In typical fashion I returned from Ireland with a stomach bug which led to a proper stinker of a cold which I followed up with a bad back from carrying fin across the playground monkey bars a few too many times and crouching as I went, to stop his head banging the metal!
All this, just in time for some proper swell too... a week of small, clean offshore's which I've missed as I've been skulking around the house barely able to put my shoes and socks on, let alone think about surf.
Tuesday seems to have been the best day of the week with Sker delivering solid 3-4ft 'proper waves' as one of the boys put it and 'Probably the best it's been in 6 months' according to Harv!
On the plus side it looks like my BBC walking book is going to go ahead so I'll be a busy boy over the next few months juggling that and a new baby girl in December! It should be out in summer 2013...and will help fund my trip.
Yesterday we finally put down some $ for our Maldives boat trip so the dream is now a reality. Boat deposit paid and flights booked so there's no going back now! Here's our boat - the Hariyana.
Plenty of things going on here. We've got a night surfing comp and surf festival happening on 20 Oct in Porthcawl followed up by the legendary Surfer's Ball the following week so it's going to be a busy fortnight!
I was up in my loft yesterday and discovered a hidden costume gem which I will unleash at the fancy dress ball so it should be good fun! ;0
And finally I've ordered my first custom winter steamer in about 20yrs! from local legend and wetsuit manufacturer Greg Owen @ No Limit Wetsuits here in Porthcawl.
So, look out for my 'tigerman wetsuit' coming to a beach near you in December!
Looks like plenty of surf on the horizon with a couple of big days next week and waves all weekend. I just need my back to make a swift recovery now.
Friday, 12 October 2012
Tuesday, 2 October 2012
The magnificent but cold, Causeway Coast
Just back from a great 3 day expedition to northern Ireland chasing two half decent low pressure systems as they tracked across the country over to Scotland.
Friday night's alright! Local lad at East Strand:
I arrived on Saturday morning following a 5am start from home to catch a flight over from Bristol. Mark picked me up from Belfast and off we went in search of some swell.
Our biggest problem it would seem was where to go as there were too many options and the forecast was enormous for Monday.
After driving the north coast, calling in at Troggs to see photos from Friday night showing East Strand breaking at a good 8-10t and clean!
We ended up checking one of Mark's quieter spots - PBD. I'd visited before but never seen surf there so was excited to find small, clean waves nudging 3ft as the tide turned.
Mark always thought this spot was a low tide mark but a crew of regulars from Larne, nr Belfast informed us it works best from mid to high. After an hour watching and waiting we got suited up.
A good slap at White Rocks!
Mark's wetty zip decided to ping off! so was left with a pair of pliers and some engineering to do to save a drive back to Portrush for a new wetty - which he ended up buying anyway!
I paddled out, not quite sure of were to sit but snagged a few lefts before the rest came out.
We surfed for a couple of hours with a great bunch of lads, a big friendly bear of a man called Tommy with a zz top ginger beard and shaved head who had the place wired and his two friends - both of whom dropped in but didn't mind me burning them back later ;)
PBD, small but good fun in the morning:
The rides weren't long but it was a fun take off and I managed to find some nice rights at what was meant to be a left hand point break! :)
We snuck off to find some much needed food and hot drink - it's bloody freezing over there folks!
A good 3 degrees cooler than Porthcawl and I had some serious shivers going on. Feet like ice blocks, chilled to the core and shivering by the end from a gusty SW wind.
I ended up buying winter boots from Troggs and a 1m thermal fleece lined rashie which saved me for the rest of the trip! Mark bought a stupidly thin new Ripcurl winter suit with no stitching in a 5/3mm which felt and weighed like a summer suit.
We ventured back to PBD to see if anything was going to happen. The crew we'd surfed with decided to head home unconvinced it would build but we stuck around. Mark snoozed, I read and 2 long boarders turned up and made a right meal of it.
The swell definitely started to build but with 2 guys in who kept missing every decent wave it was hard to tell if it was worth bothering with. By 5pm regular 4ft+ sets were pushing in so we hit it for a evening session.
Stunning views towards Benone Strand
It was soon evident that a new swell had kicked in.
Mark went way out back to catch a few big lefts on his long board and I took my chances in the middle picking of the smaller more regular waves and catching the odd bigger one that refused to break out back in the deeper water.
