Pier Surf…. Pandemonium, Chaos, Mayhem, Madness…. Er Bedlam?

Crazy Surf 63/28
I was never planning to surf the pier today, I was thinking with the winds coming from the north west in the afternoon, plenty of spots will be working so no need to surf the Pier. My mind was changed when I received the below picture with the accompanying text message which basically said... 'pier now nobody out!'

So what was I to do? Really I had no option... My most basic and fundamental rule in surfing is: if it looks good go out and surf it... I know from experience, especially on the south coast, that 'waiting' until things may improve is a fools game as swell can just vanish in a breath.


So plans were re-arrange, My wife is thankfully very (maybe that should be VERY VERY) understanding of my predicament and tends to be quite open to my last minute changes of plan to go surfing... About 40 minutes after the picture was taken I was in the water with about 5 other... 10 minutes later about 15 others.... 10 minutes after that about 30 others and things were getting scary. One of the main problems was the waves were relatively small and the take off zone was very tight with an almost A-frame peak breaking left and right from one very small area. I tended to sit inside and take the smaller weaker and crappier waves as it at least meant I got waves... Every time I would paddle back I could see 3,4,5,6 people all taking off on the same wave and about 10 others paddling and missing, so it was inevitable that boards would soon get smashed and I wasn't the only......

This happened to me about 40 minutes into the session, I ran back to the car, got another board and was quickly back out, but things had started to get even more crazy and very dangerous. What was briefly a mellow, sunny, chilled out and enjoyable surf, was quickly turning into hell. Boards were flying everywhere, people were arguing, shouting, dropping in was now the norm, if it wasn't so dangerous it could have been quite comical. It is unbelievable nobody was seriously hurt, and if everybody continues to surf like this, it wont be long before we have a serious injury or worse to contend with. 

There were some nice waves ridden... not by me.. But I saw Mason get slotted just under the lip, Oli was looking pretty smooth on a longboard, as I stood on the beach looking back and assessing the mayhem I saw Guy get a lovely right hander. But apart from the few good rides there were so many close calls. I would really like to know what other people felt about this session. Is it me or are things getting just a little out of control?

I think in future I may be a bit more selective about my surfs at the Pier (is that like saying 'I'm not going to drink any more' when hungover?). Give me a chunky lone surf with double overhead 'Y' any day over this for my adrenalin rush. 

I didn't feel upset or annoyed or frustrated walking away from this session, it was strange, a smashed board and only few crappy waves ridden when the potential was looking so good to begin would normally make me feel very disappointed and hungry for more waves elsewhere. Maybe today I was just happy to leave with my life!! 

Check Guys feelings of the same surf... http://houseofbonzer.blogspot.com/2011/11/carnage-at-pier.html     

Big K Little k Big K Little k Big K Little k Big K Little k

I'm official announcing that we've had a good November, which is probably a precursor to a bad December but hey don't blame me I'm not that powerful! But if there was ever a weekend to demonstrate my point about the fickleness of K it had to be this one.  
 

19th November61/26
I arrived at K around midday thinking the wind maybe a bit more favourable in the afternoon and the swell was due to increase. I was greeted to lovely big thick looking sets with lots of waves. The conversation between me and several other surfers was where best to surf, with the 5 obvious spots all pumping and fully at our disposal we all opted to go in different directions and 10 minutes later I found myself struggling to paddle out back at 'Y' on my own. The first wave I eventually found myself in position for was a monster, a thick dirty right hander was peaking and I called myself in... paddle hard and commit..... a second later I was trying to pull out but it was to late, I was caught in the lip and felt myself being dragged over the falls before that stomach lurching fall into the pit before the deep washing machine wipeout ensued.... I stayed relatively calm, probably helped by my recent underwater swim training session with Gary, but as I found my way back to my board the shakes kicked in and I suddenly felt very alone.


It was 25 minutes before I caught my first wave and this was a smaller inside one, I found my way to the right side of the peak and managed to pick off the smaller left handers that came through, I kept bottling the bigger set waves and then I would slap the water in anger and frustration with being a woss! I did go for another big one but the drop was late, I found myself free falling for a bit only to hit the bottom and lose control and take another beating.


I did get on some nice long walled up left handers, I had a back door barrel opportunity which I completely bottled and skirted around the bottom. It seemed to be a day of missed chances and pusying out! and and after an hour and a half of quite an intense session on my own I paddle over to the more popular spot and found the waves to be a lot more mellow and cleaner. With people around and the waves suddenly seeming quite easy I had a handful of fun rides before calling it a day.


