Around 6 on Friday I swung left instead of right when almost home and took a look at the sea. Blimey, Magic Seaweed had underestimated! The waves had 5ft faces, nice gaps between them and were the cleanest and best I’d ever seen here. I was now officially aroused...I went home, asked my wife if I could grab an hour before she went swimming and was told where to go...bugger.
6am. My alarm went off and I dragged myself out of bed. I didn’t want to, you understand, but I had guests arriving. Tim was first at 6:40 followed closely by Liam and then Steve. By the time we left the house at 7:15 I had consumed two coffees and was in need of letting off the absorbed steam.
Minutes later and we were at the beach – two Yakboards, a Mysto and Steve’s Green Coffin...and the waves were superb! We headed onto the shoreline and I went straight in, paddled out, rode in before going right out and then went out again with the others. A couple of surfers were out but we soon scared them off and had the water to ourselves ;D I’d never had it so good here. Every wave we caught – and most were catchable – gave us a decent ride of a couple of hundred metres at least and were of sufficient shape, power and speed to allow us to get tricky as the morning went on. Usually the quality of the waves here doesn’t give much scope for much apart from running with the waves but for this morning – the first morning that Lowestoft waves had been Conservative in 13 years – we were able to carve at last, and we certainly made the most of that.
My Yakboard had been pimped a bit the night before. I’d got the drill out and set to work manufacturing an attachment for my Oregon Scientific helmet camera. Trying it on the helmet last week had proved my footage to be difficult to work with as my head was constantly having to move around to take stock of where the waves were. It took me all week to work out a way around it and so a couple of strap eyes, some webbing, a pair of buckles and a piece of pipe lagging (to tighten things) were installed. I was away, with the camera strapped to the front of the board...it took me most of the session to hit upon the best plan though, that of pointing it sideways to film others or the waves as I ran in. The positioning had been all wrong when forwards as I was pointing it too high and when turned back most of the time it was too low, which made me realise why they are called cockpits ;D. What was useful was being able to switch it on and leave it to run for an hour with only the occasional adjustment to the direction of the lens. I expect it’s going to see a lot of use (haven’t even looked at what’s on the Olympus yet!). In terms of quality, all the attached video was shot on it and even though compressed by Windows Movie Maker and Youtube it looks good to me - and the camera lasted two hours in heavy surf being battered, submerged and hit square on by waves more than a few times too!
Westie was out on his maiden Mysto voyage and was loving it – an amazing site that I watched, slackjawed, while riding the same wave was Tim run down the wave face then hang with the arse of his yak in the wave and a good chunk of air underneath from (at the very least) his knees forward. I just couldn’t take my eyes off that ride and forgot about my own one! My memory doesn’t record whether I stayed aboard ;D
I also had a go on his Tunisian Mysto (with thigh straps). I’d only ever tried them on flat water and was put off a bit by the high seat but my opinion of the Mysto had a rapid overhaul. It was quicker to get out through the breakers than the Yakboard, quicker to accelerate onto a wave, it tracks straight with the minimum effort and can be leant and steered with ease...he’s chuffed with his purchase and I’m tempted...
The new paddle was a beauty to use too – so firm in the water yet light in use, the double torque crank orienting the blade where it needed to be and allowing me to put power on without exertion to my wrists and those big precision blades with a larger catch than the nylon-bladed Kinetic XTi I’d been using previously were an absolute delight. I’d been promising myself one for months and know that I made the right decision.
Come 9:30 I was starting to feel the effort in my shoulders. I couldn’t even guess at how many runs I’d had and I wasn’t convinced I’d be able to get back out many more times...to cries of ‘Full Carbon!’ Westie and I screamed in on a wave as Steve watched from behind ;D
We came off the water and headed to mine for two more coffees each and a fried egg sarnie. It’s terrible when you can’t fish because the wind’s in the wrong direction ;D
Sunday morning saw Liam and I head out for another session. The forecast was for it to be an anticlimax compared to Saturday’s session but water beats bed any day in my world. The camera was charged and had a blank memory card and was set to film sideways or forwards at a steeper angle...we were rolling, although the surf wasn’t.
Mostly we had breakers to get short rides on. Carving rarely happened but we found some rides that were fun enough. Desperation after too many long waits saw us head in towards the groyne to play in the maelstrom there – the trouble being the waves were heading into it so we had to avoid wipeouts at all costs...here we got plenty of rides although they were lumpy and difficult to control other than steering. It was nothing on Saturday’s surf but who’s complaining?
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