The rights were good fun, reeling in parallel to the inside reef and rocks but I dared to go as far as I could in the high tide wobble before kicking out in time.
The only left I attempted to catch was a big set wave which just flipped me skyward and sucked me over the falls!
A great little spot and one I'd love to visit again when the swell is bigger as I saw some amazing pics of it this weekend - resembling pipeline.
TBC....
Friday night's alright! Local lad at East Strand:
Our biggest problem it would seem was where to go as there were too many options and the forecast was enormous for Monday.
After driving the north coast, calling in at Troggs to see photos from Friday night showing East Strand breaking at a good 8-10t and clean!
We ended up checking one of Mark's quieter spots - PBD. I'd visited before but never seen surf there so was excited to find small, clean waves nudging 3ft as the tide turned.
Mark always thought this spot was a low tide mark but a crew of regulars from Larne, nr Belfast informed us it works best from mid to high. After an hour watching and waiting we got suited up.
A good slap at White Rocks!
I paddled out, not quite sure of were to sit but snagged a few lefts before the rest came out.
We surfed for a couple of hours with a great bunch of lads, a big friendly bear of a man called Tommy with a zz top ginger beard and shaved head who had the place wired and his two friends - both of whom dropped in but didn't mind me burning them back later ;)
PBD, small but good fun in the morning:
The rides weren't long but it was a fun take off and I managed to find some nice rights at what was meant to be a left hand point break! :)
We snuck off to find some much needed food and hot drink - it's bloody freezing over there folks!
A good 3 degrees cooler than Porthcawl and I had some serious shivers going on. Feet like ice blocks, chilled to the core and shivering by the end from a gusty SW wind.I ended up buying winter boots from Troggs and a 1m thermal fleece lined rashie which saved me for the rest of the trip! Mark bought a stupidly thin new Ripcurl winter suit with no stitching in a 5/3mm which felt and weighed like a summer suit.
We ventured back to PBD to see if anything was going to happen. The crew we'd surfed with decided to head home unconvinced it would build but we stuck around. Mark snoozed, I read and 2 long boarders turned up and made a right meal of it.
The swell definitely started to build but with 2 guys in who kept missing every decent wave it was hard to tell if it was worth bothering with. By 5pm regular 4ft+ sets were pushing in so we hit it for a evening session.
Stunning views towards Benone Strand
It was soon evident that a new swell had kicked in.Mark went way out back to catch a few big lefts on his long board and I took my chances in the middle picking of the smaller more regular waves and catching the odd bigger one that refused to break out back in the deeper water.
The rights were good fun, reeling in parallel to the inside reef and rocks but I dared to go as far as I could in the high tide wobble before kicking out in time.
The only left I attempted to catch was a big set wave which just flipped me skyward and sucked me over the falls!
A great little spot and one I'd love to visit again when the swell is bigger as I saw some amazing pics of it this weekend - resembling pipeline.
TBC....
Wednesday, 26 September 2012
I'm off to kiss some Blarney agus stout and craic
One last ride before Gull jnr arrives in late November....
I've been getting bored with the crap surf we've been having all summer long in Wales so decided action was required.
Pass secured I message by mate in Derry to see if we could sync up our time off from work with a decent weather chart and within 3 days it had all come together!
I'm hopping on a sleazy jet flight from Bristol to Belfast to hook up with my Oirish surfing crew and find some Donegal gold at the end of a soggy rainbow.
My new board is virtually unused so I'm really looking forward to putting it through its paces in what will be some pretty epic surf - probably the best I've had all year.
A nice onion shaped, 980 is beautifully lined up for the north coast, moving through on Saturday and sitting on top of us right through to Monday so it's going to be absolutely cranking with sw veering w winds meaning offshore winds at certain spots :)
My surf guide MP has lined up 3 x regional classics for me, one of which I've surfed before - a fearsome rivermouth break with grinding left hand barrels that tube for about quarter of a mile!
It has to be seen to be believed and involves a nice rock jump paddle out int a deep channel with a forboding rip but the exit is fun at low tide walking back across the estuary.
It is completely beserk, more so when you see its location on a map. There is no way on earth that it could ever have surf? The swell has to wrap at some acute angles at least twice just to get anywhere near it - but it does!
