11ft at 8 seconds, 30mph northerly and a hell of a lot of surfers out.
I loved 'The Big Wednesday' as a kid. Today is Wednesday. I'm off to get wet.....
Oh boy. OH BOY! That was something else, really. Imagine being hit in the face by 11ft of water, with the power that holds, being lifted a couple of feet up in the air and then dropping back down and carrying on. Imagine doing that a couple of times then being dumped into a washing machine with a yak bouncing off you. What adrenaline!
I scrounged a pair of Frenzy's off my brother at the weekend as a mate and I wanted to go on Sunday if it was good, but it was raining and the wind was down. In the past we have had fun in the Prowlers, but 15ft is just too long to play properly and so I took advantage of my brothers kit. Saturday was perfect but we were both at a birthday party and couldn't go. Anyway, he went off on holiday this morning and it has blown all day. Coming back this afternoon from driving about I stopped and had a look at the sea - it was really pumping and I have never seen so many surfers about on this beach; a guy told me he had counted 26.
I figured I'd get wet, and as I'm now too fat for my wetsuit I stuck on speedo's, shorts, a shirt and a PFD and carried the Frenzy down to the beach.Camera was double bagged (ie in two plastic bags as opposed to when you take an ugly girl home and put two bags on here head in case one tears open) as although waterproof I figured a dunking in the sea with heavy surf mightn't be sufficient. Sadly I didn't add a leash to it so couldn't snap in the surf zone.
Watched the surfers for a few minutes and chatted to a couple. They said it had dropped a bit and had got messy but they still stayed around until the light was going. Then I launched.
Now, I don't, as a rule, like Frenzy's. They are too narrow for my hips and so I get a backache when paddling any distance. They also turn too easily at the front for my paddling style so I lose momentum by zig-zagging all over the place - but I couldn't have done what I did tonight in my Prowler, I wouldn't have even got out past the surf. The Frenzy, on the other hand, handled things like a dream for the most part. Loads of bouyancy, easy to manouevre and not too long so it rode the waves and surf really nicely. Couldn't get through the surf quickly as it doesn't glide so well but for the most part I was okay. I got out through the breakers and bobbed around for a while trying to get decent pics to show what things were like - but sadly they don't even begin to compare. The swell was BIG.
So, time to try and ride some of these waves.
I paddled in as fast as I could which wasn't really very fast compared to what I'm used to plus the undercurrent wasn't helping. Kept missing the waves and just getting a few feet until it went under me until...I was in the right spot, the large waves were beginning to curl and I was angled slightly across them and I was away...what a buzz! trying to steer with the paddle seemed to have no effect, a dipped leg slightly better, and in short order I was 300m away from where I'd caught the wave having gone with the speed of a thousand gazelles.
Cracking stuff! Laughing my head off with pleasure I turned and tried to get back out. I got a good way and then 11ft of water curled just in front of me, smacked me in the face, lifted me up and stuck me sideways whereupon the following wave flipped me over. The leashed paddle was snatched out of my hand, the yak went over me and headed back in. I followed it at my own pace. Turned it around and tried again. Took a while but I made it back out, paddled up against the wind and went to watch the surfers again then headed back in. Same again, fast long ride all the way in. Brilliant. Turned, came out, got flipped, flipped it up and got back on and made it out again. It just seems to be that one bit where if you are unlucky a big wave curls and you're in the drink.
Time for another ride.
I got in position and started to paddle, missed out on a couple of good ones and ended up closer than I wanted to be. Waited for a good one to come and sure enough it did - and I could see it was going to curl onto my stern. I knew I'd get dumped. I always get dumped in the Prowler if I catch surf at that point. Oh well, here goes - and sure enough a bloody great bit of churned up water landed slap bang on the rear third of the yak.
FUCK ME!!!!!! No, I didn't get dumped - I got shot out like a cork and flew across the front of the wave far quicker than the other two rides, really, really quick and stayed on it all the way into the shore - a perfect surf in! That was it, I wasn't going to top that so off I squelched with a yak that was way heavier than when I brought it down to the beach. A quick change and I took a proper camera back down and tried to get some pics of the surfers. Sadly the light was fading and a lot of the surfers had started to leave so I didn't get anything decent (either technically or aesthetically).
Didn't catch any fish by the way.
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