Dom's Surf 'n' Kite Pages

I’m going to refer back to this post whenever an amazing day turns up this year. Nice thought that isn’t it, that it’s just a matter of a calender flipping over until another magic session arrives?

This one yesterday was pretty special; after so much rain in December, January is bright and blue and the sea is becoming clear again. The last two days have seen excellent offshore surf on the North Coast; Fistral was doing it’s ‘thing’. I’d like to also mention the influence of the new addition to my household – Reb(ecca), my Northern Inuit / Malamute cross. Reb has only been here a few days but is settling in like the plucky little champ she is, and yesterday dozed off nicely in her crate so I could go surfing. When I got back she was awake and playing quietly – a real bonus for these type of dogs for they are very pack orientated and can get a bit ‘wild’! Still, she may have been howling in between times, I really should check with the neighbours lol.

Righteo then, video first, and then some photos of Reb(ecca) if you will allow me the indulgence!

Here are the dog pics, she’s 8 weeks old in the photos. Oh, the crate training’s going very well, that’s if the aim is to train your dog to howl the house down. Just kidding, I’m pleasantly surprised in these early days how it’s all going.

Breeze is forecast for the later part of the week, so I reckon we’ll be back to some normal kitesurfing blogginzez soon enough

Tags: Awesome Waves, Dire Wolf, Fistral, GoPro HD2, Reb, Sunlight, Surf, winter

In October I recieved a pre-production Ocean Rodeo Surf Series quad fin 5’11. Since then, it’s the only board I’ve kitesurfed, mostly without straps (though a couple of times with when things were a bit mental), and I’ve even surfed it three times. This write up is me describing how the board goes after an Autumn and part of a Winter in the North Atlantic.

Strength and Durability

This is a tough board. Epoxy top and bottom coat, wood stringer, bamboo veneer – not unusual construction amongst high end kite-surfboards, but it’s passed all of my strength tests, and here they are in (a sort of) order:

1. The squeeze test. I take a new board and squeeze it as hard as I can between thumb and forefinger. If it compresses, I am not happy, if it resists my vice like squeeze, I know I’m going to be enjoying a long relationship with that board.

2. The fin test. I’ve done this on a couple of boards now; basically too much sideways pressure on the fins results in them breaking out of the bottom of the board, taking the fin box with them. The first time it happened I was landing powered after coming off the back of a wave, the second time it was just from riding a board hard for about forty minutes in good surf.

3. Impact resistence test. More of an accident than a test, though it’s bound to happen at some point. Simply ride into a rock just under the surface of the water and see what becomes of your board.

4. The wave snap test. This test has been the undoing of many a kitesurf board. Simply ride out powered over a huge line of white water and see if it breaks into two peices upon impact.

These tests allow me to assign a board to four simple categories that describe  board strength.

1. Disposable glass surf board, doesn’t even try to be tough.

2. Badly designed kite board, supposed to stand up to the rigours, falls short very quickly.

3. Well made kiteboard, will last well with proper use but don’t take the piss.

4. Strong kiteboard, barring a bad accident (aircraft doors etc…), you should have a keeper on your hands.

I can safely put the Surf Series in category 4, for yes, I did hit a rock and it’s merely dented the underside. Basically I feel very safe when riding this board and slamming around on it that it’s not going to blow a fin our or snap after a heavy landing. Sure, you can break any board if you treat it with total disregard, but after a few months of this particularly brutal winter and some solid surf under mega-powered kites, I can say this board is completely pressure ding free (except the rock impact).

You will find the Surf Series heavier than your lighter built surfboard (really?!), personally I like a little extra weight when kiting; it smooths out chop and riding in strong winds more comfortable and certainly the extra ounces won’t mean you have to hold back from punting airs and so on.

 

Shape, template

This board is made for dancing in tight, punchy snappy movements. The quad fin set up gives it a tighter turning radius than a thruster, and I’m pretty sure it gives you superior upwind advantage too. I’ve ridden plenty of thrusters, plenty of quads, and I reckon this is the case. Maybe it’s because you are able to ride the board flatter and quads inherently come with a wider tail.

The tail width suggest this is a board for lively surfing in a good range of conditions; it’s not specialising as a trick board for sloppy wind-driven drivel, nor does it attempt to sell itself as a tow-board. What we have here is a tail shape that will drive out of turns with barely any loss of speed in surf from say, knee high to head high plus.