Last time I surfed it, I was on a borrowed, delaminated surf tech thrustery thing and felt completely under gunned and twitchy. It's never a nice feeling paddlign out in serious waves on aboard you've never ridden before which feels too short and light for you.
I still had great fun and scored some nice waves but was never particularly relaxed in solid 6-8ft freight train tubes. You could have comfortably driven a mini through some of them - wide open pits of doom.
The other spot on the north coast is somewhere I've visited before but never seen a rideable wave so I'm looking forward to that, it's another left point/reef onto sand.
It's always strange seeing a spot completely flat and trying to imagine the set up, where you sit, where the wave breaks, how long the ride is, is it hollow, where are the rocks?
And finally some ghastly wedge that goes double overhead with another sketchy jump off the end of a pier. All fun and games!
The forecast is riduculous, 5.5m @ 12 seconds on Monday so at least we won't be driving around all day looking for surf. It will be a matter of finding something small enough to ride.
I arrive on Saturday morning at 8:40am so should hopefully be stroking into some serious waves by 10am :)
I've been getting bored with the crap surf we've been having all summer long in Wales so decided action was required.
Pass secured I message by mate in Derry to see if we could sync up our time off from work with a decent weather chart and within 3 days it had all come together!
I'm hopping on a sleazy jet flight from Bristol to Belfast to hook up with my Oirish surfing crew and find some Donegal gold at the end of a soggy rainbow.
My new board is virtually unused so I'm really looking forward to putting it through its paces in what will be some pretty epic surf - probably the best I've had all year.
A nice onion shaped, 980 is beautifully lined up for the north coast, moving through on Saturday and sitting on top of us right through to Monday so it's going to be absolutely cranking with sw veering w winds meaning offshore winds at certain spots :)
My surf guide MP has lined up 3 x regional classics for me, one of which I've surfed before - a fearsome rivermouth break with grinding left hand barrels that tube for about quarter of a mile!
It has to be seen to be believed and involves a nice rock jump paddle out int a deep channel with a forboding rip but the exit is fun at low tide walking back across the estuary.
It is completely beserk, more so when you see its location on a map. There is no way on earth that it could ever have surf? The swell has to wrap at some acute angles at least twice just to get anywhere near it - but it does!
Last time I surfed it, I was on a borrowed, delaminated surf tech thrustery thing and felt completely under gunned and twitchy. It's never a nice feeling paddlign out in serious waves on aboard you've never ridden before which feels too short and light for you.
I still had great fun and scored some nice waves but was never particularly relaxed in solid 6-8ft freight train tubes. You could have comfortably driven a mini through some of them - wide open pits of doom.
The other spot on the north coast is somewhere I've visited before but never seen a rideable wave so I'm looking forward to that, it's another left point/reef onto sand.
It's always strange seeing a spot completely flat and trying to imagine the set up, where you sit, where the wave breaks, how long the ride is, is it hollow, where are the rocks?
And finally some ghastly wedge that goes double overhead with another sketchy jump off the end of a pier. All fun and games!
The forecast is riduculous, 5.5m @ 12 seconds on Monday so at least we won't be driving around all day looking for surf. It will be a matter of finding something small enough to ride.
I arrive on Saturday morning at 8:40am so should hopefully be stroking into some serious waves by 10am :)
Thursday, 20 September 2012
Welsh European Junior Surfing championships, France
This from Andy Williams (WCSC) who recently went over to France help out and watch his daughter compete:
Just got back from a week at the European Junior Surfing championships with the Welsh junior team, I went over as van driver and bag man, any excuse for a trip eh!
I’ve no connection with the WSF other than my daughter competing and I’ve known a few of the people involved for years (as do most of us who live and surf in Wales) so this post is totally my own views and nothing to do with the WSF so flame me if you feel the need.
I've had a few people asking me how the team performed and their final placing, so I had to comment.
I was gutted when the team finished 10th, the final table just does not show how well the team actually did!
The way the Euro’s is scored penalises teams who don’t have a full team.
If we had fielded two more bodyboarders (one in U 16,’s one in U18’s) and even if they had finished last in their events, we would have finished 6th.
Pretty impressive for a country of our size and a very young team, most of whom will be around for a couple more Euro Juniors.
