Trident 15 Surf Trials...01/10/07

I had the opportunity this week to face heavy surf off the beach and try the Trident in it to see how it would fare. Being a long kayak it is clearly not ideally suited for surfing – it isn’t designed for it as a Yak or Frenzy isn’t designed for all day paddling and fishing. The swell was 7 feet or so and the shallow sandy bottom gave long, powerful waves that look deceptively small from the beach. A beach that had suddenly shrunk in size and become stony, the tide being up and the sand being washed away.



I got everything stowed, all straps tightened and the yak launched, paddling through a lot of big foaming patches. Big foam, 1-2ft, didn’t phase it at all; it kept on straight even with the bow getting hidden from view regularly. So I got the camera out and tried to show the scale of the waves – which as usual doesn’t work. I sat there a good while trying to catch the picture I wanted, staying straight and nose on, drifting slowly to starboard with the current and plenty of water beneath me and not that much into the cockpit.



Trouble is, there were surfers on MY beach (cheeky bastards) so I was on the next bit along as I didn’t want to either get in their way or send the yak careering into them.



This unfortunately meant I was the wrong side of the groyne for the bit of beach I’ve got to know and I didn’t want to head further along as there are some concrete ridges which could do me some damage if I went onto them. It was really pumping too, great to watch and it kind of kept the attention.



So, I drifted to starboard more than I thought. I started to paddle out into the waves at a slight angle to try and get further from them and not be broadside and also to try and run out of the surfzone into the swell to see if I could – I wouldn’t have even taken the P15 down to the beach as it was too rough. It was Frenzy weather.



Big waves were going under me without a problem – lean back, ride up and over – big foam as said before was going under as well. Trouble is, nothing is actually going to get me through a large wave curling onto the bow; even the Frenzy’s have dumped me like this when I tried them in the big stuff. I got dumped. The Trident took a big one right on the bow and tipped over to the right, capsizing and dunking me. I actually managed to keep hold of the paddle though, which was tied on, so it didn’t get away from me.

Anyway, sorted things out, got back on and sat in the waves a bit longer but couldn’t get out. The surfers started crowding me as I had the best waves and they were sitting around in the swells rather than riding anything (I was now the other side of the groyne where I would normally have launched) so I went back onto the beach and home (it was only intended as a quick try for the review, 2 launches and 2 beachings being hoped for).