Ben's Surf Blog

Good to see classic K it's been some time.

2012-02-08T18:10:00.000Z

So after yesterdays 'I'm giving up winter surfing' thoughts, I lasted little more than 12 hours. Checking the early buoys I new I had to go again and this time I wore all my warmest gear. I broke out the 7ml Xcel clumpy mittens which are so thick I can't even tuck them into my sleeve, I have customised an old 1ml thermal rash vest, chopped off the arms as I found them restricting, also the original hood has gone, and finally I wore 2 hoods, A 0.5ml Xcel scull cap and my usual Snug hood. My slightly too big Xcel 8ml boots have been on for a little while now and my Snug wetsuit is usually top dollar, but I think I've become a bit soft! Or maybe I always was!

Surf 43/78 Wednesday 8th February

It was freezing this morning, but with my flask of hot water, a box of flapjacks and more rubber than somebody with a strange rubber fetish would know what to do with, I felt confident of a little bit of warmth. The waves looked very tasty, The Bench was pumping, the Bay was full of lines and my first look at the Ledges showed a set of about 3 waves with the first just breaking in a perfect A frame, head high with long walls. I whooped and the excitement helped take my mind from the cold as I got changed. I started on the Ledges and finished on Yellows, lots of fun clean waves were had by all with the odd longish ride, although some of the lefts were closing down, I tended to sit on the inside trying to stay busy (and warm) rather than waiting for the bigger and better sets. I had one moment where I went for glory, tucking into an impossible to make barrel section, I managed to see a beautiful view for a split second before I punched through the white water, some how still staying on my feet.

It was a very fun and enjoyable session, lots of friendly faces were out and it felt like a while since surfing with locals at K in waves like this.

Another good pic from guys blog, not sure if this was today or yesterday? But you get the idea.

http://houseofbonzer.blogspot.com/2012/02/ya-missed-this-too.html

Winter has arrived!

2012-02-07T21:41:00.000Z

Bloody hell... I'll stop there... note to self... must rant less... but... no stop it....ok just one point... I HATE WINTER.. ok that's all. I missed the K Beach clean... Sorry... But I (and Dan) were stuck in Belgium in Arctic conditions... that blog to come...

Surf 41/76 Wednesday 1st February
A super clean small easterly provided me and 3 others with a surprising amount of fun... It was in the 2ft range but with nice shape and tiny barrels on the inside my little 6'1 quad (sorry Dan's 6'1 Quad) didn't let me down and apart from dropping in on the same guy on 2 occasions (very embarrassing and I emphatically apologised) I came away with a surprising amount of stoke.
Guy has plenty of pics from the Wednesday and Thursday easterly swells here..
http://houseofbonzer.blogspot.com/2012/02/jolly-cold-pier.html
http://houseofbonzer.blogspot.com/2012/02/more-cold-pier-today-ya-missed-it.html

Surf 42/77 Thursday 7th February
Cold cold cold, it felt really cold today out at K apparently according to Matt and Guy, we (Dan, Gary, Kim, Woody and others) missed the best of it in the morning, long long waits between sets only sped up my slump towards hypothermia but when the waves eventually came they were very pleasant. Over an hour of paddling between yellows and ledges (mostly to try and stay warm) and as my session was nearing the end due to the lack of feeling in my hands and feet, the waves started to improve but they became impossible for me to catch due to my coldness. I finished my session at the ledges mostly frustrated but admiring Timo's stunning display on an SUP, he surfed it like a fish and if surfing them was as easy as he made it look I might be more interested, but it isn't and that man has got some talent.

Getting changed was horrible, my tired, cold body was past shivering, when the cold North East wind blasted my wet skin it was very painful, with nowhere to hide I hopped and skipped around the car park desperately trying to pull my wetsuit off which seemed to be stuck on my shoulder. For a moment I considered getting into the car fully suited but with one mighty surge of energy I some how pulled one side of the suit over my shoulder. My hands were burning, white and almost useless but eventually I was able to jump into my car dressed. The journey home gave my hands time to thaw and as the blood returned to fingers I suffered severe and painful Pins and Needles. I managed to listen to the whole of 'Wish You Were Here' Album before I got home as the rush hour traffic was heavy, the mellow warm drive helped me recuperate and I laughed at some of the ironies in the music. Do you think you can tell, Heaven from Hell?

I vowed to give up surfing during winter, I really am not made for it.. I feel the cold more than most and I do surfer from Raynaud's.... I can't handle this..... but like a drunk who vows never to drink again I think my promise will last little more than 12 hours... Now how are those flapjacks getting on!

Again Check Guys Blog....
http://houseofbonzer.blogspot.com/2012/02/today-you-missed-it.html

I can't get no satisfaction...

2012-01-31T14:04:00.000Z

I am fed up, it's freezing cold and my wave count this winter is pitiful, yeah I have got in a few times although uncharacteristically for me I have managed to miss a few sessions, the weekend before last both Saturday and Sunday were showing a very rideable wave at the pier, but as I took my eye off the ball again, my wife seized the opportunity to get me fully embroiled in family life and by the time I'd noticed a wave the light and the tide had beaten me. Those tides were big, I noticed you could walk out dry to level with the main part of the pier.

What's going on? Am I losing it? My drive, enthusiasm, some may say fanaticism! I don't think so. It's just been so weak, a bit pathetic and a bit too small to get excited about. And with it being the middle of winter I kinda (foolishly) expected a little more. Dressing up like a gimp to ponce around in 2ft slop does feel a bit desperate even by my standards, so when the chance came to go west again at the weekend I initially was right up for it only to check the forecast and question will it be good enough to quench my thirst. In the end I thought not. So another week passes and only one measly surf at K just about keeps me going.

Surf 40/75 27th January
To be honest I wasn't expecting much but the desperation of the lack of surf still kept me just about enthusiastic enough to bother. When I got to K the wind was gently coming from the north-west and there was some signs of slight chop on the water. Matt (Hull Pig Dog Boy) was watching and waiting and only one person was in the water. The size looked 'alright' (go on Spanish tell me off for that one!) probably in the head high range, so I was quickly changed and out back. I had a few waves but it was hard to work out where best to sit, the swell was inconsistent and weak, but at least the sun was out and it started to feel warm. It wasn't long before a crowd of fellow desperado's had joined me and things were quite busy which only added to my frustration as I fell off yet another wave... I kept falling off, I originally put this down to weak waves and small board but then that little French dude Gordon Fontaine paddled out and the first wave I saw him take was a small right hander.... pump pump pump... bang.. 360 air... bloody hell he is good... And maybe these waves aren't so bad! I felt a little more frustrated.....

I hate winter, well do hate winter?... Actually yes, although it becomes a little more bearable when surfing a few big winter swells... Cmon February don't let me down..............

Nice mellow clean day at the pier

2012-01-19T19:50:00.000Z

Surf 39/74 19th January

I don't think it's been the best January for surf I've ever known, but there was a surprisingly clean mellow 2ft wave today at the pier and with crowds minimal, happy days were had by all who surfed it. Maybe the winterness is actually starting to put people off, the last week has felt pretty cold with that easterly wind, but today felt positively balmy! In my usual attire of full hood and mittens I actually felt hot and if anything I think it may have been slowing me down. Mason paddled out with no hood or gloves and said he felt fine and as he seemed to be catching impossibly fat waves with his skinny little board I felt more and more sluggish and old and found myself drooling over Dan's minimal as he took yet another long mellow right hander. The rights were long and mellow and the lefts were short but a bit more punchy, although not quite doing that sucky thing sadly. How long the banks will stay like this is anyone's guess but they are definitely producing a bit more consistency in the shape of the wave than is the norm.

I am definitely needing a bit more size and power and the thought of a nice long wall seems like a distant memory or hopeful dream, but I always say February is the best month down here, lets hope this Feb comes up with the goods.

Horrible Messy Lumpy Cold Pier

2012-01-17T12:06:00.000Z

Surf 38/73 Sunday 15th January
Saturday Dan called me, 'we're going to Croyde tomorrow make the flapjacks' The Sunday predictions were looking good with solid swell and offshore wind. I was getting pretty excited it felt like ages since I'd got stuck into some quality surf and with the strong offshore wind, surely there could be some fun little barrels to be had. About 9pm Saturday evening during my flapjack making my lovely wife did the unusual thing of making a fuss about me going off surfing for the day! Something about freezing weather, 3 kids, Billy poorly, young baby, 'what the hell am I going to do all day?' (My wife doesn't do staying in). And 'you said there were waves at the Pier tomorrow!' Hmmm it was obvious, my school boy error had been letting Char know that there 'might' be some 'crap' waves at the Pier tomorrow.

Now as wives of obsessive surfers go, mine is exceptionally understanding and accommodating to my surfing needs. Char seems happy to spend every holiday we have at a surf oriented destination and understands when K is on it is essential that I go and sometimes I spend the whole day there. Char will even change some of her own personal plans so I can go surfing. So you can imagine my shock when she was making a fuss about me going off to Devon for the day! So I thought I should do the right thing and let her know in no uncertain terms that I was going and she was not to make a fuss again...... Only joking... I called Dan and told him I should do the diplomatic thing and settle for the Pier.

Grimtastic was the pier, it was cold and cross onshore strong south easterly winds were making an already disorganised swell mostly unsurfable. Hugging the pier was the only way out back and once there the question of why I was bothering would regularly pop into my head. Generally the surf was unsatisfying, with constant paddling needed to stay or be in a good position. I had one wave of note, a steep peak near the pier popped up and I was bored of constantly taking the short rights towards the pier, as I came round the bottom of the peak I pushed hard up to the top of the wave and bashed off the foam ball of a lip which then catapulted me around the crumbly messy disorganised section, then the wave seemed to reform giving me a fast long ride all the way to the beach. I also managed to get a few more turns in. That 6'1 quad Dan has leant me really is becoming my go to board for every session. I should probably have got out the water on that wave but I foolishly thought I could get another like it, I didn't, that wave was a fluke! An our of mainly paddling felt like 3 and I was glad to be back in my clothes. An afternoon was spent walking through the Gardens, kids on bikes and wife happy. Not all bad.

Xmas/New Year, lost passport tripping in Antwerp and a jolly at the Pier..

2012-01-12T14:19:00.002Z

A Christmas Rant
Only now am I starting to count the cost for the gluttony and excess of my least favourite time of year... oh yeah yeah yeah 'Barr Humbug' that is me, and apparently it's now fashionable to be grumpy at Xmas but if so many of us hate it, can't we call an end to the madness? Ok what really gets me frustrated, apart from all the pointless amount of STUFF which changes hands for a reason I'm really not sure why, (seeing my children ripping open yet another present with a response which seems to suggest this is more of a chore than fun, as they eek out another 'thank you' to one of two hundred aunts who've given them yet another piece of pointless plastic crap which they didn't really want and I definitely didn't want, which usually takes more time for me to build, fix or put batteries in than the amount of time that is actually spent playing with said STUFF..) yes this annoys me... But not as much as the fact I have to do all this festive bollocks when I could be surfing... yes I've missed session, quite a few, and at a time when I was effectively on holiday!

I've been trying to think back to when my disillusionment with the festive period first started, I do remember my childhood excitement, but at what point did this dissolve into a pit of cynicism? What feels like another life, in my early 20s I worked for the BBC in transmission and my name was always first on the list to cover the Christmas period, double money, free food and drink and the perfect excuse not to travel to the family, it always seemed like a no-brainier. Or maybe it started when I first went to Uni, I was having such a good time, living away from home for the first time, cheap drinks and all the friends I could ever want was all suddenly interrupted by an annoying long winter break (I actually had maybe too much of a good time as I didn't make it to the second year!). Or maybe it was earlier than that, when I found out that the image of the big fat man in red was thought up by a very clever marketing executive for Cocacola cementing the commercialism of Christmas forever, making us all buy a shed load of plastic crap (STUFF). Or maybe it just gets in the way and that annoys me.

Last year I stayed in Bournemouth with just my wife and our kids, no fuss, no excess, no hassle and lots of fun, I also surfed Christmas eve at the pier and had one of my most memorable surfs ever on Boxing day at K with Gary. Now that was my best ever Christmas.

