Pretty in Pink?

The interweb’s forecasters are shrieking about the one day swell expected on Saturday. A medium sized affair fanned by moderate  off shore easterly winds is just what the doctor ordered. Low tide at 9.00am brings to mind a whole array of spots that could light up. I’m hoping that my favoured point break will attract some of this vaunted swell. Given that the tide is low at this relatively early hour I may just get to share the spot with only a few others. “So what’s the problem” I hear you say dear reader?

Well there is n’t one….except there is. The thing is this point break lends itself to a variety of craft. It is a slopey thing that peels at an even rate with the occasional walled section and even more occasionally a hollow inside near the rocks. A conventional short board works well here on the good days but I much prefer to surf it on fish shaped boards. The squirty lateral speed from my quads or 2 1/2 fin is downright addictive. Why hit the lip when you can float and climb over any crumbly section that the wave throws at you? “So what’s the problem” I hear you repeat in that exasperated way you have. Remember my description of the end section of the wave made a mention of rocks. Well there you have it..or not quite…it would be better if I explain.

The wave breaks over and in front of a wave cut platform. The platform is uneven and riven by deep gullies and ridges iced with barnacles. There are a couple of keyhole entry and exit points but both involve duck dives into extremely shallow water after the mouth of the gullies have been navigated. I do not wish to exaggerate these hazards or overstate the risk of entry. I have surfed the spot for more than 10 years and never injured myself in any way at at all. Even on the bigger days the force of the surges up the main gully has not intimidated me in the least.It is not a scary break.

“So what’s the problem” I hear you scream volubly with eyes bulging. Well let me see, it’s this. This spot with it’s uneven and encrusted gullies has been responsible for damaging more boards than I can account for. Crushed rails, snapped  fins, shattered noses, pierced bottom hulls and de-laminated decks. The cost has been high. In the manner of one that learns from repeatedly banging one’s head against a sharp object , I modified my behaviour over the years. These days I only take my old boards there. The ones that have had their day and are beyond renovation. The two things they have in common are they are yellow (because surfboards should be yellow) and they are dinged beyond redemption. The one I am most fond of is my 6 foot Gulf Stream quad. Not an instant hit when it was new. The curved speed dialer fins did not work for me but like the proverbial swan shedding it’s feathers, the quality of the board shone out  when the fins were replaced for a more conventional set. It has given me more fun since  than a block of foam covered in resin has a right to do.

I pensioned it off this time last year with a replacement I have called  ‘Pretty in Pink‘ for obvious reasons. Exactly the same as my original sled in all  details excepting two aspects . Colour and thickness. Now the colour does account for some glances I get when I walk down to the waters edge at Croyde for a multitude of reasons. I will not dive down that particular rabbit hole here (praise be:Ed) but it is a sure thing that this characteristic does not effect it’s performance in the slightest. The increased girth though has certainly had an unwelcome effect on some of the properties of this board. Putting it on rail at the bottom , mid face or lip of a wave is down right difficult. The extra floatation intended to ease me into old age has not paid a dividend.

The quandary I now find myself in is do I introduce ‘Pretty in Pink’ to the gullies and hasten the Darwinian forces that the gullies exact on surfboards? Or do I nurse this curvy but charmless dowager into unloved senility?The yellow quad still flies.

Seven hundred words to not decide what board to surf on. I must seek a life.

Bleakness

This winter thing.It really does go on a bit, does n’t it? This is a terrible photo I know but it sums up the time of year perfectly.

After eleven months of rain Devon has subsided into dank deep winter. Rain has given way to grey days with low light and low temperatures  True the surf has been excellent at many spots but man cannot live on Huey‘s donations alone.

I snapped the picture after climbing back up the cliff post lunchtime surf session. It shows another photographer (probably a proper one :Ed) looking out from the apparently grey  reef through the grey mist at the grey sea . Small grey shapeless waves rolled along the point sloughing out irksome sections. Forty minutes was enough for me. I returned to the dismal land in search of light and warmth

Reasons Why Poms Should Not Surf

Fellow blogger, talented teller of a yarn, surf savant and all round good bloke Mr Peter Bowes recently set out this challenge. I summoned up all my negativity and dived in. The old guy was right . It did hurt.

It’s done now.Over to you Peter.