The rocker is moderate, there’s enough lift in the tail to slam the board round in a tight pivotal carve without stuffing the nose, and plenty of nose entry to take some stomach lurching steep drops without pitching.

There’s enough volume here to make the 5’11 useful in the lower end of its wind range, so naturally if you regularly ride in mantal winds I would suggest you take the 5’7. But for 15knots – 25knots, IMHO the sweet spot of kiting, this board is a good fit. You don’t need to rely on wind to move you around on the wave, this is a proper surfboard.

 

Riding

You can do pretty much anything you want on the Surf Series 5’11: full rail gouges, fast flashy snaps with the board much flatter, sharp stabbing pokes under the lip…I’d say the only thing you potentially might miss is the classic drawn out carve of a thruster’s three fin design, and maybe in huge surf with wide open faces a thruster would theoretically fit better but I find a lot of the arc of a board’s turning is dictated by the kite once the face opens up a bit.

During the paddle surfs on this board, I’ve been surprised at how lively and maneouvreable it is, then again I am comparting to my regular 6’4 thruster. For typical rolling Cornish breach break swell I’d prefer a longer board, but as a one-board travel quiver and suckier faster waves (as can occur here at low tide) I think it would be fun.

I like to ride this board strapless, the flat full EVA deck is grippy, comfy (no nasty foot arch cramp!) and wide and expansive to nail your gybes and tacks on. I enjoy it most when there’s a chance to poke it vertically up against a lip, or to slam a tight speed hack in the pocket – it seems to love high pressure situations! It really suits having your back foot situated between the fore and aft fins, like this, you can get an almighty satisfying WHACK! against the lip.

 

Conclusion

I’ve passed this board around to a few mates and they’ve felt pretty much the same as me about it – they love it! It’s a smooth, quick, fun ride that shoots upwind and lets you get really creative in the surf. It cuts back really nicely and always seems to find its way back uderneath you, and this translates to drawing much more ‘surfy’ lines on the wave face rather than the typical and slightly unfulfilling kitey-drag lines.

For ‘recreational’ surfing, Ocean Rodeo have got the shape spot on. For charging thunderous barrels, I’d pick up the Surf Series Thruster instead. But for competitions where you could encounter anything from slop to good surf, the Quad Fin is a perfect fit. It excels with snappy, pivotal turns and a willing loose feel but will shudder immense grip down through the fins on screaming bottom turns as you line up for the next whack.

I predict I’ll be using this board for about 90% of my sessions throughout the year, regardless of where I travel to.

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: Daymer Bay, Ocean Rodeo, Review, Surf Series 5'11

I started off 2011 at Sunset Beach Oauhu, Hawaii, and after all the great adventures that the year delivered, I thought it would be good to bookend the year by ending it (and kicking off 2012) by doing something different.

On the 30th of December, Hayley, Ziggy (Hayley’s useful no-nonsense dog) and I drove through the night up various motorways to arrive in Snowdonia National Park; we were to climb Snowdon on New Year’s Eve. The weather forecast was wild – rain, hill fog, fierce winds, and freezing conditions at the summit  We were kitted up for it though (Ziggy with his double-density coat would have no problem) and as anyone living north of Morocco will tell you, nothing can make beer taste good like coming in from long, hard adventure in the cold.

My ‘technical’ snowboarding jacket was soon ringning wet (and my t-shirt underneath it) and Hayley’s snowboarding pants suffered a similar fate. Fortunately our feet were toasty warm as we discovered the only items we had up to the task were our boots. The dog meanwhile was loving life, scampering about and ‘herding up’ other hikers we saw on the way. As we neared the summit we harnessed his extra energy by instructing him to pull us up steep sections by his lead. I was surprised and impressed to see this work, so we passed the lead to a straggling hiker and Ziggy soon dragged her along to rejoin her mates further up.

 

Later that evening as we thawed out by a crackling fire and revived ourselves with some local pints, word of these hilltop heroics got round the pub and Ziggy was fussed over by strangers and repeatedly told how handy he was.

The contrast of sitting in the traditional low ceiling inn after battling it out on the hill for five hours in sub zero temperatures was something to savour, and so of course was the nourishing food and beer. With our muscle glycogen stores depleted, our energy drained and our boots drying out by the fire, I doubt even the best meal in Jamie Oliver’s 15 restaurant could match the way our pub grub tasted right then.