Forgotten Passport
After just about surviving Christmas with my family, I was happy to get a bit of extra work with Dan in the New Year period, fitting a boat cover in Rotterdam meant a bit of 'real work' for somebody who normally sits at a computer, it feels like a bit of relief to do something physical and there's always the promise of some lovely Belgium beer at our stop over in Antwerp the evening before the job. It meant missing some more surf but hey I wouldn't be the first person to miss a session due to working for once!

We left Dan's unit at around 2pm, the rain was hacking it down and the traffic was very heavy, we had barely driven 10 minutes and we were stuck in a jam on the Wessex Way, it wasn't the end of the world but I think Dan was struggling as he'd done about 48 hours without sleep and already driven several thousand miles in the past week. Anyway the banter was rife and we slowly moved on past a small accident, suddenly Dan decided to magically drop his phone out of his window, the crazy thing was the window was only slightly open with a gap so small it didn't appear possible to get a phone through, crazy panic issued and some how the phone was recovered in full working order.... So we drove on and the banter continued. It took us about an hour and a half to get to the Winchester services a journey which normally takes about 40 minutes, but the road was clearing and all was looking good, we could almost smell the beer..... It was about now I started to get a sick feeling, I'm not sure what made me think of it, and in some ways I was lucky I thought of it when I did, if we were at the tunnel there would have been no turning back. I had forgotten my Passport, Dan stayed relatively calm although I think I did see some steam coming out of his ears. After a short debate the only option seemed to be to turn around and it now meant there was no chance of a Belgium beer tonight.

We finally left for Rotterdam at 12.30am the banter and piss-take was now solely aimed at me and I had no comeback, also Dan now had to drive through the night to get us to the job on time, with no beer to look forward too, I was feeling like.... well the best description would be the opening lyric to the song 'Kill Rock n Roll' by System of A Down.

The massive industry at the huge port of Rotterdam. A lot of STUFF

The job was completed and it was late, so the call was made to stay in Antwerp, our Belgium beer was at last coming... (24 hours late..) But hey it made it taste all the...er.. tastier....

Somebodies million pound boat being carefully loaded onto the Ship

It's just more stuff

Danny Boy

Antwerp is a stunning looking city, fully cobbled stoned with beautiful well kept old buildings, (being an OCD surfer going somewhere with a bit of culture has never been high on my list of priorities). There appeared to be pubs and bars around every small road, alleyway and corner. The people all appear tall, well dressed and the women have an almost 'Parisian Chic' about them which looked out of the league to any scruffy hoody/combat clad Englishman. Even the young guys looked smart with their solicitor/accountant style casual attire, with long coats and scarfs being the standard uniform of choice.

The Stunning 130 Metre High Cathedral in Antwerp

The beer tasted very good, and being the light weight I am it wasn't long before my already loud voice was bellowing above the Jazz band playing in the background, as I commented on yet another beautiful woman who strolled passed me Dan was giving me the quiet down sign saying 'you know they can all speak perfect English!'. As we left the bars, adding to the surrealism of the night was the strange accented English chattering outside, it appears as though Belgium people when drunk speak English to each other... Or maybe I was so drunk I thought I could understand which ever language the Belgium people were deciding to speak that night and translating it into accented English, either way it all seemed very bizarre.

Maybe it was the alcohol or the lack of sleep or the people who spoke a strange drunken yet perfect English or even it was the hordes of beautiful tall slim women who were sending my mind into a tizzy, but I expect what was really tripping me out was the strangest nativity scene I have ever seen. At first glance all looks normal, I thought in a drunken moment 'arr my kids will love this' So I took a picture, but after closer examination like a strange analogy for Antwerp, all is not what it seems!

Antwerp Nativity!?!?

And so to the Surf
3 whole weeks of dryness for me... 'Oh Poor Ben' I hear you say in sarcastic tones, Yeah well as I earlier said I am OCD when it comes to surfing. I have a surprising amount of people ask me where has the blog gone, well it's here I've just not been surfing.

(pic sent to me by a friend) another session missed!

Surf 36/71 Thursay 5th January
So at last clean off shore lines were filling the bay and I was free... (well as free as I get)... to surf. Surprisingly the pier didn't look that busy when I arrived although the swell was infrequent and tended to have only 1 main take off point which exaggerated the crowd. As I paddled out I saw Geordie and Gary splitting the peak and thought this is going to be a great session. Slightly frustratingly for a short boarder the long borders were dominant and a bit of a tactical game of trying to nab a wave under the nose of a long boarder or trying to be the deepest out back when everyone else had gone and just hoping there was 1 more wave in a set coming through. Drop-ins were rife but to be honest I had my fill, I came out unscathed and I think I had some fun. The rights were holding up beautifully and I got some really long rides, The lefts were short and not quite as punchy as they've been lately, so I decided after a while to leave them to Maison and Oli who were dominant and putting on a show for the pier onlookers!

Guy has loads of pictures of the session http://houseofbonzer.blogspot.com/2012/01/carnage-at-pier-featuring-geordie.html

Surf 37/72 Friday 6th January
Had a little jolly to K with Gary, small and infrequent swell mainly left me frustrated although I got extremely lucky on 2 nice waves which walled up a bit for me.

Now I just need a little bit more.

As Good As It Gets?

2011-12-16T22:10:00.000Z

16th December 2011
Surf 70/35
Wow what a day, what a week, imagine a surfer from a good/well known surfing destination from abroad came to visit a long lost family member in Bournemouth arriving last Sunday and leaving again on Saturday, this 'imaginary' person may actually go home thinking Bournemouth is not a bad place to live, lots of clean swell and actually a few good shaped waves, if you timed it right and avoided the obvious place to surf you could even have a few uncrowded sessions... Ok it is rare to get 5 days in a row of... yes I'm going to say it... good waves at the pier, but I think it may have just happened. It may have been a bit chilly but the sun has been out, the sky has often been blue and the wind has been quite light and mostly cross/off. We've been getting so much swell that the sand banks are starting to produce much better shaped waves, the classic right (super bank) which I first experienced a couple of years ago is just starting to show, (I remember Guy at the time said it hadn't been like this for 20 years) and shall we just for a minute just think about about that left!......... I always loved that inside left towards the pier but now it's gone mental. It actually feels almost Hossegor-ish, sucky and seriously punchy, several times I've wiped out on it I've hit the sand and got nicely worked in a very French way. (minus the warmth).
This has been a very good Autumn and beginning of Winter, I've surfed 35 times since September! I reckon I must have missed at least 10 sessions due to illness and babies etc and some of them quite good by all accounts, also I've mostly only surfed once in a day! I'm feeling it today, my body is sore, my head is fuzzy and the rash on my neck is very raw. But what am I to do when the waves keep coming and I have very few excuses not to surf them, saying that my wife did actually comment that I'm 'taking the piss' today!

Bit of a mixed bag today, got the early calls and decided to jump in the van with Dan and go exploring most of Dorset, possibly a bad move as when leaving my house my (lovely) wife irritatedly said 'I thought you might take me out for coffee today being the last day before the kids are off school'.... why is it women like to go out for coffee when we have a perfectly good kettle at home? (I instinctively thought).. anyway a couple of hours later I was back at home and very dry... I took my wife out... Then got the kids an early finish at 1.30pm... Then I went surfing at the pier.... I had a fantastic session mostly on my own or with just a couple of others on the west side, it was clean 3/4ft and very fun, I got loads of waves, mainly rights... and my new board, which I haven't even talked about in this blog yet, was working like a dream!

I think there is more surf around the weekend, I may actually have to do some work so I'm not sure of my chances of getting wet... ah well.... Let the good times roll....

SURFED OUT... More Pier and Magic D

2011-12-15T20:19:00.000Z

14th December
68/33
Better born lucky than rich, and I'm a long way from rich, maybe if I did a bit more work and less surf it may help my financial situation. Anyway apart from being healthy/married/kids/house bla bla bla yeah very lucky.. I have lovely friends who phone me of a morning giving me very early on the spot surf reports. Happy days and they keep coming. Each evening I go to bed thinking I'm too tired to surf tomorrow my limbs ache, I can't think straight and my wife keeps saying I'm acting weird... I'm not acting weird I'm just too knackered to answer back I have 'winter surf brain' the cold draws more energy and my brain cells aren't getting fuelled. Even writing this is like some kind of mission.

So when the morning call came and Gary was talking longboards, and mellow small waves I thought great a rest day, 2 hours later "Mate it's classic" came down the phone and "I can't remember having a surf that good at the pier".... oh 'ass wipes' I thought, I have to go!

Actually I did have a lot of fun mostly surfing the west side of the pier with Mason, Matt and Greg. Good fun punchy lefts with inside wally sucky barrels were had before the wind got up. Going over to the east side I saw Kim get some stonking sucky lefts towards the pier, although it was mentioned that it possibly wasn't 'the best pier ever', I wasn't the only person to hear from Gary and as Guy quipped 'It doesn't count on a long board' hehehe

15th December
69/34
Another day another surf, rotating wetsuits at least has meant always a dry one to put on although my Xcel is a let down after the Snuggly Snug. I had 2 calls this morning, both telling me the same thing, 'Pier going off and biggest ever!!' I had my 5 year old sons school play in the morning and I didn't really fancy a crowded close out pier so I text Gav, 'what you doing today? I think Magic D on, I'm free from 12'. Gav who likes to talk about pre-webcam/dickheads on Blogs, surf days, and surfing K alone 25 years ago is always up for bit of an adventure and although not local will always make the effort to get his ass down here from Surrey when it looks good.

Gav picked me up at 12pm and we were in the water alone at Magic D for 1pm shortly followed by Deane, Woody and a couple of other guys. The waves were inconsistent, sometimes great and then long waits between sets, but super clean, head high when they came and always good when there is only a friendly few out.

It's looking on again tomorrow.. The rash on my neck is horrendous, I can't I keep this up... ok I might :-)

Boards Boards Boards at super cheap prices and they really are tasty... If you want the list email me... benmottram1@yahoo.co.uk

Shock Horror Good Surf At the Pier!!!!!

2011-12-14T11:03:00.000Z

13th December

Surf 67/32

Amazing scenes of glory as I left the water after a surprisingly fun session at the pier, chunky solid lefthanders into the pier sucky and punchy really really fun. only about 8 out and no hassles... crazy scenes. I nearly got chopped in half a few times. Had loads of waves. HAppy days!

A friend of mine has 45 brand new shiny very high quality boards for sale all shapes and sizes by top UK surfboard brands at silly cheap prices, so if you need a board or even if you don't but want the bargain of the century, email me benmottram1@yahoo.co.uk

Bourne-busy-mouth Classic

2011-12-12T14:55:00.000Z

I received this picture at 7.55 this morning to my Mobile...

There are several annoying things about this picture, firstly, the waves are looking good, empty and I am not riding them. Second, pictures like this lead to vastly exaggerated high expectations of my potential surf in Bournemouth which on most occasions, including today's will be dashed by the reality that a handful of waves every set will be fought for by about 20+ other surfers all sitting in the same small tight take off zone!

Ok I'm coming across very grumpy and I'm sorry, I can't help it. But what should have been a great little session I found extremely frustrating. At least the vibe was generally good and friendly, there was chatter, banter and laughs all round, but is it just me or doesn't any surfer in Bournemouth actually have a normal job that surfing on a winters morning around 11am would make impossible? Of coarse they do and that is why weekends have now become insane. Surely the worst thing about the current economic crisis is that more people will not be working and making cold winter mornings in the sea even more crowded. So please Mr Cam and your Gay Lib Lover, could you please stop kissing each others butts and find some jobs for a few wastiod surfers so I could go back to surfing mellow cold winter mornings on my own......

Ahh glad to get that off my chest.. Maybe its because I haven't been in the water for a while, had a nasty cold for at least 5 days but think I am clean now. I went for full hood and gloves today, towards the end of the session my feet started to get cold, I think my boots are leaking and I may have to regally start using my SNUG suit.

Surfed a new board today, a lovely Fluid Juice Quad Rocket 6'1, bloody lovely board shame I didn't have a few more waves on it

This was Surf 66/31

A friend of mine has 45 brand new shiny very high quality boards for sale all shapes and sizes by top UK surfboard brands at silly cheap prices, so if you need a board or even if you don't but want the bargain of the century, email me benmottram1@yahoo.co.uk

The Standard... Windy Pier

2011-12-01T10:19:00.000Z

How many times has it been windy and you find your self in some kind of social situation with people who don't surf and they say to you 'you must be loving all this wind great for waves.' And then you find yourself trying to explain to them that local winds are no good and what 'us surfers' really need is.... bla bla bla... As I explain the same old spiel I can see their eyes glazing over and what they are really thinking is 'I don't really give a fuck, I was just trying to be friendly'...... I would like to say 'yeah it's great' but I can't help myself, my wife always says I talk too much and give way more information than I need too.

