This Is What We Came For!

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!