 

 

It might only have been five hours, but daily life doesn’t always gives us the chance for extended periods of good exercise. It’s nice to be able to look back after a mini-expedition and know that you are fitter now than on the morning you set off. It’s a little milestone, something to look back on and a marker point to set you up for what lies ahead.

I’ve not really formed any resolutions for 2012, I reckon clibming Snowdon set us off to a pretty good start and into a welcome beer deficit (the first two pints are null as they are strictly for hyrdation purposes, the next one as a muscle relaxant and so on), so maybe that could be it – for every hour of exercise, I shall reward myself with one pint of ale.

I’m (half) joking when I say that all of this is about off-setting beer though, because choosing to do something like this rather than the usual end of year blow-out is making a statement to yourself that your fitness and vitality will improve, your stomach will be flatter and firmer, your muscles stronger and more useful, your sinews tougher, your gait will be more purposefuland you will not decline in strength and surrender to a bloating waistline as the years roll on.

That’s my new year’s resolution: keep moving, keep sharp, exhaust the body and mind regularly through adventures in nature, recalibrate with good company in the pub afterwards and feel like you’ve earned it, much less not having to worry about it. (Told you I was half joking).

Tags: beer, New Year's Eve, Snowdon, useful dog, winter

***Two videos, scroll down past the text to see ‘em***

Dear readers of my blogger, if you really are reading this and the page hits aren’t just spybots and mis-directed traffic, I hope you had a belter Chrimbo and are all set for something exciting / fulfilling on New Year’s Eve.

This is a quick bloggins to serve as a reminder for me as to what we’ve been up to the last few days over Christmas, which is basically a few energetic sessions and an interesting brush with fate thanks to Smiler.

On Friday 23rd, Smiler, myself and a mystery person who I shall not disclose yet (lest my enemies sieze upon an opporunity when my back is turned! Joking – I’ll reveal all when whatever we’re up to is complete, but if it never gets completed, I’ll just go back and edit out this paragraph so no one ever knows) headed down to the ‘Naughtie But Ice’ cafe to watch over our little spot while we waited for the wind to change. Well we saw it change, from moderate onshore to banshee-wailing offshore via a squall of horizontal rain. So Friday was a write off.

Saturday the 24th, as a last gasp contingency, we kited The Cribbar. No worries about keeping that a secret, because I can report it’s the single most difficult and dangerous place I’ve ever kitesurfed by a country mile. Extremely choppy, unbelievably heavy (and terrifyingly loud!), and with huge currents of water surging around, quite literally you could say ‘here be dragons’. Smiler got into a pickle when he was pushed in by some lines of whitewater (bungalow sized, including the roof) and found himself boxed into a corner where you’d never ever want to be. Amazingly, the kite was still in the air and he body-dragged out to safety, later saying that he felt like he ‘was being guided by an unkown force’. I hope Pamela, Smiler’s wife isn’t reading this because as far as I can tell, that sort of calm is the result of an instinctive reaction from the ‘lizard brain’ which takes over when the frontal lobe (the bit that makes us human and which you could say is the most developed and sophisticated thing in the universe) has absorbed all the information and has come to the conclusion that ‘we are totally f*****.

Christmas Day and Boxing Day were carbon copies of eachother in terms of water time – some sporty close out waves in Newquay Bay. SW winds, proximity and time deemed the Bay to be a sure bet for water time. Here’s a little video below from Christmas Day; Boxing Day was actually a touch better but the files were corrupted on the memory card…bah!

This is recorded in the 120 frames per second GoPro mode, allowing me to slow it down to quarter speed without loosing the smooth playback. If you like the song, it’s Cells by Teenage Fanclub.

Today, Smiler and I paddled out to a frankly evil looking Cribbar but after I spotted one of my fins had come adrift before we had caught a wave, we had to paddle back in; it’s really not a place to sit out and wait on your own. Back ashore we swapped the guns for shortboards and headed out to a pumping North Fistral. Not many people out, rips all over the place, a sand dredging close out to dodge on the way out – it was such a good lung burner after a couple of days of stuffing our livers into a state of Fois Gras.

I took off on my first wave and snapped the leash, resulting in a testing little swim in. For some reason, and despite the fair size, the poundings from the waves didn’t seem like anything was even happening. I think the two toughening up sessions in the Bay closeouts where we were bounced off the bottom and struggled to the surface in 8ft deep of foam were paying dividends. You can’t beat solid water in a wipeout!

