not the day and there was an annoying middle section which kept breaking early so I stopped all pig dog duties and focussed on down the line speed instead.
This was already turning into one of my best sessions this summer. Ratter caught some and things were going well. I even dropped in on him on an absolute beauty ( sorry!) but he was late... and I thought he's not make the section but I reluctantly kicked out and let him carry on his merry way.
It was a peach of a wave and he said it was nice but would've been even better without me on it! lol
Ratter then switched into dominator mode and caught waves every which way and caught some sweet looking lefts. The tide pushed in and brought with it a rip which took us off our peak for a while and we paddled back & forth trying to rekindle our previous delights.
Eventually the waves returned and actually picked up as we left around 8am. We did the old catch one more wave thing with both if us catching at least 3 more each and that was that.
My last but wave was a small, clean affair but I managed to bust out my ass and tail on it and land in some or other fashion. Rattz finished on a nice left and blasted the guts out of the lip before surfing in.
Reports coming in now of 4ft perfection at my local so I'm torn for where to go tomorrow.
Should I stay or should I go now.....?
5am start today. I actually fell asleep with the alarm clock in my hand so I could switch it off quickly and not wake the missus! It kind of worked...
Switched on my mobile to find the usual barrage of texts from Rattz saying he's coming, he's not coming, it's too small, he's coming, he's on his way, he's in the van...
That's what too much fast living as a youngster does to you kids! Let that be a warning to you ;)
So anyway... we met up at one of our post apocalyptic industrial haunts and wondered down the old track and onto a new track arriving to see a perfect 3-4ft set unleash hell on the sandbar at which point Rattz uttered: "I'm glad you got me up. That was worth getting up for!"
Now I had planned on taking some video today but re-charged the wrong sized batteries last night so apologies. Will try again tomorrow - on saturday.
We paddled out. I attempted a dry hair paddle out and stood off my board as a set wave exploded, at which point the white water nailed me and sent me flying backwards - wet hair. I should've just duck dived it instead!
I was out back just in time fora perfect wave to roll through. the wind was light SE and the sun not quite up but this thing was glassy loveliness personified. Took off and went flying down a fast long wall blasting the lip as I went, 3 or 4 times and paddled straight back and did it 3 more times. Yes!!!
I tried my luck at a few stalls and cover ups up today was not the day and there was an annoying middle section which kept breaking early so I stopped all pig dog duties and focussed on down the line speed instead.
This was already turning into one of my best sessions this summer. Ratter caught some and things were going well. I even dropped in on him on an absolute beauty ( sorry!) but he was late... and I thought he's not make the section but I reluctantly kicked out and let him carry on his merry way.
It was a peach of a wave and he said it was nice but would've been even better without me on it! lol
Ratter then switched into dominator mode and caught waves every which way and caught some sweet looking lefts. The tide pushed in and brought with it a rip which took us off our peak for a while and we paddled back & forth trying to rekindle our previous delights.
Eventually the waves returned and actually picked up as we left around 8am. We did the old catch one more wave thing with both if us catching at least 3 more each and that was that.
My last but wave was a small, clean affair but I managed to bust out my ass and tail on it and land in some or other fashion. Rattz finished on a nice left and blasted the guts out of the lip before surfing in.
Reports coming in now of 4ft perfection at my local so I'm torn for where to go tomorrow.
Should I stay or should I go now.....?
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