I think I'm actually speaking bollocks anyway, we love wind in Bournemouth, wind is like our life blood, without wind we would virtually have no waves. Whenever we do get the rare decent ground swells which make it up the channel the waves tend to closeout anyway! Maybe in my head I live in some alternate universe where we get regular ground swell and we surf in board shorts, the reality is most of our surfing is done in winter in howling cross/onshore gales and we love it (well kind of).

So next time the wind is blowing a hoolie and some friendly person tells me I must be loving all this wind, I'll say 'yeah there is a bit of 'Wind Swell' around and I had a few good waves earlier.'

29th/30th November
Surf 64/29
Surf 65/30
I had a small amount of fun surfing the messy 'Wind Waves' at the pier. At least the crowds were down which is some consolation!
We seem to be blessed with a constant supply of swell, I now have a very sore throat and feel a bit ill, I may have to have a few days off.

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

2011-11-28T16:17:00.000Z

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

2011-11-23T13:29:00.000Z

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

2011-11-18T10:23:00.000Z

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.....

2011-11-14T21:50:00.000Z

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

2011-11-09T20:43:00.000Z

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

2011-11-06T10:52:00.000Z

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

2011-11-03T14:07:00.000Z

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

2011-11-02T11:48:00.000Z

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.

Mock Me....

2011-10-24T20:25:00.007+01:00

My friend Ben, (Language Teacher, I often met in France at VVF. see August blog entries) is a stickler for perfect spelling and good grammar so he often gives me grief about mine... Ben is currently in Cornwall for the week and will often like to update me with his surfs, this afternoon he sent me a funny email which I thought I would share...------------------------------------------------------
Alternative Blog
Dei 1 - Sunday
Met Gavlaaa at 7am to check south fistral. Too small so headed for Mawgan Porth, low tide off the rocks. Great 2 hour session 2 to 3 ft and only 5 out, also saw a seal really close. Got message from Andy who was grovelling in 2 foot slop at Croyde!

Dei too - Mundei

Bit bigger but headed for Mawgan again. Wave was heavy, closing out a bit and rippy. Got some solid drops, sketchy on fish! 4 ft, perhaps more on sets. Gavlaa fed up with heavy paddle out. Saw seal matey boy again, I think she fancies me! 2 hrs again and got 2 or 3 very fast and long hollow rides. Weather crap but stoke is good! Hope mie spelin is ok.
Luv
Ben

Dei thri - Choosedei

Gavin and I are both feeling the two hour session we did in Mawgan Porth yesterday, which was a 2 hour paddle against the current session. So we welcomed a 3 to 4ft South Fistral early. Jumped off the rocks so a dry haired paddle out was on the menu. After his first wave Gavin maid the decision to change his board!! He swapped the egg for a fish, yes we were surfing and not doing a Rick Stein cookery course,

It was a good decision as he later court a corker of a right all the way to the rocks. In the end we staid in four too and a half hours! Sun came out too, scorchio!

So far, been here. 3 days and had 3 good sessions! Still waiting for a super session but it's coming JC, it's coming...!

Cowabunga!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I think he's Mocking me...

BIG WEDNESDAY ! !

2011-10-23T10:45:00.000+01:00

Wednesday 19th 2011

After being in the deepest, darkest, barrel for 9 months, Cody Beau Mottram yelped for joy as he clawed onto life seconds after his first breath! The after spray from the barrel was intense, but Cody managed to stay on his feet for a perfect 10. Cody may take some time to recover and when he's next on a wave, (about 5 years time) the biggest barrel of his life will be a forgotten moment, although for all who witnessed (well mainly his Mum), it will live in memories forever.

------------------------------
Ok so that was a bit contrived, but hey what's a bit of artistic licence between friends....

And the long version of what actually happened for anyone who might care...

My Mum was due to arrive Monday night and the plan was that she would look after the kids, take them to school and generally help out on Wednesday (planned Caesarean birthday). Both Charlotte and I have no family locally and our parents live 200 miles away, so a 'known' birth date had massive advantages for us. But towards the end of last week and into the weekend my Grandfather (Mums dad) suddenly fell gravely ill and was seriously looking like dying just in time for my new babies birth. My Mum was obviously in a bit of a state and was needing to be with her Mum, siblings and her Dad.
Charlotte and I thought fine, we can adapt, the new plan will be drop Char at hospital at around 7am, I get back and get the kids to school and then rush back to the hospital hopefully in time for the delivery of Cody. Both our other children were delivered by C-section around 9am but depending on where on where Char fell on the list it could be as late as midday so we felt we had plenty of time.
Monday night we heard the news that my Grandfatherhad was in a stable state and although in ITU the doctors said nothing was likely to change for a while so my mum said she would come down Tuesday Night and the original plan could go ahead.
I woke up Tuesday Morning with two golf ball sized lumps sticking out of my neck... apart from my obvious discomfort and feeling slightly scared about my predicament the reaction from Charlotte was understandably quite extreme, by 8.50am I was sitting in our doctors surgery waiting to be examined.
After answering a list of questions, most of which I answered "no" and explaining my predicament (my wife giving birth tomorrow) the doctor gave a bit of a smile and said "I hope you weren't planning on being in the theatre tomorrow" and "I'm not sure what's wrong with you, maybe Glandular Fever, you need a blood test". So two pieces of great news to tell my wife, I wont be at the birth of our 3rd child and I might be ill for the next few weeks. She'd be cool!

So my Mum arrived Tuesday night, I dropped Char at the hospital Wednesday morning and we showed/explained to the Nurses and Doctors my illness and they gave Char a private room (bonus!), away from the other new Babies and Mums and the medical staff suggested I didn't get too close to the baby when it came or Charlotte who was about to get cut open! I then rushed home took my kids to school, gave my mum the sat-nav and the keys to my other car and rushed back to the hospital. Char was still waiting and had been put to 3rd on the list. We had about an hour to wait and time seemed to start warping into slow motion and the longest hour of our lives slowly ticked by.... Eventually a midwife turned up and said "Do you want to walk to Theatre or ride on the bed?" Charlotte opted to walk and I sort of waved good bye and said I'll be back in a couple of hours to meet our new baby. Very very weird experience not even kissing or hugging my wife goodbye before she had one of the biggest and scariest experiences of her life.

I had 2 hours to kill and sitting in Charlotte's room may have driven me insane so I went to meet my mum in Bournemouth town centre for some coffee. I drove from Poole Hospital quite erratically, my mind was best described as confused. As I walked through Bournemouth town centre I had the strangest sense that I was in the wrong place, it felt like a weird dream where you can't get to a place you want or you have missed something for being in the wrong place. My trippy mind was probably not helped by my fever but it was one of the strangest sensations I've ever had.

I returned to the Hospital after about 2 hours and Charlotte wasn't back from recovery. I sat... well when I say sat I was pretty twitchy, my adrenalin was pumping overdrive and I started to worry... 10 minutes passed and eventually Charlotte and Cody arrived........... they both looked happy, Charlotte looked a bit yellow and felt very sick but she was smiling. I felt my tension and stress slowly drain away.

I brought Imogen and Billy to come and meet their brother at about 6pm and all seemed good in the world. Charlotte only stayed the 1 night in hospital and by Thursday afternoon I had a very full home. Happy days.

Cody 2 Hours Old

Imogen and Billy Meet Cody

Cody Home

So now I need to get better because I need a surf!

Freaky Tuesday

2011-10-18T14:51:00.002+01:00

Freaky Me Golfball Throat

I was thinking I may get a surf today but waking up this morning my throat felt a bit strange, looking in the mirror I was confronted with a freak show! My throat has 2 massive golfball like bulges sticking out of it. I thought I'd been feeling pretty strange lately but I'd put that down to stress. - - I've had some tricky issues with my work, general money worries with our overall house income about to massively drop, I'd had a call from some debt collectors about a debt my brother had ran up in my name! My Grandad has suddenly started dying, my mum has now cancelled coming to help us with our immanent babies arrival due to being with her dying dad, and there is the small matter of my wife having a Caesarian Section tomorrow.

So my question.... Is my throat thing (the docter doesn't know what it is and I need a blood test) a result of stress or have I been feeling a bit more stressed lately because I was obviously about to come down with this wierd illness?

It makes the whole K thing seem rather insignifficant. I still have idiots sending me anonymous threatening emails. Think they need to get a life!

The Truth About K!!!!!!!!!!

2011-10-14T12:26:00.002+01:00

I've had some abuse, it's not surprising, I've put myself out in 'webland' for all to read and you can never be quite sure how things will go down. Mostly people seem to be getting annoyed with my reference and reports regarding "K".

Now lets get a few things straight....
1) K, (not its real name) is not a secret spot, not even close. Fearing I might put some peoples noses out of joint who seem to be under the delusion that it is secret, I have referred to it as K. How can a spot be secret (or protected) when every surf spot guide has detailed guides on directions waves and best conditions. And that is not to stop the mass internet information available on when K will be working!

2) As a travelling surfer it would be complete madness to chose to travel to K. It is without doubt one the most fickle spots in the country. It basically only works on very clean groundswell which is coming in from a very limited direction. Also it is very exposed and is very badly effected by even the gentlest onshore winds, and if anybody thinks they understands the tide situation they are probably lying. I have turned up on 50% of occasions and driven home dry and I am relatively local and it can still be an hour and a half round trip.

3) The waves at K... Well the best waves are off limits 5 days a week.... The 'Bay' is only worth a look in the HUGEST of swells when you would definitely be better off elsewhere, and the other spot can be a paddle mission on a good swell but on most occasions is best left to Longboarders.

Being local, K sometimes provides joy and maybe that joy is somewhat exaggerated in our minds as we haven't had to drive to Cornwall that day to get some good waves. Because lets be brutal, the pier isn't really that good even on a good day. I think the anonymous comment left on my last K report sums things up....
"K, is a state of mind not a place my child.
The beautiful ketamine induced euphoria south coast surfers use to convince themselves it's firing.
Speak t'vetniary for more detailsand with respect people should not eyeball the very well known yet private K experience"

So I think less of the abuse and more of the stoke and reality check needed I think! I am happy to publish anybodies arguments or grievousness but I wont publish rudeness.

13th October.

Surf 51/16

Had a stoke filled mellow 2/3ft sunny warm glassy session at K only 4 out! I thought it might be flat when I turned up and a friend thought it would be overhead! We got somewhere in-between. Long waits between sets which varied between 1 and 4 waves. Tide moved extremely quickly from high to low. When it was low about 15 surfers turned up but the best had already been ridden.

Desperado Pier

2011-10-10T11:22:00.001+01:00

10th October

50/15

Had a bit of a surf at the pier, waves were in the 1/2ft and very sloppy range but the tides was super low and there was a bit of a wedge into the pier which I sat on. Gary was out... longboarding! I was quite happy on my lovely 5'10 which I still think if there is a wave which is surfable I can surf it on this baby! who needs longboards :-) Ok it was a bit of desperado surf but it was warm and I have not surfed since last Friday......

New Surfboard on Test!!!

2011-10-06T11:26:00.000+01:00

I have a lovely new surfboard to play with. Basically I am involved with a new online surf shop which will soon be going live and this board has been given to me to be used as a demo/test board which is still for sale. All surfs on this board will be documented on this blog, so if you like the sound of it you could break my heart and buy it for a complete bargain.

The board shaped by Adrian Phillips for Fluid Juice is pretty much a standard shortboard, 6'2 x 19 x 2 4/10 with a thruster set up, A squash tail with hard rails for the first 1/3 of the board which taper off into smooth round rails from about the mid point of the board. The boards bottom shape is single concave into double concave. The board has a subtle yet attractive spray job of what looks like grass growing from the tail fading into the middle of the board with the Fluid Juice logo in its usual top 1/3 of the board.

