Thursday 14 October 2010

Keeping Busy.




Its been a busy week to say the least. It has also been a fairly enjoyable one, considering there aint been much in the way of swell (until today). Today I went on a solo mission down the coast, to a spot my own father discovered back in the very late 1970's. It's funny I mention that actually, as going down there on a weekday when most of the devonion surf population are busy at work.

I was clearly expecting it to be nearly empty. I arrived to see 2 of my mates in the lineup Luke and Paul. No one else.....Sweeeeet!

Usually when you come here, even on a weekday there will usually be at least on average 5-6+People, today it was me and 2 of my close friends.....Perfect as it does get a bit eerie if your alone which is very rare in this day and age!
After sharing a few waves with the boys for about an hour and a half they both had to get back to other commitments. I kindly asked them if they could move my car at the top of the hill in they're space when they left, as my car was nearly blocking the road where I parked it originally. I did ponder on the thought of those boys moving it as I kinda knew they would do something to wind me up! They ended up eating all my sweets and drawing all over the car with their fingers!

My car was covered in "GOLDEN COD" which is apparently one of my nick names!

Back to the surf. When they left I was fortunate to have the company of Justin Seedhouse for a few hours. Justin shapes surfboards from his house nr Hartland and they are getting ever popular with local Devon Riders like Mike Plackett and Alex Downie. Look for the CakeBoy Logo when your out and about these parts.

When Justin arrived it started hitting the banks better and eventually an average surf turned into a rather fun one! I was just a bit pissed off I didnt have my camera with me today as there were some nice line up shots to be had and would have given you an idea of what it was like.

Shoulder high super clean fun lefts and right just a few of your mates, thats what im into!

Here are some shots from last saturday at croyde.
I swear I nearly drowned on that first picture, Im about to get lip launched. It took the air right out of my lungs!

Cheers.

Monday 11 October 2010

The fun stuff. I love this time of year!




Wow......What a weekend that was. In terms of clean descent sized swell. I cant remember the last time we had a swell that perfect to be honest! Saturday was epic in North Devon. In terms of power and quality, it was up there with the finest.
Throughout the weekend I was able to indulge in some barrel riding and rather close shave near board snapping, which by the way I don't know how I got away with!
I decided to get up fairly early on Saturday morning so I could get a quick session before I and the boys started work. As I arrived around the point it looked pretty amazing, although a little bit of a closeout as the tide was high but ebbing (dropping) and there were large tides this weekend as well. I am working on Croyde beach this month, life guarding at the weekends throughout October. When we started patrolling I was really beginning to over froth watching the waves, which worked as a disadvantage to me, people who surf with me and know me well, when I get too excited I end up surfing worse than when I'm completely relaxed!
For my second surf of the day I was doing a good job of dodging some descent kegs! After about half an hour I started to get the ball rolling and got a couple of bombs that were peaking up way out the back. The bombs consisted of a placid drop in, followed by a build up of speed, set my line and walla.....a nice North Devon Coloured pit! As the tide reached towards low it started to get a little fat as the swell was breaking way out and just rolling all the way through. Until a good hour after the push it started to get sexy again!
The prediction turned out to be accurate as well. As they did forecast the swell to drop off slowly Saturday afternoon onwards.
By that evening it was nearly half the size of the waves I surfed early in the morning, but I couldn't complain at all, as even Sunday afternoon on the pushing tide was awesome. Not in terms of barrels but for fun high performance waves with lush warm sunshine.
Now I'm up to nothing during this week other than sorting out a few bits and bobs for my and Janine's trip it has gone flat as a witches bosom!
The photos above were taken at eleven o'clock on saturday morning just as I was suiting up......I wish I could do it all over again that day, i.e be off all weekend and go surf a few more of the spots that I prefer a bit further south! Yewwwww