Here’s a little vid of Fistral today; what you are seeing is me dropping into a fleeting barrel, escaping from a guilotine lip and then diving headfirst over the board as the wave in front of me has detonated and left nowhere to go. The leash snaps almost instantly, and we watch the board’s point of view as it gets thrown all over the place on the way to the shore. I collected it after a three minute blast back in through the impact zone.

Righto, the forecast is looking good so I hope for at least one more update before the New Year, where upon we have a mountain to climb, in the real sense!

Tags: 120fps, closeout, cold, Dry Suit, GoPro, Newquay Bay, Ocean Rodeo, Surf Dry, winter, yarn

*Scroll down for videos*

Good question isn’t it? And I bet some of you are even thinking ‘what happens when you surf in a drysuit?’.

Well today I had my first experience of both. Ocean Rodeo make this suit, it’s called the Surf Dry, and it’s designed specifically for surfing, kiting and standup paddle in waves. Traditional drysuits are OK for flat water kiting or standup, but because they trap so much air they stop you from being about to duck dive or swim underwater, and their flapiness creates drag when you are swimming. The Surf Dry gets round this with a specially designed micro-thin wetsuit that slips over the top, squeezing all the air out so you can get underwater, and keeps it all snug to your skin so it performs more like a regular wetsuit when you’re moving through the water.

Anyway I had my reservations as to whether the Surf Dry would be a good suit for the sort of adventures we get up to around here, so on this most ragged and rough of days, I donned one and went for a dip. I went to Towan with its typically questionable wave quality but the swell was humping in and closing out on a shallow sandbar, resulting in a perfect stunt wave for  plenty of tumbles and several drillings down to the sea floor.

Surviving wipeouts
After the first one, any thoughts of water ingress, the suit damaging (I actually landed on my fins at one point, got tangled in my leash at another) or coming undone were dispelled. I’d go as far as to say today the Surf Dry felt more secure than my regular wetsuit, because when I’m getting drilled in my regular wetsuit it lets water in, or ‘flushes’ and that’s rather unpleasant in the depths of winter. At the end of the sesh, I peeled off the two outer layers and the only trace of moisture on my thermals was against the wrist and neck seals where the seals prevented the suit from breathing – it was a touch of sweat. The rest of the thermals and of course me, were bone dry. If you take a really bad tumble or go really deep, any residual air in the suit compresses and forces against any water trying to creep into the seals, but really, once you see those seals for yourself, you’ll understand why they keep you so dry.

Surviving damage

The drysuit core itself (the middle, baggy layer) is practically industrial or military looking in its construction. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to suppose that it would be more durable than a super stretch winter wetty. Any cut or abrasion that goes through this suit will do the same at least to a regular wetsuit. The Surfdry won’t fill up with water any more than a wetsuit would either thanks to its outer layer keeping things tight. I think really though the day something goes through this suit is the day you’re going to get some good stitches in your own skin.

Warmth

I got hot today. If you were around in Cornwall today you’ll know it was cold, the weather was absolutely shit house. Getting into the water, being in the water, getting out of it and walking home or driving home in your bone dry thermals, the wetsuit experience is just not comparable to a drysuit. Add to the fact that you WILL be climbing into a wet wetsuit this winter, and that can’t happen with the Surf Dry since it’s always dry on the inside. Put it like this: you’re going into a freezing environment. To keep you warm, do you choose to trap against your body a) a layer of cold water that you need to heat up or b) some nice warm air from your house / van? It’s like central heating vs crappy night storage my friend.

Mobility

It’s like surfing in your pyjamas. Loose, free, noticebly less restriction around the shoulders, everything flexes as though you are in soft clothing.Very comfortable.

Getting it on and off

I can claw into my westuit in about 35 seconds. Currently I’m running about ten minutes getting into the Surf Dry, though I’m told this will come down to about three minutes after a few goes. There’s a video of a guy on the Ocean Rodeo site making it look very easy indeed; it’s more a case of getting familiar with the process rather than it being difficult to don. Taking it off is a piece of cake though.

Any downers?

I don’t think an extra few minutes putting a suit on a problem, it’s no worse than pumping up a kite. Considering I’ve covered what were my reservations in this post, all that I would expect to hear from people who have not tried a Surf Dry is that…well, I dunno, that it maybe looks a bit bulky compared to a regular wetsuit? And fair enough, that may be a concern if your body is so incredibly chiselled that the general public demand it be on show all the time, but I think the rest of us (especially those kiters who choose to wear shorts over their wetsuits!) might welcome a little more anatomical ambiguity.