I have put LBX2 fins in this board as the board comes with the ever popular LokBox Fin System. I do love the solidness of the LokBox Fin System and the advantage of being able to move the fins forward or back depending on preference or surf conditions, but I often find I start to fall into the dilemma of where best to put the fins! I have set the fins up in the middle position. I have put an unbranded white tail pad on this board which has been given to me from a new surf brand which is depending on tests results maybe manufactured. The tail pad is a classic shaped 3 piece with the branded 3M sticky on the back.

This board would normally sell new for £425.

I am so excited about surfing this board and I have to admit I do especially love Fluid Juice boards. Like all Fluid Juice boards there is a nice solid feel about it and the glassing is maybe slighter thicker than other surfboard brands, the finish smells of pure quality and there is an artistic feel and look to the board. It has been a while since I have surfed a standard thruster short board and I am looking forward to getting on this baby.

This board is for sale but please don't buy it yet!

Beautiful K

2011-10-04T23:18:00.000+01:00

29th September

It's always a risk going to K, there must be very few people who actually live close and with virtually no mobile reception down there, trying to get an accurate on the spot check is almost impossible and there is always the issue of the £5 toll road to put your nose out of joint. I must have turned up to find it flat or blowing a gale on at least 50% of occasions. The wave buoys could be showing 6ft and 12 seconds but if the swell is to much from the west things could be flat, and then there is the issue of the tide! I have lived down here and surfed K for over 10 years and I still couldn't tell you what the best tide is, some say high, some say low, some say high dropping some say low pushing some say mid and the fact is I don't think anyone has it truely nailed, the tides don't even run in a normal way, with double lows, double highs or seemingly mid all day! The description of 'fickle' is never more apt than when describing K. Maybe this adds to the stoke, getting it working well is so rare that when we do maybe it's that little bit more special.

Surf 48/13

My brother has lived in Bournemouth on and off for the last few years but has only been to K on 2 occasions, I thought surely today before he moves away again at the weekend he can see K working. The buoys were looking good and the weather was exceptional, windless and about 25c. The drive felt long with road works making us divert and was the beginning of rush hour, we eventually got to the top of the hill with the first view of the bay at about 4.30pm. Looking out it was completely flat, super glassy clean but not a ripple. We had some debate about going down the toll road to have a closer look and eventually decided to go for it. Thankfully the person who collects the money had gone for the day woho, although our happiness was soon tainted when we arrived at the car park to find no waves. Several surfers were milling around watching and waiting.....

A Set with only one wave rolled through, we decided and so did the other 3 surfers that it looked just about surfable and with such amazing weather getting in the water wasn't really a chore. Things could only get better, the tide was due to go from extreme low to extreme high within 3 hours and the swell was due to be increasing into tomorrow. Amazingly things did get better, super clean walled up lefts became longer and more consistent and I found myself on wave after wave, my 5'10 fish was loving it and so was I! We got out when it was dark and my arms were aching, the odd head high although mellow set had been surfed and we both felt seriously stoked!

I got home about 8.20pm and found myself in serious trouble with my (very pregnant) wife. She had planned a romantic dinner and I had forgotten to cancel a squash game with a mate. At 8.45pm I was playing squash and my dinner was in the bin!

Surf 49/14

Getting to bed (spare room!) about midnight after a long surf, squash game and no dinner, I was seriously tired and sore. The alarm went at 5.30am and I had to remind myself this was meant to be fun! I was meeting my good friend Ben (Spanish teacher from VVF sessions who likes to correct me on my bad English) and I new that first light was going to be best for tides and swell.

The countryside surrounding K was simply stunning, the valleys beneath the gentle hills had a thin layer of mist set against a dark blue sky and deep red horizon it looked like one of those rare stunning views you may see from an aeroplane or mountain range. Getting to the car park there was already about 10 recognisable vans and battered cars, and an enthusiastic early crew were checking and changing. Ben hadn't arrived yet and I couldn't wait and I was glad I didn't. I was the third guy on the peak and when a set came I got a stunning long overhead ride, my fish felt extremely loose but fun and fast and it wasn't long before I was on another ride. Lefts were definitely best and I found myself speeding away from the lip onto the shoulder then digging my tail in hard trying to cutback and rebound with varying success. Ben soon arrived and would enthusiastically tell me about each great wave he had, I saw him have a great (backhand) left where he managed to get his board fully vertical out the lip and slash it round beautifully. It was a very rare and stunning day had by all who surfed.

Ben bought me breakfast (did I say my new best friend.... OK I'm cheap what can I say?) and I left him to have a second surf while I went home to grovel!

I managed to make up with my wife and the afternoon was spent at the beach surfing the kids and then Fish and Chips.... Does it get much better?

Love/Hate Croyde

2011-09-27T15:00:00.000+01:00

September 27th

A Day trip to Croyde, After some debate Dan And I decided to go on Monday rather than Sunday, the thinking was less people in the water and much better wind conditions and there was even talk that the sun may come out!

46/11
6am text came through... "on my way" 10 minutes later Dan and I were putting the 'world to rights' on religion, psychology and the fact too many people had too much money and didn't know what to do with it. We concluded that If they surfed they may have a better idea!

We decided to head straight for Woolacombe thinking the drive past Sauntan and Croyde would only lead to indecision. ( Indecision .. A trait bestowed to most surfers when searching for waves because of the belief that somewhere else maybe better). Luckily Woolacombe looked crap! sloppy unshapely small waves were making there way slowly to the shore, after 3 hours driving we didn't exactly feel inspired. Croyde was the ONLY option!

How different things can be on adjacent beaches, we parked in the National trust car park towards Baggy Point, looking out across Croyde Bay we could see glassy 3/4ft barrels. The tide was low and still dropping for the next hour or so. I grabbed my 6'2 quad and Dan spent about a minute deciding between his Bonzer short board or his Mini Mal, it wasn't the hardest decision as these waves looked tricky enough on a short board a Mini Mal could have been very hard work.

As we paddled out we saw a guy pig dogging one of the deepest left hand barrels I've seen in years, he must have been 2-3 metres behind the lip and fully dry in an airy chasm, as I paddled over the shoulder I looked back and it seemed quite a wile and looked a long way down the line before the guy re-appeared, "surely he didn't get out of that" I thought, but speaking to Dan a few minutes later he confirmed the guy did get out! Dan had said something to the guy in passing congratulating him on a great wave.... you know sharing the stoke, being friendly, all out here in glassy amazing waves, nobody actually working like most other (normal) people.... Only to get a sneered response turned back and paddled back out!

Now I am, on most occasions, pretty happy go lucky and accepting of other surfers, I've been known to talk to Boogie Boarders, Goat Boaters, I can even accept Wave Hogs and Long Boarders (SUP boarders on anything other than small waves do worry me) and I actually have a good friend who rides a Wave Ski...... But.... attitude, unfriendliness, and generally being a bit 'too cool for school' really gets me annoyed, I think these guys (and girls) are seriously missing the point! It wasn't as if the Twat in question was a stand out surfer either, granted he got in and out of a better, deeper and suckier barrel than I have ever managed, but I saw him on another wave where he was flaring his arms all over the place, standing way to straight legged and about as stylish as... umm... err.... some one not that stylish. So Mister Cool next time you get a great wave or even a not so great one, a laugh, a grin, a smile, a joke, a hand wave or even a nod of the head will go a long way to sharing the stoke and spreading a little happiness in this crazily addictive, beautiful, extremely fun and possible completely pointless sport well call surfing.

OK rant over... back to the the trip..

So the waves were good, steep heavy fast and barrelling, if it wasn't for the brown cold water and surrounding scenery I could have mistaken this place for France! The first part of this session was intense, it reminded me of some of the session I had in the summer at Bunkers. There were 2 distinct yet shifty peaks breaking slightly unpredictably coming from deep water and hitting a very shallow sand bar, I managed a couple of 'warm me up' waves to build some confidence then I found my self in the perfect position to take one of the bigger set waves, jumping to my feet the wave sucked steeper and steeper almost appearing to grow in size as I shot down the line, I could see sand and seaweed sucking up the wall and my thoughts were just gun for the shoulder, I went for a turn off the top as the wave seemed to slow, although this was a bad idea as the wave wrapped round the shoulder and quickly steepened up again and I found my self being catapulted forward into the pit.

I paddled back to Dan and we decided to try the left hand end of the beach where there seemed to be less people. It was a very intense situation on the right hand part of the beach and Dan was yet to catch a wave, feeling uncomfortable on a board he hadn't ridden for a wile in a very crowded line up with heavy waves we thought the other side of the bay looked a little more mellow. This was a massive understatement the waves I would say were under half the size and I found myself hampering after my 5'10. We surfed here for the rest of the session mostly alone and eventually Dan started to catch some waves, he looked quality on a short board and I suggested to him that he should never really take a bigger board out, but his reply was "wave count" and he would often moan when a fatter wave went under him un-ridden saying "I would have got that on my Mini Mal".

I had some nice rights where I felt I really turned well off the top in a way I was unable to do on my front side, later Dan suggested this maybe because I was quite front footed on my forehand which wasn't so conducive to a quad set up but on my back side I was more back footed and pushed much harder through the heal. So maybe a thruster set up would work better for me.

47/12

A large batch of sandwiches and home made flapjacks were consumed before a half an hour chill out and phone calls were made. Looking out, the waves seemed to have mellowed and dropped in size, it was mid tide and pushing, I suggested to Dan he took his Mini Mal and he took my advice, quite frankly I couldn't face the "I would have got that on my Mini Mal" moan and with tired arms and mellower looking waves it seemed the obvious choice. I took my 5'10 fish. As we entered the water the scene of of 3 or 4 rows of white water filled us both with dread of a hard paddle out and we weren't wrong, for some reason I was wearing my 5/3 wetsuit and by the time I eventually got out back I felt extremely hot. The waves were a lot bigger and more powerful than they looked from land and I quickly assessed I was on the wrong board. A lovely looking wave came through and I called Dan on. He took it, dropped in, top turn and then popped off, paddled back to me and complained he was "mid wee!" Haha... Why is it when somebody calls you into a wave you feel strangely compelled to go, forgetting all your own judgement? We surfed for over two and half hours I didn't have any outstanding moments, I found I was hanging on a bit on the bigger drops, early on in the session the waves were showing and then backing off before doubling up or suddenly steepening up and then often closing out, This made it hard to know where to sit, sitting deep and you couldn't get on the waves, sitting inside and the waves jacked up quickly which made me feel uncomfortable taking late big drops on my 5'10. As the tide moved on this stopped happening but by this point my arms and shoulders were shot to pieces. I saw Dan get plenty of waves, pumping his 8ft Mini Mal extremely well making lots of sections and producing a surprising amount of speed.

The drive home seemed long and we broke my most basic rule by stopping at McDonalds... but hey after 5 hours of surfing and feeling extremely hungry and fatigued, surely a moment of weakness can be forgiven?

Croyde Love/Hate?

There is no doubting the quality of Croyde, especially at low tide. I don't know many places in the UK where you truly get that 'French Beach Break' experience (without the warmth, blue water and boobs! Actually I could go on but I wont...). Croyde is one of the best beach breaks in the country but coupled with this is dirty/smelly water, crowds and attitude. Also the waves can be short and sometimes a bit closey. But I will be back and hopefully next time that left hand Barrel can be mine, When it is, I will definitely be sharing the stoke! :-)

iphone pic not the best but you get the idea

Van with a View!

Unexpected surfs always bring joy....

2011-09-18T21:12:00.000+01:00

18th September

45/10

I got to the beach at about about 12pm with my kids, brother in-law his wife and Char. The rain was unpleasant but I kept telling everyone that any minute now the rain would stop, it took about an hour but we all had fun eating our lunch in the beach hut wile waiting for the sun to come out. The amazing and surprising thing was the super clean 2ft waves which would come in sets of 3 or 4 every 5 minutes. I wasn't expecting to see any swell let alone what looked like super clean ground swell, I text Gary to see if he had heard if K might be on, he said the buoys were only reading 5sec wave period so it looked like the waves may have been some kind of cleaned up wind swell, making K a very risky call.

So about an hour later Char's brother and wife drove home, I dropped kids and wife home, I borrowed a spongy longboard from Gary and had an amazing amount of fun surfing with Gary my brother Matt and the Brazilian dude, don't know his name but he surfs the green quad fish and he is in some of those pics from the 6th of September shown on this blog.

