Apologies I've been off recently with work, so haven't been near the coast but I hear it's been pretty good.
Friday saw a late swell developing and for those patient enough to wait - 4-5ft and clean waves were delivered on a plate just before sunset.
I returned home late on Friday night, shattered but keen for a dip the following day.
On paper it looked spectacular with a good swell, big wave period and straight offshore - easterly winds blowing all day long.
I was too tired to do my normal dawn patrol so took a leisurely walk down around 9am with sponger Will.
We arrived to find the large tide had already receded a long way back but there were still some super hollow rights reeling off all along the beach.
We paddled out and waited...a set eventually pushed through and Will was off, getting barrelled twice on the same wave.
To say he was happy would be an understatement ;)
My turn next...I'd opted to surf my old 6'6 single fin thinking we'd be dealing with 6ft waves and I'd be glad of the extra paddle power and length required for making the drops on bigger waves.
As it happened I didn't need it but at least the extra weight helped keep the board down in the strong winds.
I paddled hard, headlong into a howling easterly and took off blind with the salt stinging my eyes. I scored a little head dip in the lip as I made the drop; bottom turned and saw before me - a lovely long, hollow wall begging to be pulled up and into.
I stalled slightly and prepared to pull up under the feathering lip and into the barrel but ended up slipping off over the nose of the board into a face plant! :(
Close but no cigar.
Will paddled back out and caught another nice one and I had a longish right and then the unthinkable happened...the waves completely died!
We were left with 2ft and hollow but the wind grew in ferocity and it just became a battle which I didn't have the energy for. After an hour we'd both given up and gone in.
The early birds had caught the worm today - reporting 4-6ft barrels @ first light but there we go - I've had my share over the years and I've finally missed one!
I've learnt an invaluable lesson though - sometimes it pays to listen to your body. My body was saying 'NO' all the way down to the beach on Saturday but I ignored it and went for a fatigue driven surf anyway which proved to be futile.
High pressure is with us for the rest of the week so no surf but at least the sun is shining and we've had a few warm 'Indian Summer' type days. Temps will be cooling though.
I'm off to Ireland surfing on Saturday for a week and it looks promising once this high moves on so fingers crossed.
I'll be on borrowed boards which should prove interesting. Now all I need is a decent weather chart.
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
Sunday, 3 October 2010
Welsh blog awards
Not sure how it happened but my little old suring blog has made the shortlist in the 'sports' category in the Welsh blog awards!
Highly chuffed with that but I doubt I'll win. Nice to be nominated all the same.
So watch this space and fear not - normal blogging service will continue, whether I win or not! :)
Might see some of you down @ Chapter for the awards night next Thursday.
Highly chuffed with that but I doubt I'll win. Nice to be nominated all the same.
So watch this space and fear not - normal blogging service will continue, whether I win or not! :)
Might see some of you down @ Chapter for the awards night next Thursday.
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!
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!
Saturday, 2 October 2010
Sat 10am
Just a quick mobile phone update.
The wind is still blowing pretty strong but veering Southerly. This pic was taken from opposite the Fairways Hotel where it's a little more sheltered and around 2ft.
Rest Bay is a bit more wind affected but looks a solid 3-4ft and chunky with plenty of power to it. It's not clean but not a total mess either and there are few rights holding up.
Plenty of surfers in already this morning!
Promises, promises...
Well, as usual this summer/autumn - the winds haven't played ball and delivered us neatly groomed, corduroy lines...
Light SE were predicted but instead we've got moderate SSW and fairly messy conditions.
The swell is nudging 1.7m and a decent wave period so I'll be waxing up the 6'6 single fin this morning for some old skool bottom turns ;)
All is not lost though as current forecasts predict lightening S winds mid morning so we'll have to wait and see what happens as the tide pushes in.
At least the sun is shining (currently) so the Ryder Cup can get a few more rounds played. Virtually no wind forecast for Sunday, so sleeping tonight knowing we might just have some glassy surf @ first light will be tricky.
Two days of full sleep thanks to junior's teeth subsiding have left me feeling re-charged today!
I'm also toying with getting some head-cam POV surfing footage today too if it's big enough so check back for the video on Sunday - something to watch over your sunday lunch :)
Light SE were predicted but instead we've got moderate SSW and fairly messy conditions.
The swell is nudging 1.7m and a decent wave period so I'll be waxing up the 6'6 single fin this morning for some old skool bottom turns ;)
All is not lost though as current forecasts predict lightening S winds mid morning so we'll have to wait and see what happens as the tide pushes in.
At least the sun is shining (currently) so the Ryder Cup can get a few more rounds played. Virtually no wind forecast for Sunday, so sleeping tonight knowing we might just have some glassy surf @ first light will be tricky.
Two days of full sleep thanks to junior's teeth subsiding have left me feeling re-charged today!
I'm also toying with getting some head-cam POV surfing footage today too if it's big enough so check back for the video on Sunday - something to watch over your sunday lunch :)
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
Good things coming
Not much to report today, smallish surf and strong onshore winds first thing and torrential rain didn't help matters....
So a potential drying day for the wetsuit, if I can get home and get it on the line in time.
The next few days look very very interesting...
We have some amazing weather fronts coming our way and the weekend forecast looks insane.
Next week should produce even more deep lows so we've got a great week or two of surfing coming up :)
And finally we have some size coming!
So... people like the longboarder I had the misfortune to be paddling behind on Saturday (who bailed on 7 seven consecutive waves in a row), will either be at home, underwater or lying limply on the inside, covered in starfish :)
So a potential drying day for the wetsuit, if I can get home and get it on the line in time.
The next few days look very very interesting...
We have some amazing weather fronts coming our way and the weekend forecast looks insane.
Next week should produce even more deep lows so we've got a great week or two of surfing coming up :)
And finally we have some size coming!
So... people like the longboarder I had the misfortune to be paddling behind on Saturday (who bailed on 7 seven consecutive waves in a row), will either be at home, underwater or lying limply on the inside, covered in starfish :)
Tuesday, 28 September 2010
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