I met my wife and kids at our beach hut after 3pm and was surprised by the size of the waves coming into the bay, the swell looked quite meaty even here no wonder I thought the bigger sets needed a big board, Maybe Guy is onto something with that 7'6 Bonzer Gun he is sometimes seen out on!       


20th November
62/27
The wind had dropped and the swell had only dropped by a couple of feet on the wave buoys so things were looking pretty good a 6am as I dragged my self out of bed.... Turned up at K and it was tiny, well ok I have seen it smaller but it was week and about 2ft. The drop off from the day before was massive. Needless to say my session was rather disappointing and bit of an anticlimax. Maybe if I hadn't been expecting so much I may have had a bit more fun but after the adrenalin filled session of the day before I was wishing I had gone west! Oh well where we go I thought today was going to be classic all signs were good Buoy reeding were good, tides were good, wind was good... crowds were bad and waves were weak! 

Guy Penwarden very funny Bournemouth Pier Blog

Check this very funny blog... http://houseofbonzer.blogspot.com/2011/11/bournemouth-pier-survival-kit.html 

Also....

'Anonymous' said...
you still do not understand why you upset so many locals. still advertising spots and tide times,


My response...
I have given a lot less information away than is freely available on Magicseaweed or several other websites I could name. I thought I'd been quite ambiguos with what I've said and I've never given tide times, not that they are particualy hard to find anyway. I may have said the tide was at this point when I was surfing but I've never suggested the best times/tides to surf. And I would hardly want to encourage people to surf at the same time as me anyway! Also I'm not sure what best tide times are for my local spot!

Please feel free to comment...

Best Surf Since France.....

What a few weeks it has been, actually I think we've had consistent surf ever since Cody was born, I rarely have the opportunity or inclination to pick and chose surfs, letting some days and waves pass by unridden but over the last few weeks I have. Obviously some good days were unavoidably missed due to new babies, illness and death but apart from Thursday 10th which looked to be a good day at K but coincided with my grandfathers funeral I don't think I missed any stand out sessions.


The funeral was.... well I want to say good but feel like it is the wrong thing to say? I didn't drop the coffin but it was a very nervous moment. The subsequent church services (one at the crematorium and one at a church later) were a good chance to hear some about the great life my grandfather had led, but if I have to hear another hymn I may go slightly insane.    


November 11th
Surf 58/23
Surfed the west side of the pier in the afternoon, waves were in the 3ft region with a strong south easterly cross onshore wind, the paddle out was hard and if you didn't stick close to the pier you were quickly swept down the beach, the waves were hard to surf and if I went left I had to get out and try to paddle back out next to the pier. It wasn't the best surf I've ever had! 


November 12th
Surf 59/24
Woopie doodaa happy days, it has been a long time since I really enjoyed a surf like this. I had book marked today as potentially good for a while, but as we all know, especially on the south coast, things don't always go to plan. I nearly had the in-laws down for the day and they had planned to get here for 8am! But by some strange piece of luck Billy my 5 year old son was horrendously sick the night before so we thought we should cancel the parents thinking we didn't want to spread any germs, also our house smelt of sick. This then left me free to surf, although Char wanted me to go early and get back early.


Getting up was hard and I felt strangely unmotivated and very tired, I met Gav before 7am in the car park and he said the waves were in the shoulder high range, 'that's a shame' I thought, as I was expecting bigger, so I decided to take my 6'2 shortboard. We were the first to paddle out, the sun was low in a clear sky and there was virtually no wind with consistent regular swell pumping through in the head to head and a half range! 3 friendly guys from Brighton were next to paddle out and seemed very impressed with the conditions. After taking a couple of waves I soon realised I was on completely the wrong board and needed to change, my 6'2 felt like a match stick and very unstable in the big swooping drops and the now nice long walled up waves, also the crowd was just starting to pick up so Gav and I decided to move spots.


Paddling out on my 6'6 Lynch gave me so much confidence and I started to go for every wave that came my way no matter how late I was, I had some absolute stonking rights, some exciting big drops and and a few washing machine moments when I really was just a bit too late (or slow!), 2 hours into my session Gary and  Dan Taylor paddled out with big grins and whooops, it took Dan a little while to find his feet but when he did he got some of the best waves of his life. 3 hours passed quickly and although my legs were cramping and I had a weird pins and needle feeling in my arms and my shoulders were burning, I was still hungry for more waves, but my late take offs were now unmake-able from the pure fatigue in my body and I was now mainly only able to observe others getting great waves. I saw Gary get a stonking right just before I had a mellow wave home, and with the tide dropping and swell increasing I think things were only likely to get better.