Sun out, warm, super clean and great shapely waves. I Came away feeling extremely stoked!

Good Bye Katia...............

2011-09-16T23:02:00.000+01:00

15th September

A text came through late yesterday from Dan "Woolacombe tomorrow?" I Checked the report and MS was calling it at 5ft 11sec with no wind and sunny. "Char is there any good reason I can't go surfing tomorrow" I asked the reply came... "Well the garden is a mess and I need to tidy the house as the health visitor is coming tomorrow"..... An hour later and a tidy garden I was getting my gear ready!

It was the last opportunity to surf the swell produced from Hurricane Katia and with perfect conditions predicted I wasn't going to let these last few waves fade without a fight

Surf 43/8

We arrived to see super clean corduroy lines flowing into Saunton Sands as we rounded the corner looking towards Croyde Bay a large pack of surfers were caught inside by a lovely over head set of 4 waves. Dan and I sat in the van and watched for a wile but decided the tide was a little too high and the crowds looked annoying. Dan was calling Putts! I was pretty sceptical but he was convinced on a westerly swell at high tide the waves would be a similar size, virtually no one would be out, and a nice left hander would break off the rocks.

Dan was right! After paying the extortionate putts parking fee £6.50 we both felt a little sick but the waves were looking good. The waves were in 3/4ft range and super clean glassy, mellow long walls gave a lot of pleasure. we gave each wave a value against the cost of the parking fee 50p was a really good wave 25p a bit average. I had one fantastic "75p" wave where I managed to race a steep closey section and then managed to wip across the lip at the end of the wave with such speed I felt like I was flying. Dan said it looked amazing from behind as he saw my board rip through the lip producing a massive amount of spray. Paddling back to the line up I couldn't stop yourself from smiling. My 5'10 fish felt like a rocket.

I think we just about managed to pay off the price of the parking although the long wait between sets was frustrating but at least we pretty much had the waves to ourselves.

Surf 44/9

Combes was the call, we couldn't face the crowds at Croyde and there are very few places where you can chill out on the grass above a break with such beautiful scenery around and easy access to the beach. We had a very good session surfed for well over 2 hours in 3/4ft mellow waves, I got out of the water a good half hour before Dan as I was completely shot to pieces. We both had some fantastic long rides, I didn't ever recreate my super fast turn from the first session. Dan pulled off some beautiful full round house cutbacks with real style.

Good Bye Katia you were fun, I hope you have a brother or sister I could meet in the next month!

I couldn't wait.....

2011-09-14T16:15:00.000+01:00

14th September

Happy Birthday Gary

Surf 42/7

I was itching early in the morning to get out to K but I new the winds would ease as the day went on, by 10.30am my patience had ran out and I was unable to concentrate on my work so I left. As I drove out of sunny Bournemouth I was greeted with torrential rain and was seriously wondering if I had made a bad move. At the top of the hill looking towards K Bay it was hard to see the swell through the rain on my side window but what I could see looked onshore and disappointingly small. After a short debate with myself I decided to pay the extortionate £5 fee to use the road to the bay.

About 5 guys out on the ledges surfing 3/4ft messy waves, when the sets came there looked to be enough power for a bit of fun so I got myself in. I actually had quite a lot of fun considering how bad things looked, the bigger sets gave some fun longish lefthanders with the odd walled up section. The tide dropped very low and things deteriorated around 1pm, by this time my arms were pretty tired and I was feeling cold. Driving back home I saw van after van making the pilgrimage, although the wind was still strongish but maybe later it would improve and the tide should become more favourable.

I feel like I am struggling in my 3/2 and today I decided to ware boots, the water does feel cold and the buoys are saying around the 16C mark. I'm sure last year I wore my 3/2 until the water was around the 13C mark although this time last year I was over a stone (14 pounds or 6 Kilograms) heavier, maybe my weight is making the difference. It is surely way too early to pull out the 5/3?

Surfed my 6'2 quad felt good to catch waves but sometimes a little to buoyant. I can't make my mind up on this board.

Pier fun and a little secret right

2011-09-13T14:17:00.000+01:00

12th September

Surf 40/5

Got into some lovely 3/4ft chunky clean waves at the pier on my 5'10 fish although it all started off a bit embarrassing sitting furthest out with Dan and Guy the first wave I took shocked me a little with its speed and power and my slippy fish felt hmm well a little too slippy! Getting to my feet and looking up only to see a wall of very afraid looking surfers I panicked and slipped off, my board then nearly took a few people out, I apologised and paddled back. A few minutes later an even bigger wave started to taper and I thought I was perfect for it, as I went, the thing broke on my back and I went careering through a mass of bodies and ended up somewhere near the beach, this was now officially embarrassing. Sheepishly paddling back out trying to make as little eye contact as possible when I got back Dan was laughing at me "bit of white water rafting today is it?" he said. Guy suggested that Bournemouth was one of the few places where after taking a wave out back you could be a serial killer by the time you got to the beach and "are you related to Fred West?" and "you are not going to do that again are you?"
I said "I'll try not to"
Thankfully I did manage to get to my feet on a few occasions but I struggled to redeem myself, the crowds were still thick and dangerous and it wasn't the best surf I have ever had!

13th September

Surf 41/6

I surfed a semi secret spot today, well I say semi as I am sure a lot of people know where it is but probably don't know the best times/tides and conditions to go. I didn't but I got taken and told. I am not even going to say who took me! For fear of pissing too many people off! And giving away clues

Lets just say I had fun, the wind was a bit too strong but it was a quality wave with power and punch and I felt at home (after 5 weeks in France) On it's day this wave must be as good as anywhere.

Lucky I appear to be able to surf again! Unlike yesterday!

Looking forward to tomorrow!

Wedding!

2011-09-12T10:37:00.000+01:00

11th Septamber

Surf 39/4

I had to go to a wedding today! Gutted! Missed out on the better waves at the pier which were around in the middle of the day, got in at 7pm for an hour of slop 1/2ft. Had a few little fun runners towards the pier with that nice sucky wedgy left thats working well. Waves were at least clean and not many out.

Chunky Pier Fun.... Not so bad to be home...

2011-09-08T11:54:00.001+01:00

6th September

Surf 37/2

What a session! Chunky 3/4ft waves not the cleanest but with some great power on the inside, The lefts were piling through towards the pier and if you had the skill or desire big moves were possible. Every local in town was out. Guy Penwarden was sitting the furthest out beyond the pier on a huge purple Bonzer Gun wile the yonger new kids on the block were mixing it with the boogie boarders on the heavy inside lefts. Even Terry Crump showed up for a rare appearance, with his classy powerful style showing most of us how good surfers do it!

A couple of pics from the session taken by 'Ricky' I got these off Magic Seaweed sadly for my ego I couldn't find any of me! a Link to Ricky's website if you were surfing that day and want a photo http://bournemouthjetwashing.com/

7th September.... My Birthday...

Surf 38/3

I have to get in the water on my birthday it is a rule! Ok the surf was crap but I got a few waves and still felt the birthday stoke Boscombe pier is always a bit drab and 1/2ft of weak slop doesn't help things.

Sloppy Pier..... first surf back

2011-09-05T15:03:00.000+01:00

1st September

Woho September is here....

Surf 36/1 (surf 1 for the new season!)

I surfed (the word surf in this case is to be used in the loses possible terms)1/2ft of painfully weak east swell, there were far too many enthusiastic surfers than there should have been considering how crap the waves were. I found myself thinking a longboard would be a good idea and did feel slightly green at the fun the longboarders and SUP boarders seemed to be having. I did get along the line on a few occasions so my 5'10 Fish did pass my just about surfable bench mark, but did I have fun? I think fun would be overstating my feelings regarding this session. At least the sun was out but I was surprised by the coldness of the water and even more surprised to see people surfing in only board shots! This isn't the south of France you crazy fools! This so isn't the south of France!

Master plan needed... Must some how make some money, buy villa in Hossegor, spend more time there!

Quite simple really...

Today, the 5th September, we are getting battered by sw gales but annoyingly the surf still looks painfully small, maybe a surf might happen this evening. The outlook for the week may bring some potential.

The End Of Summer..... Bring It On Autumn!!!

2011-09-01T14:04:00.000+01:00

24th August

Surf 35

A bit of an anticlimax 3ft of shifty unpredictable waves, clean but disorganised and unsatisfactory. The last few years my last couple of surfs of the trip have been classics but this was definitely not classic and probably below average for the trip. Andy and I bumped into Dan on the way out and I think his surf was equally as disappointing.

The rest if the day was spent surfing with the kids and chilling at the pool also de-camping.

25th August

I got up early and went up north to meet Dan we sat on the sand and chatted wile watching super clean 1/2ft waves but the tide was a bit low and the will to surf was lacking. Driving away I though VVF would be showing a lovely wave but I had ran out of steam and with 12 hours of driving ahead of me the surf would have had to be pretty special to bother.

The drive home was smooth and easy, the kids and even Char were no trouble and we took Dan's advice and got a cabin on the ferry which was the best £25 I have ever spent!

The welcome home was cold and fresh, I had some bloke shouting abuse at me from his car as I had to manoeuvre some tricky reversing with the caravan as a lorry was threatening to take me out along a narrow bridge. The angry bloke had to wait nearly 2 minutes and seemed quite upset about it, maybe he had something against caravans?

So good to be home? Not really, reality (home) is cold, wet and flat, although there looks to be some swell potential on the horizon an east swell about 1/2ft is hitting today 1st September, which I may have to check out later and there is a quality bit of ground swell hitting the west at the weekend.

So 35 surfs in a total of 37 days although 4 of those days I was travelling! So that is more than 1 surf a day for the days I was near the sea. We had some absolute classics and lots of general good quality sessions and even the sloppy, smaller and not so perfect days still gave me a lot of fun. The kids had the best holiday ever and even Char who is now very heavily pregnant thought it was fantastic, and considering she couldn't run, drink coffee, drink wine and had to watch her diet as she was borderline gestational diabetic it is quite impressive she had any fun at all! We are now talking about going back at Easter but that depends on money and right now we are feeling very skint!

I am going to continue writing about my surfs and tracking how many I am having. So my next surf will be number 36 and I will zero again when I go back to France next summer. It will be interesting to see how many surfs I have and how they rate.

So what is it 45 weeks until France? Unless I go at Easter!

Good Morning Biarritz!!

2011-08-23T10:35:00.000+01:00

23^rd August

The rest of yesterday was spent chilling with the kids in Hoss Park, bumped into Dan again! I think I see him more in Hossegor than Bournemouth!

Surf 34

Surfed 3/4ft peaky powerful and slightly unpredictable waves at Grande Plage Biarritz. We decided to try another spot with the low tide in the morning and still big disorganised swell, our options were to go north and battle the long paddle outs and heavy rips or go south try something new.

Driving through Biarritz in the dark with empty roads and only the odd end of night partygoer and morning road sweepers for company is always quite a surreal experience. Watching the gradual cross between night and day, the cleaners sweeping up the beach sleepers, followed by morning joggers and dog walkers and a quickly crowded line up making the water the busiest place in town for a few hours. A young sponsored girl was showing about 50+ men how to surf the peaky steep waves. I always enjoy the early sessions in Biarritz.

Hot Hot Hot and a new swell

2011-08-22T11:11:00.000+01:00

21^st August 11

So so so…. So Hot! Crazy heat yesterday and it was still steaming at 8am this morning. Surfed some more perfect little waves with the kids and spent most of the afternoon seeking shade and cold water to sit in.

Surf 32

The swell eventually arrived although so did the cooler weather and cross on shore wind making our evening surf a messy/chunky and unsatisfactory affair.

22^nd August

Surf 33

Big but a messy new swell hitting the shore, cross shore early winds were replaced by still to slight off shore winds as the session progressed. We surfed Bunkers and although most of the session was crowd free towards the end the madding crowd arrived and made things sketchy in the 3/4ft dumpy and unpredictable waves. I had a few fun fast and mostly short waves Hopefully things will improve as the swell matures. Surfed the Bonzer.

First and Last Flat Spell!

2011-08-20T14:25:00.000+01:00

17^th August

Day off surfing today, it didn’t look to be all that and I needed the rest!

Our friends Chris and Juliet from Bournemouth turned up and are staying with us for a few days. Chris rides a wave ski, I had a go once and was extremely hard, not sure how Chris is going to handle the waves around here!