Take out the bodyboard results totally and we would have finished 5th, right up there with the big four of France, Spain, Portugal and England!
We had the highest placed British surfer (Well done Connor Griffiths - 2nd in the longboard), a 6th place in the Under 16 boys shortboard,(Rhys Barfield, who snapped his favourite board just before his heat started) and a 9th in the U 18’s (Rhys Poulton).
The other groms backed this up with a bunch of mid field placings. Please don’t take this as a rant about team selection or whatever.
My only reason for posting this is so that people do realise we do have Welsh kids who are prepared to work hard, take a few beatings in French beachbreaks and can actually surf pretty well.
I’m bloody proud of the way the kids surfed and behaved, if you are Welsh you should be too!
If you see one of the team pat them on the back and let them have a wave.
You can do the same for any of the support staff as well because we had to put up with a van full of pissy wetsuits that even frightened the French customs officials - or it may have been Herbie’s attempt at speaking French!"
Sounds like an awesome performance from all concerned and just think - if we'd just have had two more bodyboarders in the squad - we would have come 5th in Europe!
Which is insane considering what a small country we are with intermittent surf! But clearly shows just how good the standard of surfing is now in Wales :)
Just got back from a week at the European Junior Surfing championships with the Welsh junior team, I went over as van driver and bag man, any excuse for a trip eh!
I’ve no connection with the WSF other than my daughter competing and I’ve known a few of the people involved for years (as do most of us who live and surf in Wales) so this post is totally my own views and nothing to do with the WSF so flame me if you feel the need.
I was gutted when the team finished 10th, the final table just does not show how well the team actually did!
The way the Euro’s is scored penalises teams who don’t have a full team.
If we had fielded two more bodyboarders (one in U 16,’s one in U18’s) and even if they had finished last in their events, we would have finished 6th.
Pretty impressive for a country of our size and a very young team, most of whom will be around for a couple more Euro Juniors.
Take out the bodyboard results totally and we would have finished 5th, right up there with the big four of France, Spain, Portugal and England!
We had the highest placed British surfer (Well done Connor Griffiths - 2nd in the longboard), a 6th place in the Under 16 boys shortboard,(Rhys Barfield, who snapped his favourite board just before his heat started) and a 9th in the U 18’s (Rhys Poulton).
The other groms backed this up with a bunch of mid field placings. Please don’t take this as a rant about team selection or whatever.
My only reason for posting this is so that people do realise we do have Welsh kids who are prepared to work hard, take a few beatings in French beachbreaks and can actually surf pretty well.
I’m bloody proud of the way the kids surfed and behaved, if you are Welsh you should be too!
If you see one of the team pat them on the back and let them have a wave.
You can do the same for any of the support staff as well because we had to put up with a van full of pissy wetsuits that even frightened the French customs officials - or it may have been Herbie’s attempt at speaking French!"
Sounds like an awesome performance from all concerned and just think - if we'd just have had two more bodyboarders in the squad - we would have come 5th in Europe!
Which is insane considering what a small country we are with intermittent surf! But clearly shows just how good the standard of surfing is now in Wales :)
Hurricane Nadine, will she or won't she?
Not a lot has been happening in the world of gull's surfing.
I've just realised I've not posted in a while. I have been blogging but the new blog app hasn't uploaded them! but never mind, there hasn't been any decent worth blogging about anyway - a handful of okay days at best!
Hurricane Nadine arrives on our shores next week so we should have some big, messy stuff next week but it's better than nothing! I'm off to the Maldives! Whoooopeeeeeeeee
Maldives perfection:
The trip is being finalised currently so we're all getting very excited about surfing in board shorts under palm fringed reefs pulling into crystal clear tubes and watching colourful fish below our boards :)
I even bought some new pairs in preparation, going at half price so seemed rude not to and I hate paying extortionate prices for boardshorts which cost about £5 to make in Indonesia and China and sell for £50+ a pair!
It's the European Fish Fry on this weekend down in north Devon and I was planning to go... but not so sure now as a surf pass for a quick trip to Ireland has emerged so I might take that instead of showing off my quiver and ogling other peoples board's! ;)
I've just realised I've not posted in a while. I have been blogging but the new blog app hasn't uploaded them! but never mind, there hasn't been any decent worth blogging about anyway - a handful of okay days at best!