1. It is very cold.
2. Large parts of the coastline get no swell.
3. You cannot surf and smoke a pipe at the same time.
4. The predominant winds are onshore in the most popular surfing areas.
5. Our skin suffers blocthiness, burning and peels when the sun shows.
6. You cannot get kegged in two foot wind swell.
7. There is a ‘seaside culture’.
8. Other nations drop in on us when we travel.
9. Pom’s chuck their wax wrappers on beaches, in lay bys, on the streets and down any hole they can find.
10. The wind doth blow.
11. The motorway network.
12. Poms have a poor competitive record against other nations.
13. There are more banks in most high streets than on some of our beaches.
14. It is very cold.
15. Putsbourgh.
16. Our ‘North Shore’ is near the Arctic Circle and is dark and covered with snow for a portion of the year.
17. Our lady surfers are encased in black rubber for most of the year. (Some of our ex public school boy surfers see this as a bonus).
18. Ireland is ‘in the way’.
19. A Pom pisses in his wetsuit out of necessity, not pleasure.
20. The activity is done standing up.
21. It is very cold.
22. Beach side carpark attendants who collect even when you have got in for the early before work.You know who you are!
23. Pollution on an epic scale.
24. Evil crowds from the Smoke and other inland places.
25. Peer pressure.
26. A world shortage of tweed wetsuits.
27. The summer months are characterized by only more rain.
28. There is more chaffing in these islands.
29. The Bournemouth artificial reef.
30. Few world class breaks.
31. Pom’s do n’t support and value their shapers (enough).
32. British Summer Time (BST). We live in enforced darkness for evening upon evening.
33. It is very cold.
34. Too few river mouth breaks.
35. Our surf brands are ‘domestic’.
36. The liquor at the bottom of a Pom’s wet suit bucket typically contains-rainwater, urine (human and animal), cow dung. sand,wax, mud and dead plant matter.
37. The ocean is rarely blue and clear in many locations.
38. Dowdy seaside resorts.
39. The coast (east coast) with the preponderance of quality reef breaks has a small swell window.
40. Unskilled canoeists.
41. It’s not an activity for the obese.
42. It is very cold.
43. Combined sewer overflows.
44.  An English man’s home is his ipod/bmw/alcho pop/soap opera/x-box/wii/ready meal/super market/government scheme/fast food joint/x factor/smart phone.
45. The UK has less sunshine hours than Oregon.
46. Few skate pools/bowls close to beaches.
47. RNLI – beach safety through the power of PR and the waverunner. What was that bump?
48. Too many grumpy old surfers.
49. It’s very cold.
50. It’s very cold.

Painting of tramp by Robert Lenkiewicz.

Bucks Mill

I made the re-acquaintance  of this spot today. The conditions were only slightly better than those shown in the photo above but damn , I enjoyed myself.

The high wooded cliffs and towering abandoned lime kilns on the shore give this stretch of coast a heightened atmosphere. The long paddle out to the lineup lent me the opportunity to look along the coast towards Clovelly and the ‘Look Out’ cliff beyond. Is there a break behind that rock or is it my wishful thinking?

The spot itself is a strange affair. Waves break a quarter mile out to sea and roll along a long finger of rock. There was not one soul visible when I looked back from the break to the cliff line. I sat on my board , battered by the strong south westerly and bathed in the utter sense of peace that this place always exudes to me.

Just as well really. I have only surfed this spot three times and not at all for the last ten years. The break can only be placed in the ‘unusual’  category by all but the most beneficent surfer. Nevertheless I will return.

I’m going to take a break from this blogging lark, dear reader but as I have already said…I will return.

Ireland

I’m so pleased not to have had to surf Mullagmore Head or any of the other crazy stuff they do every winter now. I still want Enniscrone point though….badly.

January Blues

We spent yesterday evening in the charming company of Michael Roach at Bideford school. The Blues have been a staple on mine since teenage years and I had come to think of myself as grounded in the basics of blues history. Michael delightfully laid bare my ignorance by a series of insights, participation and stories between numbers. He had some quite radically different takes on the Blues. The music is essentially ‘party music’ which Virginian  slaves grooved to on their European instruments in the few moments they were not working. The way he plays the blues and sings it is hard not to agree with this analysis.

Earlier in the day Croyde hosted a 2-4 foot swell groomed by off shore winds all the way from Siberia. Two hours under blue sky’s and negative temperatures were more than enough for me but the session was certainly well worth the agony of changing into my wet wetsuit in the wind scoured car park.