18^th August

Surf 31

A clean short range 2/3ft wave was not to bad that’s more than I can say for my auful surfing. I think fatigue and non stop early starts has eventually taken its toll and I and now a worse surfer than when I arrived! Andy back on it

19^th August

Had another day off surfing!!! It was too small to even bother getting up to check! I bumped into Dan Magee from Bournemouth today! He was driving through Capbreton and we were cycling towards Hoss Park. He has had a terrible time so far on his campsite and looks like he will be moving to ours on Sunday!

20^th August

Another tiny day possibly the smallest I have ever seen.

I surfed some mid tide 1/2ft perfection with the kids! Took a few tiny rides my self. Had lots of fun! Extremely hot!

It looks like the swell is back tomorrow, So will get some quality waves right up to the end of the holiday. Hopefully my surfing can improve!!!

This photo on Magic Seaweed 7th of August. Tasty!

2011-08-18T11:12:00.000+01:00

This photo was apparently taken on the 7th August. It was taken where I have spent pretty much the whole trip surfing. It was the day Andy and I went to the mountains and I did that crazy run!, we surfed in the morning but it got really good as we were leaving!

Check the Link...

http://magicseaweed.com/photoLab/viewPhoto.php?photoId=230375&photoOfTheDay

Check surf 19 on my blog, I did get a mini barrel nothing quite this impressive!

Perfect Secrets and Billy is 5!!

2011-08-18T11:05:00.000+01:00

10^th August

Surf 22

Ben arrived today with his dry wit and expected pisstake out of this blog! He was bouncing and desperate to check the surf wile Andy and I were unusually slow getting changed. Climbing to the top of the dune we were greeted with beautiful firing barrels at our secret spot, 3/4ft glassy and enough power to push a train over. ‘Frenchie’ was out showing us all how to surf the place, we all managed a few fantastic waves and Ben commented on the quality of this amazing find. Surfed my Bonzer I think it needs waves of this quality to really get it going.

11^th August

Surf 23

The morning was slightly onshore and the swell had dropped although our secret spot (needs a name) was as powerful as ever but today was hard to surf, Frenchie made it look possible, but my wave count was low.

12^th August

Surf 24

Ben turned up again this morning with 2 Spanish (sorry Basque!) friends. The surf at VVF was super clean although closing out so we all headed up to Les Bourdaines in separate vehicles and didn’t manage to meet again! The swell looked great but was very rippy and very hard work. Couldn’t get near the waves at times, I had a couple of good rides but massive amount of paddling for very little joy. I felt sluggish heavy and old in these waves and my bonzer would have happily been replaced with a long board. My frustration was compounded by a young thin bikini clad girl paddling right past me and proceeding to rip up the next perfect long left as if she was Kelly Slater’s daughter! I got out after that!

13^th August,

Surf 25 Perfecto… Barrels Galore!!!!

Ben Joined the show again and I did feel slightly embarrassed turning up at the secret spot with me, Andy, Ben and 3 Spanish (sorry Basque!) mates. Frenchie and his mate were out and he didn’t look too pleased to see us. The waves were truly pumping perfect heavy heavy barrels, swell in the 4/5ft range, I don’t think it is possible to get a heavier wave on such a small swell. I ate sand a few times and got plenty of views from inside and out! I actually suffered one of my heaviest wipe outs of the trip so far, with the waves so perfect and a bunch of mates watching, backing out of a steep drop would have been greeted with justified ridicule. As I free-fell from an enormous drop I new before I hit the water/sand this could hurt, kicking the board away just before impact I soon felt myself being sucked back round into the lip and then being pummelled into the sand again, I tried frantically to cover my head with my arms but the wave ripped my arms in different directions and I was lucky not to hit my board. Gasping for breath and seriously disorientated I got to my feet in thigh deep water, I stared at the land for a second or two wile I came to my senses and realised which way I was facing! I turned to see my crew only about 5 metres away looking out to sea and completely unaware of my near death experience. As I paddled back my arms were shaking but it wasn't long before I was attempting another top to bottom beauty. At the end of the 3.5 hour session Ben called it an SF (Stoke Factor) 8. I was inclined to agree. Thinking back maybe an 8.5 could have been given.

14^th August

surf 26

A bit slack and week light onshore in the 3ft range and Ben was wise not to travel up.

Surf 27

Quality offshore glass off at secret spot. Had some lovely 3/4ft waves and surfed until it was impossible to see. A dude who looked like a mini Jimmy Hendrix and surfed like Kelly Slater left me gulping in awe and respect at his talents, he gave me a friendly wave as we paddled over making me like him even more. The best surfer I have seen this year and the most friendly surfing a little known quality spot which he obviously had nailed. Big respect all round. Andy suffered another nasty wipe out and injured his leg badly. That’s 2 bad injuries in the same spot, it is definitely a wave of consequence when you screw up!

15^th August

surf 28

On my own as Andy I surfed the secret spot alone for an hour before Frenchy Joined me I foolishly took my fish out and this wave is so not a fish wave! Had lots of fun but got out when the tide got too low and the place turned into Pipeline. Slight onshore but the waves were clean.

surf 29

Swell increased massively and I went out on a hoigh tide VVF in the 5/6ft range and probably some of the biggest waves I have seen all trip. Reminded me of some February sessions at Yellows. Slight onshore but clean. I took my 6’2 quad, probably should have been on my Lynch but I wasn’t expecting such size. Alone again as Andy was still out

16^th August

Billy Birthday 5 today

Surf 30

Birthday surfs are always good and having my new favourite wave all to my self for over an hour with quality 3/4ft glassy waves was a joy, if not a little scary at times (Andy’s injuries played on my mind!). ‘Jimi’ joined me and was even more friendly than the other night, towards the end of my session Ben arrived with ‘Basque’ Jon, around this time a couple of boogie boarders turned up and soon another couple of surfers arrived! My secret spot all of a sudden wasn’t looking all that secret! And the waves started to seem a lot less consistent. It didn’t matter as I had my fill and I had to get off and buy cakes and treats for my boy.

Sole surfing on my sons Birthday

Andy Still Out!

Took the kids to the water park where we all enjoyed death slides galore. Had a little party in the evening. Billly was very Happy

Run Sun and Surf!

2011-08-13T12:15:00.000+01:00

7^th August

The rest of yesterday was spent in Hoss Park with the kids. Andy and I had a jolly around the most expensive surf shops in the world looking for a surf ‘Gaf Helmet’ to protect the gash in Andy’s head. I do find the super branded mass corporate, commercial side of Hossegor quite nauseating. We managed to find a pair of board shorts for 175 euros!!!! Only the most desperate of very rich or stupid surfers should ever buy anything from these shops and on this day Andy was falling into the desperate category. A very pretty girl with a surprisingly harsh voice, typically un-knowledgeable about anything surf related, spent some time going back and forth to a store room and coming back with different sized helmets. Half an hour later Andy was 110 euros worse off and I was feeling weirdly sick, dirty and slightly embarrassed as if I’d just stepped out of a porn shop with a brown paper bag!

Surf 19

Magic Seaweed was calling 5.5ft 8 sec west swell with off shore wind. So turning up at VVF I was definitely disappointed to see a big, angry and disorganised swell. The tide was mid and pushing so we checked out Sports nobody in and nasty close outs and at Bunkers we were part of a crowd watching some fool hardy soles dropping into very large impossible barrels. We headed for north Hossegor, we didn’t fancy fighting Graviere and the 3 surfers who did were exceptionally talented and they didn’t make it look easy. The waves at the breakwater which were usually more mellow but today was just a surging shore break. So we went back to Capbreton checked Sports again, only 3 in and they weren’t able to get rides and 2 of them were on boogie boards! We eventually found some super fast mainly rights off the inside of the breakwater at Towns beach, we only managed an hour before a just about make-able wave became impossible. I did managed to get a barrel which I came out of and a few more visions but all in all it was a very disappointing session which was compounded when we again cycled past Sports to see perfect 5/6ft A frame barrels rolling in, although the 50 or so other surfers made it look pretty intense!

We were now late back after spending 2 hours checking and an hour surfing and the talk in camp was for a day trip to La Rhune, The mountain clearly visible from Biarritz, last year I cycled up and down it and this year I ran it with Tam, Andys wife. The rest of the crew sensibly got the train! That evening we went to Acotz area (near Lafitania) and ate Pizza wile watching the sunset from a little café, after tea the kids ran into the shore break and I watched my naked son getting hammered by well over head waves (over head for him!) only to run back in for more beatings, I decided to end proceedings before broken bones occurred!

My legs were seizing up and I went to bed praying for wind and rain, an early was looking almost impossible for my fragile stiff body.

1 hour 2 minutes up

57 minutes down.

Photos from one very full day!!

Me and Tam on the final sprint to the top

Imogen enjoying the ponies on La Rhune

A well earned meal coming, Billy was very happy with the days events

Me and Char, Sunset in Acotz (nice right hander in back ground!)

View from train on way up La Rhune

And finally Billy and Imogen about to taste the sand!

8^th August…Sore legs

Walking hurt, actually existing wasn’t too comfortable, I wasn’t able to moan in Andy’s direction as any complaints would only be met with disapproving looks suggesting that doing anything which would or could jeopardise surfing in France was frankly irresponsible and blatantly stupid! So I suffered in silence and walked slowly!

Surf 20

The swell was huge and the wind was blowing strong onshore, It was almost like I had planned the run knowing the early wouldn’t be on! At around 7pm Andy some how managed to persuade me to drive south and check the Acotz breaks and maybe head for the dreaded Hendaye! Some lame excuses about family members using his Van to sleep in meant me driving was the only option! We arrived at Lafitania to see double over head waves providing long rights around the point, I was about to wax my Lynch up but after further discussion the 100 or so other surfers in the water and my general fatigue a foolish decision was made to go to Hendaye, due to the time and quickly dropping Sun this was do or bust!

We arrived to see what looked to be a quality swell a solid 4/5ft with regular waves pumping through. It must have been some strange illusion as what we actually surfed were the most frustrating waves planet earth has to offer and lets remember I live in Bournemouth! The wave would go then back off then go again hit some inside bank suck up and close out, I managed to eek out the odd ride on my fish but it wasn’t pretty…..

The best way to describe Hendaye maybe ‘flatter to deceive’. What looks from the shore as not bad get in quick, almost always is a let down. I’m not sure what Andy and I thought we were seeing when we first pulled up, maybe it was my general fatigue, maybe Andy was reminiscing back to a swell 8 years ago when we spent a 5 day trip surfing Hendaye every day (November and a 20ft swell) but this was pants and in future will be left to the surf schools and serious desperados!

9^th August

Surf 21

We went early to Lafitania to try and rectify the mistakes from the night before, we turned up and already about 40 people were surfing clean 4/5ft waves. A frustrating surf some good waves but too many people on them!

Day spent at Lac St Pee. Kids loving it!!!

Billy practising his jump up on Lac Pee and Imogen swimming close by.

Does it get any better?

2011-08-06T11:18:00.001+01:00

5^th August. This is where it starts to get really fun

The rest of yesterday was spent body surfing with the kids at Sports, and then chilling in the afternoon getting myself ready for the earlier.

Surf 17 PERFECTO!!!

Simply put…. 5ft glassy no wind Mid high tide VVF banks firing some chunky glassy walls. When Andy and I got out at around 9.30am people were literally running down the dune to get in. Looking back across the beach at the end of the session 100s of bodies and boards could be seen, bobbing, dodging, and surfing in-between perfect waves from about 2 peaks to the left of VVF all the way down to the Bunkers at La Piest.

I was concerned about taking my Bonzer out before I got to the surf. It is so extremely different to my fish, that I thought the I might struggle to catch waves and put myself in good positions on the wave, but when waves are that good and powerful, paddling in becomes easy and the lack of buoyancy and the extra control and the ability to take extremely late very steep drops made surfing a pure joy.

Better in real life!

Probably an 8 on the Stoke factor rating, and if it wasn’t for the people could have been a 10! Luckilly the Locals don’t do dawnies!

The Day was spent in St Jean de Luz, kids crabbed and swam, and laughed and played, Imogen said it was her best day ever, although she has stated that a lot this holiday!

Too tired for eveing session, drank beer instead!