These are the days we live for down here, they don't come very much but when they do the stoke is so high I can go without for a few days after.... err ok maybe one day to recover.... err actually if it was like it the next day I would go again.... I'm speaking crap aren't I!


Driving home, during the time I was trying to work out how I would explain myself to my wife, I got a text from Dan Magee saying he was in hospital with an unknown illness. It put a bit of a downer on things as how exactly was I going to brag about this session to him now! Hopefully he will be back in the water soon.            


November 14th
Surf 60/25
Another session at K nothing great the waves were 2/3ft but fun on my fish and nice and clean only a couple out which made things mellow.


Wow and that is 60 surfs since I started this blog and 25 surfs this Autumn. 

Evening Little Sloptastic Stoke

9th November


Surf 57/22


I had to go into town and buy myself some smart shows for my grandfathers funeral tomorrow, checked the pier after said purchase and was greeted with a sloppy messy 2ft of uninspiring waves. I felt surprisingly enthusiastic to surf it and ended up having great fun on my 5'10 fish, had some fun waves I even got a couple of nice turns in! A few other friendly surfers were out, I didn't recognise them, but the stoke was shared and we all surfed until it was impossible to see the waves any more. 


My fish felt buoyant after my shortboard and catching waves was easy although the drops were slippy and felt a little sketchy, speed came easy and I managed a couple of full cutbacks in sloppy slow messy waves. I think it's good to change boards and then come back to old favourites, it felt fresh and new again. I also think the little gym workout I had with Gary on Monday paid some dividends.


Slightly stressed for tomorrow, I and the 5 other grandsons have been asked to carry the coffin, I'm having nightmares of dropping or laughing as walking into the crematorium. I'm sure it will be ok...........      

First taste of winter

5th November


Surf 56/21
I woke at 4.15am with a kick from my wife... 'Cody Needs Changing and I've been up all night feeding' she said in an irritated way. The last time I checked my watch it was 11pm.... woho that was 5 hours of solid sleep! I crawled out of bed and grabbed my screaming baby, a heavy nappy, but thankfully my smelling sensors seemed to be switched off. Handing Cody to Char to feed, I grabbed my phone to check the buoys... 6ft, 10sec and 7 mile an hour northerly wind! Game On!


Going back to sleep was now futile, although with first light at around 6.30am I had to wait, I was left to imagine perfect empty waves peeling off some of my favourite spots. I put 3 boards in the car and looked at my lovely new dry Snug wetsuit, that can stay at home, surely it's not cold enough for that suit yet. Driving west on the empty dark roads I felt that buzz of excitement, anticipating some quality waves somewhere along Dorset's Jurassic Coast, I was thinking the usual spots would be busy, it was Saturday and everyone knows these days! 


I pulled up, got out of the car and the wind was howling, it was freezing and my hands were quickly turning white. The thought of putting my very wet old Xcel suit suddenly felt like a nasty proposition. Grit your teeth, do it and don't hang around. The suit was very wet and was getting stuck around my knees wile the cold wind blasted my naked chest, for a second I thought 'can I do this', it's only November 'come on Ben man up' 


Just as I had changed, Spanish Ben (as I'm now going to call him) and Gav turned up, Gav reminded me I hadn't seen him for about 9 months, time does fly as it didn't feel that long. Getting to the sea the strong cross-off-shore wind was making a nice mellow swell look a bit bumpy and hard to get on, the waves on my preferable spot were looking slow and weak, the swell wasn't quite big enough and the wind was holding it up a bit too much. 


We ended up surfing spot "S" and completely avoided the massing crowds at the more obvious spots, just the 3 of us had a golden 40 minutes where the wind was holding up the heavy fast lefts just enough to make them makable. Wooping each other into every wave our confidence was growing, after witnessing some deep thick barrels we all wanted to sit a bit deeper and attempt one, but the swell started to drop, the tide started to push and just after we felt we'd got started the waves disappeared. On the long paddle and walk home my hands started to freeze again and a quick change and full heaters were needed to warm up. 


Driving home I passed lots of locals, regulars and recognisable vans on the pilgrimage, but they were to be disappointed. It was only 9.30am and the game was over. 