Hurricane Nadine arrives on our shores next week so we should have some big, messy stuff next week but it's better than nothing! I'm off to the Maldives! Whoooopeeeeeeeee
Maldives perfection:
The trip is being finalised currently so we're all getting very excited about surfing in board shorts under palm fringed reefs pulling into crystal clear tubes and watching colourful fish below our boards :)I even bought some new pairs in preparation, going at half price so seemed rude not to and I hate paying extortionate prices for boardshorts which cost about £5 to make in Indonesia and China and sell for £50+ a pair!
It's the European Fish Fry on this weekend down in north Devon and I was planning to go... but not so sure now as a surf pass for a quick trip to Ireland has emerged so I might take that instead of showing off my quiver and ogling other peoples board's! ;)
Monday, 30 April 2012
The flat spell continues...
Not much to report at the moment other than the fact that the wind and gales have now blown through. A man was rescued off Port Talbot over the weekend after a kayak fishing expedition went wrong!
Not ideal weather to be going out fishing from a canoe in now is it?! But luckily he was picked up alive.
The winds blew strong and hard from the NE mainly making it feel very chilly over thw weekend but pretty much flast as far as the surf was concerned.
The south coast of Cornwall has prob faired slightly better as a low was sitting just off the coast over the weekend.
By the looks of it, that will remain for much of this week but apart from bringing rain to south Wales, there will not be much in the way of surf as that low weakens day by day and heads south west down into Spain.
Annoyingly it's one of those useless lows(for us) which just brings shit weather with it. The last time I checked, Bank Holiday was looking like a wash-out too but the Welsh National Surfing Championships are on @ Fresh west that weekend ( maybe...)
I'm writing a brain bleeding surf quiz for tomorrow night's WCSC meeting at the Salt House so that should be a laugh, from 7.30pm onwards... 5pm - the sun has come out! :)
Not ideal weather to be going out fishing from a canoe in now is it?! But luckily he was picked up alive.
The winds blew strong and hard from the NE mainly making it feel very chilly over thw weekend but pretty much flast as far as the surf was concerned.
The south coast of Cornwall has prob faired slightly better as a low was sitting just off the coast over the weekend.
By the looks of it, that will remain for much of this week but apart from bringing rain to south Wales, there will not be much in the way of surf as that low weakens day by day and heads south west down into Spain.
Annoyingly it's one of those useless lows(for us) which just brings shit weather with it. The last time I checked, Bank Holiday was looking like a wash-out too but the Welsh National Surfing Championships are on @ Fresh west that weekend ( maybe...)
I'm writing a brain bleeding surf quiz for tomorrow night's WCSC meeting at the Salt House so that should be a laugh, from 7.30pm onwards... 5pm - the sun has come out! :)
Friday, 20 April 2012
Spring low like winter
Congrats to greg owen on the birth of his new baby. This was Greg the day before blasting the shit out of the point:
Well we finally had some decent swell this week as a solid winter low reared its ugly head off the north coast of Ireland and delivered some 4ft+ waves.
The wind, strong nw helped squeak a few clean days out on the point but I only managed to get in once at Coney.
Weds night saw clean and rideable faces at Coney - something I've not witnessed all winter! The crowd was thinned out and nice 3-4ft waves came through. The water was warm enough with a hood and I bumped into sven, math, tris, phil and afew others out back.
The point was going off early about 4.30PM but I couldn't get down there in time to enjoy it but the pics from claire Beach look nice on Facebook.
The weekend is lining up nicely with more nw winds and swell so fingers crossed I can score some early. Enjoyo!
Well we finally had some decent swell this week as a solid winter low reared its ugly head off the north coast of Ireland and delivered some 4ft+ waves.
The wind, strong nw helped squeak a few clean days out on the point but I only managed to get in once at Coney.
Weds night saw clean and rideable faces at Coney - something I've not witnessed all winter! The crowd was thinned out and nice 3-4ft waves came through. The water was warm enough with a hood and I bumped into sven, math, tris, phil and afew others out back.
The point was going off early about 4.30PM but I couldn't get down there in time to enjoy it but the pics from claire Beach look nice on Facebook.
The weekend is lining up nicely with more nw winds and swell so fingers crossed I can score some early. Enjoyo!
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