Today I was determined to get a brief skate in but I did not get beyond the car park stage on this particular venture. I  starred with Mike into B Bowl as fine snow slowly deposited a slippery film onto the concrete. All was not lost as I had a good catch up with my mate and semi committed myself to some skate trips subject to a successful mid week session. XC & Going California.

Stumped by the weather,we drove to Challacoombe in the dugs of Exmoor and I spectated whilst my daughter and her friend trudged up snowy hills and slid down them on a body board and plastic sledge. Eventually they clambered back into the car cold, wet and very tired then we went and did the same thing again down a steeper field. They will sleep well tonight.

The staff photographer seemed really pleased with the ‘work’ he had produced of a wiry tree against a skyline.All I can say is that he will keep trying.

7.5 ft at 15 sec on Tuesday with off shores. In before work at the point methinks.

Haunted Ho!

I had a short but blissful session at the point yesterday. Blue sky’s, glassy conditions, a fairly light crowd and some reasonably sized waves all summed up as a day to remember. Best of all I got one of ‘those’ waves. You know the one that you remember for a while.. Only just over head height , it had little to recommend it as I took off but it grew and steepened as I went down the line on my faithful   6′ 3” Gulfstream 21/2 fin. The wave lends its self to fades and slashing cut backs and the occasional off the top. This one bent to my every whim. A small close-out cover up on the inside in front of the ‘gully of death’ (Exaggeration, the inseparable companion of greatness: Ed/Voltaire) pushed me back to land and Christmas lists of things to do and get.

Thanks to FV for the snaffled shot of the Haunted House and the end section..

Desert Island

This picture or one similar to it first came to my attention in the late 80’s. I dismissed it at  the time as a trick or an experiment with a precursor of Photoshop software.  As I recall the picture was in the irreverent Aussie surf comic Tracks. So I feel that I had good ground for my suspicions. Twenty years later I had the good fortune to surf both waves. Amazingly both waves are high class breaks. Honkys (the left) tends to be rippy and less consistent but offers up pocket type barrels. Sultans (the right) is a little more  ‘facey’ and seems to hold a really good size swell. Both breaks are populated by Maldivian, British, Aussie, Kiwi, Brazzo, Yank, Japanese, French, Spanish,Irish  and Israeli surfers hunting waves. I’m not sure which is more surreal the natural environment or the human interaction in the channel or at the peak.

Cayton Point

More reminiscing. I have n’t surfed here for close to three decades. It was always a little bit wild, bitterly cold and sizey on occasion. The first time I surfed here was in early January. We drove through snow drifts to reach the coast. The beach had an inch of snow so we could  be certain that we were first in the water that day. The wind howled and the Marigold gloves I used for insulation to my hands may as well been of rice paper. My red and yellow wetsuit leaked in the hole below the zip but I cared not. Clearly peaked by the attitude of it’s owner the suit’s back zip burst open an hour later. The frigid sea water flooded through the suit and dragged it off my shoulders. I was beaten. I cried adieu to my friends, paddled in and walked along the beach to the base of the steep ramp that leads to the car park atop of the cliffs. By now I was beyond cold and becoming pleasantly drowsy. The dopiness pushed in on me and I detached myself from the ice and snow on the ramp and smiled blissfully  like the idiot I was. Briefly I snapped out of it and shouted at my tired limbs to restart the trudge up the ramp.

”I think I will lie down and have a rest” .I said to myself.

”No you wo n’t dog breath”. I responded through gritted teeth.

It took me a quarter of an hour for me to stagger up the ramp. Gripped by the strangely warm embrace of hyperthermia I struggled to unlock the Morris Minor’s door with completely numbed hands for a further ten minutes. My friends discovered me standing semi naked in the snowy carpark looking beatifically into the middle distance a short while later.

The beach in the lee of the point is or more accurately was used by nudists. It always struck me as strange for people to want to gamble around in the altogether in such a chilly place.

The Triple Crown

This trifecta of events will start with the Reef Hawaiian Pro held at Haleiwa when  the  juice starts to trickle in to the harbour. Two years ago they held three ‘legends’ heats during this event. Not always my cup of tea this sought of thing because time so frequently catches up with  with former greats of sports and leaves them looking ordinary. This was not the case in heat 1. Each of the four competitors put in performances that the rest of the field could not match that day.

There is another series of legends heats this year featuring Curren , Garcia, Occy and Kaipo Jaquais. My call is Garcia if it is huge and Curren if the surf is less than 8 foot.Then again Occy could smash them all.