Here then is my video. Typical back-of-a-cigarette-packet storyboarding, awful editing skills, Windows Movie Maker, it’s all here! But I think it gets the important information across. I did choose a really good song though, Soundtrack Of Our Lives. Swedish band, sniff ‘em out.

And here is the official Ocean Rodeo Surf Dry vid, featuring the Erik Hanson, the man behind the whole thing. Watch this one first if you want decent production values, good surfing and stunning scenery!

Tags: drysuit, Newquay, Ocean Rode, Surfdry, winter, wipeout

Ocean Rodeo Europe are seeking energetic, motivated and experienced individuals for their growing EU sales team.

As the title says, I’m looking to recruit sales reps for various territories across the EU mainland. Despite the news reminding us every hour that the continent is turning into a financial wasteland, I’m getting swamped by enquiries and leads which I just don’t have time to follow up. I don’t want to let these go, so I’m looking to break off a piece of the action to the right people who can work with me across Europe as sales reps for their countries.

Ocean Rodeo are poised to make significant gains across Europe and this is your chance to be part of a very exciting time in this long established and highly regarded company’s history. This is commission based role, and reps benefit from very deep discounts on their own demo and personal quivers.

Reps will work closely with the EU Sales Manager (that’s me ) to:

- Open new and rekindle existing retail accounts
- Maintain and build customer relationships
- Service, Sales and Customer Support
- Open new market prospects to drive new sales
- Set up demo events and tours
- Recruit and support team riders and brand ambassadors

Experience and knowledge of the kiteboarding industry in your own country is a must, as is a solid network and you will have your own phone and internet connection and transport. To begin with, this would be a perfect role to sit alongside your other activities with realistic potential for significant rewards as the business in your territory grows. Plus it should be a whole lot of fun

If you live on the European mainland, have a flair for kiting and sales, send your CV and covering letter to europe@oceanrodeo.com for the attention of Dom Moore.

Tags: jobs in kiting, kitesurfing jobs, Ocean Rodeo Sales Rep

Clinic date: 28th-29th January, 2012

Clinic location: Newquay, Cornwall

Exactly one year ago today I stopped wasting valuable time in the gym and decided to start training properly for life in the surf. Since then, I’ve not had to pay any gym fees, step into any stinking changing rooms, wait my turn for a go on sweat-drenched equipment, suffer other gym users’ farts of excersion, or fill in tedious work out diaries. Instead, the beach is my locker room and the sea is my exclusive health club. But most importantly, I’ve never been fitter, never spent more time riding.

This extra fitness and water time has helped me build on my confidence, and this year I’ve seen and experienced the most impressive feats of nature in my fifteen years in the sea, and it’s all been in the UK. From huge bull seals swimming underneath me in crystal clear water to paddling into my best waves yet, to kiting into the biggest surf I’ve seen close up it’s been thrilling but it’s also been planned. Much of the joy comes from the planning, training and learning.

On the weekend of January 28th – 29th 2012, I’m running a free surf-kite, fitness, and water confidence clinic aimed squarely at kitesurfers who want to build confidence and skills in the surf environment.  We’ll kitesurf when we can kitesurf, and train and cover theory when we can’t. Expect to be a better all-round kiter after the climic, we will cover the following areas plus a lot more:

• Building formidable surf fitness and confidence, even when you can’t get to the sea
• Improving your waveriding kite skills, making best use of the kite and board
• Thriving under pressure and making a friend of fear
• Become your own risk technician so you can spot hazards and escape routes at any location
• Tuning your ‘kiting kit bag’ for the best performance in the surf environment
• Surf psychology – respectfully getting the waves and space you want both at home and in new places

This is rain-or-shine, hell-or-highwater course but you will never be put in an uncomfortable situation. No matter what’s going on with the weather and sea, we’ll be able to use locations and techniques to practise the skills we need to cover. There are many different ways of approaching each learning point, and we’ll choose the best one for the day. The majority of the course will be run outside, in our wetsuits, whilst a couple of modules will be run inside in a calm, comfortable location. You can book your weekend away and be sure that you have something solid to look forward to at the end of January.

So there you have it. I’m running a clinic to cover all the unique information I have learned during my years as an editor, instructor trainer, kite tester and swell chaser. If you’ve ever been inspired by an article of mine you’ve read in the kite media, please consider that as just the tip of the iceberg…! Expect lots of info, stories, laughs and good times, and hopefully I’ll be seeing you in late January. Tight lines!