6^th August

Surf 18……Nearly a 10

Funny thing just happened, I wrote the date as 6^th of Feb! I quickly deleted it and wrote 6^th of August. On the 6^th of Feb last year Gary and I paddled out on one of the biggest swells we had both ever seen on the south coast, head and a half high waves and often bigger were pounding our favourite spot, after nearly driving away we decided to paddle out and attempt to surf it. Gary quickly got himself a stonking long right hander and it wasn’t long before he was paddling right past me again and towards the impact zone, his pecker up and confidence sky high he needed more of the same, a minute or so later the horizon did that thing where it vanishes and darkens. Head down I paddled hard left and towards the channel, looking back as I took about 4 strokes to climb the swelling mass of water under me I could see Gary attempt one of the most ballsy duck dives I’ve seen. He didn’t make it and it took him a wile before he surfaced, all looked well and I carried on paddling for the channel only to see Gary paddling in. I quickly followed, and wile walking past a succession of other surfers on the way out, getting back to the car I already new it was game over for today. Some how Gary had been cracked open his head blood everywhere and stitches were needed. I had managed 20 minutes and no rides in some of the best waves I have seen in years.

Swell was a bit smaller than yesterday so we decided to check our secret spot. It was PERFECT nobody out just Andy and I accompanied a strong off shore and 4ft of Magazine style top to bottom perfection they were the best waves I have seen all trip and managed to sneak under that watery curtain on several occasions. I was truly buzzing. As Andy turned to go for a no hoper I laughed as I saw board fly high in the air and then waited to see that he was ok. He came up holding his head and then paddled in. The waves were only breaking less than 10 metres from the shore so I started paddling to see if he was ok. He waved me back as if to say he was fine and would be coming back in soon. A minute or so later he held is hand up to me covered in blood. It was a long walk back and I couldn’t leave Andy with his head bleeding so once again exactly 18 months after the last time my surf buddy got a head injury my surf was cut short again. Andy apologised a lot and said I didn’t have to come but I think it would have taken a bit of gloss off the session if I hadn’t!

It’s funny its also the 18 surf of this trip…. Oooowwwww spooky… ok not really just a bizarre and slightly frustrating coincidence. I can’t believe he went for that wave, what the F**** was he thinking!

Still at least on this occasion I had a load of quality waves and at least an hour to surf them. This session was looking like a 10!

With August comes hot weather and hopefully big swell!

2011-08-04T09:40:00.000+01:00

1^st August Hot Hot Hot

It was hot today, really friggin hot! We spent most of the day at the beach in St Jean de Luz. It was truly stunning and although supposed to be a rest and recovery day for my very sore arms Andy did persuaded me to swim out to some buoys in the bay. The water was so glassy, warm and tranquil set to a backdrop of the Pyrenees, even when there are no waves, St Jean de Luz has to be one of the most beautiful towns in Europe and the swim was worth the effort.

When back on site the humidity was building so we took the kids for a late swim. We had the pool to our selves and it wasn’t until about 9.30pm when a massive crack of thunder that Billy decided it was time to stop swimming! The rain never came but we were treated to some natural fireworks. Aparently on Andys car thermometer the outside temp at 7pm was 38C! It was one of those extremely hot days that you never get in the UK and luckily don’t get to often down here. Char survived by sitting in the sea for most of the day.

2^nd Aug

Andy didn’t wake for the morning surf?! I stood outside his tent at 6.30am wisper shouting his name but to no effect, seeing plenty of movement itn the trees and a stormy outlook I foolishly went back to my bed. I found out later Glassy windless 3ft waves were available…. AAAHHHH….. One day off and momentum lost.

Surf 14

We ended up surfing in the late afternoon in some strong on shores and quite a High tide. The waves still had a good bit of Punch and the rights were very fun in the 3/4ft range. I surfed my fish which I am getting strangely addicted too and VVF was the call.

3^rdAug

We new it would be Blown out before we got to the beach but for some reason we carried on all the way to prove it for sure, perhaps it was after missing out yesterday? Bed was calling and back we rode.

Surf 15

A carbon copy of yesterday but smaller 2/3ft and weaker swell still on shore and the huge high tide didn’t help our situation. Not the best surf we have ever had!

4^th Aug.

Surf 16

Well rarely I am writing this only half an hour after completing the surf. It was a classic French summers morning crisp and cold with clear skies off shores and peaky 2ft perfect shaped waves. The wait for the sets was frustrating and the extreme high tide wasn’t the best but some fun was had and there was a lovely summer mellow ness to the session… Again on my fish not sure what to ride tomorrow when things are looking quite exciting with 5ft of swell and off shore winds. I am thinking the Bonzer!

The out look is very very promising after a run of smaller swell Tomorrow is looking PERFECTO!

Rest Needed! Enjoying all the Sun....

2011-07-31T21:08:00.000+01:00

30^th Quality Point like Rights

Feeling the pain but still buzzing from yesterdays surf getting up is hurting, as we cycled to VVF we could feel the warm on shore winds in our faces, the string was banging hard against the flag post and we didn’t need a strong reason to turn around and peddle back to bed. Andy had a terrible night, he felt sick with headaches and shivers, he thinks he had too much sun although it could have been general run down tiredness.

I spent the day surfing with the kids at Sports, I have some great shots of Imogen standing on some white water waves which will be uploaded soon, You hardly need any swell to get the kids going. By the afternoon I was getting itchy for a surf so I persuaded Andy to try a late afternoon session, although he wasn’t too keen thinking the tides would be wrong and wind strong.

Surf 12 Delight in the Right

Mounting the top of the dune at VVF a wonderful sight greeted us, long ride-able and clean high tide right handers were chundering across the beach, the swell had grown since earlier and the wind had dropped, it must have been a solid 4ft and with nobody out on the spot we chose we had plenty of quality ‘yellow’ like waves. Happy days, maybe afternoon surfs weren’t such a bad idea after all, and it appears that VVF was at all tides….. woobillyhoobilly!!

31^st Last Day of July

Surf 13 The Pain.

I hurt in places I didn’t know I could hurt! Getting up this morning had never felt this hard, I didn’t get to bed until long after midnight and my muscles were starting to rebel against my mind. The long long slow cycle to the beach did little to warm me up and although 3/4ft of punchy slightly messed up waves were fun at times I think a rest is now needed! Luckily the out look for tomorrow is for dropping swell, Magic Seaweed have 1ft predicted for the morning and although I know I could find a wave especially as off shore glassy conditions are virtually guaranteed I think the time has come to rest!

We spent the day escaping the heat and the afternoon walking through the old Capbreton Town. St Jean De Luz tomorrow and sleep!

This Is What We Came For!

2011-07-30T09:53:00.000+01:00

27^th Sloppy Seconds

Hot and sunny, normal south of France weather resumes... few!

Surf 8

Surfed Les Bourdaines, decided to go north thinking the low tide generally doesn’t work in the south (Although check surf 11 it now does!)

We scored an uninspiring 2/3ft sloppy and slow, this isn’t what we want!

Cycled to Hossegor with kids and pregnant wife 10 mile round.

Surf 9

Bunkers quality punchy 3ft, managed to get right in the zone and hogged the right hand point had a great surf.

28^th Can We Rest Yet?

Happily the morninjg was blown out, My body felt so fatigued when I crawled out of bed, I was really happy to see the onsure winds blowing at the top of the dune. The 3ft of swell and it didn’t seem worth the effort!

Surf 10

I went for a late afternoon surf, Andy wasn’t around and Char wanted an evening with me! Surfed at VVF 3/4ft slop tastastic high tide with onshores surfed the 5’10 fish. Very warm surfing in the day.

29^th This is what we signed up for!!!!

Surf…. magic number 11

It’s not often I surf for longer than 2 hours but today I surfed for 3.5 hours. I thought the reports for today looked promising but you can never be sure until you turn up, the banks and swell direction can always make things a little closey even if all other conditions are perfect. Luckily it was very good and when it’s that good it’s best to take advantage as tomorrow it may be gone.

We arrived at VVF at 6.45am. I decided on taking my 5’10 fish which I thought was a bit risky after Andy’s assessment of the previous evening but I love the speed it gives, sacrificing some control and risking the odd steep take off trauma but it is always loads of fun..

The waves were in the 3/4ft range off shore, fast and peaky. A pack of about 15 guys were already on the peak to the right of the beach entrance, the sheep effect was already working, Andy and I both agreed that the empty peak to the left of the entrance looked better and after last nights session Andy was convinced that as the tide dropped out it would get better.

For the first hour the waves were breaking very fast and there was a slightly bouncy effect every now and again with a bit of backwash coming from the high tide. I had 1 crazy wave where as I dropped in the backwash jacked the wave up, the next moment I found myself in a deep gaping tunnel, fully stood up straight legged on my board with water all around me. Less than a second later the board slipped up the face of the wave and I found my head being pummelled into the sand. This probably goes down as my deepest biggest barrel, shame I couldn’t hold it and thankfully I was wearing my ear plugs as I would have been clearing the sand out of my ears for years after. As I came to the surface I wooped myself with pure joy.

As the session progressed the tide was dropping and the waves started breaking on a deeper sand bar, at first these waves were a bit slack and backing off, we were better off catching the reforms on the inside. As the tide dropped further the outside waves started to get better and better eventually producing perfect peaks with long bashable, carvey and at times tubey walls. I found myself dominating the peak taking wave after wave of the biggest sets with little break in-between, I had one wave where I dropped into a barrel and then came out to have a long wall to play with, a guy on the inside gave me a big smile and wooped. On another, half way along the wave I managed to get slotted just under the lip for a few metres before coming out again and popping off the top before the close out. I had so many quality waves, for the third hour surfing became easy and almost effortless, I would paddle into the most perfect peaks time and time again, sometimes I was late other times I would be too deep but some how I still managed to catch every wave I went for and then after popping off or getting hammered at the end, I would quickly find myself back at on the peak . I started to feel a bit conscious and guilty of paddling past the 10 to 15 other surfers in the water and right onto the middle of the peak sitting slightly deeper than everyone else, but it was a friendly smiley and apologetic crowd with no obvious rippers and I think a large contingent were German who always seem friendly, respectful and chilled out.

Andy left the session after 2 hours which was a shame as I think the best waves came after he had gone, but he did have a stonking session last night with just 1 other guy out so I think he was slightly more fatigued than me. I decided to end the session after going on a 10 minute dry spell which coincided with chatting to this German guy who was staying in a van with 4 other guys on a 2 month trip, he said things were tense at times! My hands were shaking with the lack of energy, my shoulders were burning and ignoring them was now not an option and my left ear was hurting due to the plug being slightly too big. So I called (to my self in my head!) ‘one last wave’ unusually it came along pretty quick, jumping to my feet I had a crusey carvey finish which nearly ended in disaster as the wave double up on the inside and sucked on half a foot of water. The board fell away from me, I hit the sand hard, quickly putting my arms over my head, the board then smacked me in the back of my arms with surprising force, luckily the fins missed me. I staggered from the water, bruised, sore, dehydrated and starving. I hardly noticed the early morning sun-seeking gatherings of topless women…. OK I noticed them… But walking up the dune was taking most of my energy and I didn’t need the extra distractions!

This was the sort of session I have come to France for, a text book summers morning, I haven’t had a session this enjoyable since some of the great surfs I had in February and on my stoke factor rating I think it probably gets an 8.5 out of 10. So why not a 10? Well there was more than just me and my mates surfing and it was a shame that Andy left the session early (and before it got really good), so the only way this session could have got a 10 was for a beautiful women to paddle up to me and offer me half time refreshments and then for a topless lady to provide me with copious amounts of food and a massage as I left the water. Sadly this didn’t happen!

I think I have finally arrived in France. I missed the evening session due to pure fatigue. A French guy told me as I was getting changed that it had been a bad summer, the last two months have had a lot of rain and onshore winds and this was the best for a long time. Lets hope it now stays a bit more like this!

My current list of injuries….

1) Avery sore/stiff neck which I can’t fully turn to the left.

2) A pain in my chest on the right side which sometimes hurts when I breath. I think it is some kind of rib muscle strain.

3) A sore ankle where the Fins smacked me on a wipe out

4) A sore twingy lower right back

The rest of the Day was spent eating and a cycle ride to Hoss Park, kids played in the man made beaches around the lake and I nursed my injuries and had more food!