Hell paddle for very little

3rd November


Surf 55/20


Surfed a very disorganised onshore pier, only 3 others out but that was kinda understandable under the circumstances. I had a couple of good waves and lots of not so good ones. It was very hard work and I pretty much paddled for the whole session with very few breaks. Getting on a wave was very hard and unpredictable, I found myself wiping out in the take off on many occasions. The one bit of joy I can take from the session is I am starting to love that 6'2 fluid juice shortboard, it feels great to surf and I feel like I have loads of control, if something goes wrong recovery is possible. I did a couple cutbacks which felt good, I could really dig the rail in and the board would accelerate out of the turn and I didn't lose my balance where I normally would on a fish. The only downer about the board is it takes a lot more effort and paddle power to get it on a wave, I have been used to much higher volume boards and with this board the later take-offs need to be timed well, otherwise I come a cropper! 


     

Birth Death and Jelly

What a crazy life changing few weeks I've had, I have so much I want to say but I think I'll keep it concise.


Sadly my Grandfather died on Saturday 29th November, after looking like he was pulling through a nasty illness, suddenly his body started to give up. At 83 he was young in mind and full of life, who lived life to the full. 


My Grandfather was an amazing person, I would be best describe him as full of love and energy. He was a Ships Captain and sailed every sea and to every country that had a port. He was an Author and a Painter but most importantly of all he was a Family man who cared for everyone in his large and extended family. He showed an interest in all of us and would always help any of us out where he could. And there is a lot of us! He will be greatly missed.


As a 37 year old bloke, I have always considered myself extremely fortunate to have all of my Grandparents still alive, in some ways I imagined they would all go on forever, as we know nothing last forever. It's a bugger we have to die!  


Cody is 2 weeks old today and I am getting used to living with broken sleep. Babies don't give much back, kinda like feeding-pooing machines. Cody is putting on weight and all appears healthy and well. Half-term week was a little tricky, having our other 2 kids off school, with me still ill and Charlotte with a nasty breast infection, I have to say it wasn't the easiest week of our lives but we got though it with a surprising amount of humour, as yet Charlotte's hormones seem to be reasonably balanced!! 


and onto the surf..


I felt slightly frustrated missing 6 days of waves during half-term but I was still ill and under the circumstances I think it would have been pushing my luck with Char! With the famously big swell predicted for Sunday the 30th I saw that as my chance to get back on the board.


Sunday 30th October


Surf 52/17
18 seconds and 2.6 metres was probably the best biggest buoy reeding I saw. But as we all know long range ground swell and the Bournemouth Pier don't usually sit well together (apart from the super bank which appeared for a few weeks 2 years ago). As I expected long waits between big close out sets greeted us on a crossshore windy Sunday morning. As well as about 100 surfers on the east side of the pier. I started my surf off on the west side with about 6 surfers out and Gary, after faffing for 20 minutes and no waves caught I went to the east side faffed a lot more, caught 1 wave, got dropped in on, some how avoided being killed by lots of out of control surfers and went back to the west side where for most of the rest of the session I had it to myself, actually got a few ok-ish waves in the head high range although a bit closey, sometimes the wave would reform on the inside to give a punchy fast ride. I was riding my 6'2 fluid juice shortboard (test board) and it felt really good and especially nice to be on a thruster again (it's been a while). Chatted to some dude about being a sheep and today it felt good not to be one! 

surf 53 18
The wind suddenly dropped off in the afternoon, some how I persuaded Char to let me go for a second surf! Sadly the swell had dropped off as well and the west side of the pier was now the place to be (according to about 30 other surfers), so after catching a couple of small waves there I went east and surfed a very week super low tide small wave with a few others. Not exactly inspiring but there we go, I was at least back in the water. 


1st November


surf 54/19
A bit of KY but no Jelly, I had a lot of fun first at K with some dude I got chatting to on a fish and then for 2 hours on my own at Y, I got some lovely long rides and the crossshore wind wasn't really effecting the wave much (good for your front side airs... I dream :-0) I saw Kim briefly who said "I'm surprised you've been aloud out here" possibly in reference to the lynch mob on my back. I was surprised not to see a few more of the usual suspects. I heard later on that the wind messed things up a bit. I think I got lucky! Surfed for 3 hours and was completely shattered. It made last night even harder work with Cody waking every hour. Oh Joy!


And finally it has been rumoured that Dan Magee has been seen riding and enjoying himself on a "proper" shortboard! I just thought I'd let you know, if you see him on a minimal tell him to get off.