Riding High…02/10/2013

Riding High…02/10/2013 It’s so infrequent that there is anything big enough to ride off Lowestoft that any and all opportunities need to be taken and so, with half an hour’s kip after my shift I was once again wandering down to the end of the road. I’d missed one day as my daughter, off school for a strike, had refused point blank to go surfing after seeing he size of the waves but she was once again off my hands. Down the road with the RRRapido over my shoulder, camera pointing forwards initially and I was in and paddling through the rip on the inside of the groyne. Timing was okay and I got through the breakers halfway down and out to the end where the waves stand up and after a couple of minutes I was up, up and away! Marvellous! A nice fast ride but not that long as the waves were peaky and ran out of steam after a hundred yards tops – the tide was dropping and the banks were already stopping the better waves. Back out again and disaster, the camera mount failed on me and had to go back into my pocket. A shame but there you go…I picked another wave and rode it in, bongo sliding back to the beach; at least I have some stock shots from previous sessions! A boardie swam out after half an hour and joined me and after a brief chat I caught another, rode it in and put my back into getting out again; this was hard work! The wind was blowing hard too and it took about five minutes to break through each time. The boardie was soon joined by three more, only one who managed to break through the middle section, the others staying in closer and I moved along a bit and kept an eye on where they were each time I picked my wave. I had to miss a few but had more than enough and checked I wasn’t keeping them from riding them…nope, and we coexisted nicely. After an hour and a half most of the waves seemed to be gone, the banks eating them. I moved in closer to the groyne, took one a bit too steep and dug the nose in, flipping out; only my second wipeout of the session. Back out I went; the last ride involved a wait of ten minutes but was a goodie, taking me all the way in and then home. I love it!