Full on Bunkers and the rain finally stops.

2011-07-27T10:33:00.000+01:00

26^th Here Comes The Sun

At about 11am midway through our morning surf the rain finally stopped! Possible one of the longest runs of constant drizzly rain I have ever experienced in France, it had more of a North Wales feel to the weather. As soon as the rain stopped a humid warmth was quickly felt giving a slightly tropical feel to the atmosphere.

Surf 6

After yesterdays non event, I was already getting pretty desperate to get back in the water. The swell was quite big and still disorganised although the gentle on shores were having little effect, our best option appeared to be a very crowded Sports 3/4ft of punchy steep waves were quite fun especially in the take off, but positioning and manoeuvring amongst the crowd took away most of the stoke factor, resulting in my least favourite surf of the trip.

Surf 7

Wo there!!! Surfed a very heavy mid to low tide Bunkers with lots of people out, a solid 5ft and fully top to bottom on the take off. Got properly nailed on many occasions had a few full on adrenalin drops and the occasional ride which allowed a turn! It was hard work and you had to be on your toes. The crowd made things even more intense. The on shore winds were making things a little confused as well. If this wave was any bigger I think I would be advised not to go out not really a ‘fun’ surf but definitely a buzz!

First Full Day, Secret Spot and Off Shores

2011-07-26T08:18:00.001+01:00

22^nd First full day

Surf 2

I woke up a long time before my alarm, which was set for 6.20am. Although still completely wasted from the trip down and the late evening surf I wanted to get on the dawnies right away. VVF still had an angry look to it and Sports was looking a bit sloppy so we opted for Bunkers (the spot just to the left of Sports but before La Piste and to the right of the sinking German bunkers.) The waves were chunky and felt quite sizey with big bowly peaks and heavy fast and at times closey walls. Best described in the 4/5ft range but with some freakish sneaky sets which you’d were wise to avoid especially in the ever increasing crowd. I had great fun surfing my 6’2 quad which liked to straight line it down the super fast walls tucking in to get properly nailed.

The day was spent finishing off setting up the camp, getting some food shopping in and swimming with the kids. The weather was good, warm and sunny but not too intense which was good for Char. Andy arrived at 8pm with surfboard and I was questioning if I could keep up this intensity!

Surf 3

Bunkers 3/4ft had dropped off since the earlier session and as the tide pushed in and the crowds dispersed things seemed to mellow even more. I surfed my Bonzer and I preffered it in some ways to the quad although I missed the easy paddle in especially on a mellowing wave.

Bunkers is probably my least favourite place to surf in the Hossegor area but it is a great option for a semi sheltered break, picking up a lot more swell than Sports/Towns in Capbreton (Towns is the furthest beach to the right in Capbreton which ends at the jetty wall). The main problem with the place is it gets very crowded mainly because when surfing it, it is probably one of the few options around unless you are inclined to travel down to the Biarritz area.

23^rd Secret Spot

Surf 4

The alarm woke me up and I was aching, I could have slept another 5 hours and this felt like pain. Andy was waiting outside my van when I emerged and we made what felt like a long slow cycle to the sea. We arrived to feel off shore winds on our back and 2/3ft of swell hitting the main beaches we decided to head for our secret spot which makes a 2ft swell head high. The swell comes in from a completely different angle compared to the swells hitting the normal beaches and unless you are some kind of pro, extremely skilled or a generally psychopathic surfer this break should only be surfed on small swells. You can always tell a heavy wave if the white water after the wave has broken kicks up a lot higher than the face of the wave itself and on this wave the white water kicks up very high. Only 1 guy out and surfing my Bonzer it is safe to say we had a lot of fun!

Day spent chilling, resting, swimming, socialising and eating. We had a shortish bike ride with the kids, Billy gave Char and I some stress as he thinks he is Evil Kanevil on his BMX and tries to pull jumps or stunts where ever possible. He is still only 4! I think we may need some more padding!

Evening surf

I was actually quite pleased to see it soft and sloppy and after the great morning surf there was no way either of us fancied that. At last an evening with some red wine.

24^th Text War

At 6.10am a text from Andy came in ….trees really moving lots of wind… I could hear the rain but had no perspective of wind. After several replies the early was called off… back to sleep.

We all woke to the rain a couple of hours later, A Biarritz day was called! This was not an original idea as I have probably never seen Biarritz quite so crowded. We didn’t last there that long we had a small window of sun and then the rain kicked in really heavy so we decided to head back. There was a fun looking 3ft wave in Grande Plage but with 100 other surfers and family in tow I didn’t fancy it.

Kids, Char and Bump in-between the rain Grand Plage showing a sloppy crowded wave

Surf 5

We drove to the surf today which was rare but the weather was bad and it was getting late. We surfed Bunkers which was chunky and messy and probably 3/4ft. Andy wasn’t that keen but I persuaded him it looked good and kind of reminded me of an intense winter onshore big messy pier session back home although in a shortie! We actually had great fun with only a few out I think Bunkers is best described as fast and furious. I surfed my 5’10 fish for added fun and scary drops!

25^th Rain Rain Rain

Pretty much 2 days of solid rain and today was relentless. The last time we had weather this bad was in 2007, we were camping further up the coast in Cap de Homy. Billy was only 10 months old Imogen was 3, it was our first year back in France after missing a year for the birth of Billy (which was a heat wave year in Bournemouth). We spent 3 weeks in a tent in the woods with some friends C and Al. Storm after storm blew with little rest bite, after 3 weeks of probably the worst weather a French summer has to offer we headed south and stayed in the Acotz area which is somewhere between Biarritz and St Jean De Luz, where yet another storm battered us and finally finished off our tent. Luckily we spent the next 3 weeks with some friends in a Villa in Capbreton where the weather decided to improve and my love for The Capbreton/Hossegor area was born.

Charlotte vowed never to Stay in a tent again and to be fair it was quite unpleasant, so I took a deep breath, had a word with the devil, and bought a caravan. Probably the best purchase I have ever made especially today!

The rain is not so bad when you have somewhere warm and dry to go, the kids played happily in the awning, we had a jolly out in the car to Dax (I wouldn’t recommend the place!) all was quite comfortable and chipper. The same can’t really be said for the Andy crew, (8 adults 3 Kids) long faces and grumpy grownups, the kids all seem quite happy and Andy is upbeat saying he spent many a year camping in Scotland and this reminded him of that.

I still think a caravan would have been a better purchase than Andy's brand new seriously pimped up Bongo, but each to there own!

The surf

We had already decided a dawnie was pointless and frankly unnecessary so that evening we drove to the surf again, considering in the 13 previous weeks I have spent on this campsite I have never felt the need to drive to the surf it may indicate quite how bad the rain was. We got to the sea front in Capbreton to see huge mess of onshore nastiness, a few boogie borders out in Sports and 4 crazy groms trying to pull airs in the heavy shore break close outs at Towns It looked horrible and there was no way I was going out, Andy on the other hand seemed strangely quite keen and a short argument followed where I was must have made some kind statement to the effect of it looks un-surfable and Andy argued that there were people actually surfing it so it must be surfable, I conceded that it was ‘potentially’ surfable but I wasn’t going to surf it, but he was welcome to try!

We drove home together discussing the potential for tomorrow!

The Journey and my first surf

2011-07-25T11:15:00.000+01:00

20^th Ferry to Cherboug and then drive

Got up at 5.30am adrenalin pumping, we had to leave for the ferry at 9.30am and I always worry about getting the caravan off the driveway. Our driveway is on a slight slope which goes onto a pavement where then there is an extremely steep slope onto the road which I can’t take the caravan down, I have to take the caravan about 200 metres down the pavement to where the pavement and road flatten off. Sometimes getting the caravan onto the road has taken me a couple of hours and I didn’t need any last minute rush jobs today.

All went according to plan we got to the ferry with plenty of time although Char was still stressing about the potential for sea sickness. We crossed from Poole-Cherboug on the Barfleu. It was a fantastic crossing, mellow and almost motion free, very few people on the ferry, the kids made a friend and played happily and Char and I both managed a little snooze! Text book! It actually could not have gone better, Char has now vowed never to do the puke condor ferry fast crossing to St Malo again.

Only 550 miles to go! I took the Google route driving from Cherboug to Rennes to Nantes to Bourdeux to Capbreton, Rather than the way my Sat Nav was trying to take us towards Le Mans and down, which I think is a more expensive toll roads route and slightly further. The total cost for the toll roads was 40 Euros and I think I spent about 150 Euros in Fuel.

We spent the night in some service station, it wasn't our best choice of overnight travel stops as there were literally hundreds of articulated lorries coming and going which meant a very un-restful 4 hours sleep before I gave up and got back on the road.

21^st 235 miles to go.

I was trying to keep an average speed of 50mph so we were looking at another 5 hours of driving, the kids were amazing and just watched DVD after DVD. I’m not sure how we are going to cope next year with a 9 month old baby but I’m sure we find a way! We had heavy rain from the moment we left the ferry until about 30k from Capbreton. We arrived at 3pm and set up camp.

At 7pm Andy cycled over board on rack and persuaded me to go surfing! I was soooo tired but made the effort!

Surf 1
Getting on the bike and making the cycle around the back of the campsite took me right back to last year, suddenly 48 weeks felt like 1 week, I was back on my bike, surfboard on rack and already buzzing, I wanted to check VVF first against the advice from Andy who already new it was a ranging angry mess. 1 guy was out and seeing him negotiating the big angry looking closeouts didn’t exactly inspire me to rush down the dune. We ended up surfing Sports (the beach break infront of the sports rehab centre in Capbreton) The waves were a chunky 3/4ft and quite clean with gentle on shores. Every year I am always slightly surprised by the speed of the moving water and the ease of the paddle in, It was great to be back in a short wetsuit and surfing felt quite easy again even after 12 hours of driving and only a few hours sleep I felt energised. I surfed my 6’2 quad which made catching waves easy but felt a bit clumbsy in the fast sections…. Ahh its good to be back!

The Kids were almost having as much fun as me!!

4 Days To Go...... And My Quiver

2011-07-16T12:22:00.000+01:00

The adrenalin is starting to pump, only 4 days until we leave, I still feel like I have loads of packing and organising to do. Over 5 weeks in a caravan with 2 kids a 6 months pregnant wife and all the clobber that we 'think' we need, does pose a few logistical issues! Although as long as I have my kids, wife, a credit card and a surfboard what more do I need?

I've just been organising my surf gear, I'm taking 4 boards this year plus a spongy popout and a couple of boogie boards for the kids, check my quiver..

Starting from the left, for my small wave and slop killer I have my lovely 5'10 Fluid Juice quad fish, I was under the delusion that I didn't like quads until Dan Magee lent me this board, it made me throw away all my preconceived ideas about quads, and fishes actually. This board flies like no other and I have a rule, if I can't catch waves on this board and have fun it really is too small to bother. I think this board was based on a Pavel design and after my first wave I new Dan was never getting it back!

Next I have a 6'2 Fluid juice quad, after the success of my 5'10 I wanted something similar which would handle steeper and bigger waves, this board has been good on the chunkier Cornish days when the waves are still quite slow but have a bit of size, It will be interesting to see how this goes in France.

Then we have my Bonzer 6'4, not exactly a discrete looking board which I have grown to love although I only ever tend to surf it in France, with the classic 5 fin set up and only being 18'5 wide this board needs a bit of power to really get it going, it loves super steep faces and hold in really well giving me a lot of confidence. When I take this board out it is usually one of those perfect days.

And finally my Surftech Wayne Lynch 6'6 pin tail thruster set up. This is simply my confidence board, if the waves are big (big for me is head to head and half) or super powerful and I want to get in that bit earlier, this is the board I go for. I had a few big sessions at K this winter and it felt amazing. I first fell in love with this board surfing 'Sports' in Capbreton on a chunky swell (the beach in front of the Sports rehab Centre).

Those are my boards, I think I better get back to organising some other stuff....

Looking ahead at the reports, things are looking huge for the first week. My trusty travel surf buddy Andy is arriving on Monday, looks like he may need a bit of shelter, All being well my first surf will be Thursday evening, The early Friday morning is shaping up just right, with a pushing mid tide VVF could well be cranking...... Wobillyhoobilly .... haha hehe.... deep breaths.... breathe... ok calm must concentrate... need to drive family and caravan for 10 hours first....