If you have questions

In the first instance, feel free to contact me direct on 07540 155123, dom@skyhooked.co.uk, or in the comments box below. If you want to continue reading, please do so as the more usually asked questions are covered below:

Your level of riding and ability

• To enjoy this course, you would have intermediate kite skills and be able to do a toeside carve and ride upwind
• You would be looking to build your confidence and skills in waves
• You would be able to swim 100m and have no pressing health issues that would prevent physical activity
• You do not need to be able to surf, but would have an interest in it

What you need to bring

• Your kitesurfing equipment, and all the neoprene you usually where in winter
• Bring a paddle-in surfboard if you have one, there’s always a chance of a clean wave down here
• Clothing and footwear for January – it could be very bleak, but that’s part of the experience!
• Any GoPros or camera equipment you want to record your experiences over the weekend
• Some pocket money for lunch and dinner

Accommodation and location

• Our great friends at Smarties Surf Lodge are laying on bunk style accommodation for £20 per person per night (you’ll only be sharing with other people on the course), or your own room for £40 per person per night
• Healthy brekky is included in your stay at Smarties
• Each morning we’ll meet at Smarties, assess the day’s conditions and agenda and then hit the beach
• We’re walking distance to all beaches in Newquay, and 10 minutes in the car from Watergate
• Healthy lunch and dinner options are plentiful in Newquay. Maybe bring some extra pocket money for a local ale or two in the evening!

Price and booking

• The course is FREE!  To secure your place, call or mail me asap. I’m limiting the course to six places
• Just pay either £20 or £40 per night for your accomm. at Smarties 01637 872391. Book for 27th and 28th Jan, say you’re on ‘Dom’s course’

Why am I doing this for free?

I love running courses. I’ve been doing them for years, from advanced tutorials at my old Skyhooked kite school through to BKSA instructor training courses via contributing to military resettlement courses with ocean based activities (taking 15 Gurkhas on a coasteer is something I’ll always remember). Running courses has been a mainstay of my career since I decided to ‘go it alone’ in late 2004.

The difference is now I don’t have to run courses for money. I’m not trying to have one over on you when I say I get a buzz out of running an action and information packed workshop to a bunch of enthusiastic individuals. I’m always hungry for new knowledge and researching different things myself, and when I can pass on my areas of expertise to people that that find it fascinating, it feels great.

Tags: Big Waves, confidence, free clinic, kitesurf, Smarties Lodge, Surf, training

**Big photos: click on an image, then click on it once more to view LARGE **

I did have plans to do a load of trips this winter, but after this Saturady just gone, all bets are off concerning the best place to grab some world class winter waves.

Saturday dawned with sun beaming in through the south facing windows in the house. We (Hayley and I) took a stroll to the Lewinnick Lodge on Pentire Headland to grab a coffee and some brunch on this amazing morning. No rush to get in the surf, I’d made plans with Smiler to get on it at 2pm when the tide got low enough for North Fistral. With the 2.5m swell at 13 seconds and stiff SE winds, the whole of the North Coast was ripe for the plucking but we thought we’d stay local.

On the walk to the Lewinnick, the coast path gets quite close to a sheer drop into the sea. We were about 60m above where waves surf was pounding into the rocks below, but we could feel the earth shaking with the force of it. Already we’d seen one unlucky soul carried into an ambulance after he miss-timed the leap off of the rocks at South Fistral. The ambulance stood by, waiting to see what became of the wretch below.

Happily this chap fared better after a mate who was watching called him up and pointed out a better spot further along. But enough of all this drama, because as I said, the sun was shining, it was warm, the surf was pumping and it was perfect! Just before 2pm Smiler came round and we headed off to Little Fistral for a reccy as from here you can see everything. Amazingly, on what was probably as good a day as you’ll ever see at Fistral, there were only two or three people at North Fistral and they seemed to be paddling shorewards anyway.

 

We suited up and shot out in a rip to find ourselves alone at North before three or four others arrived to join us. If we all didn’t know eachother directly, it was only once removed. So there we were, end of November with a warm sun shining down, the best surf we’d seen in years and it would be fair to say it was about to be shared by six friends. And this was a Saturday, at Fistral Beach, the most well known surf spot in the UK…so where is everybody?

Everybody it turns out was down at Gwithian (a friend later told us there were about seventy people out) or hunting out sheltered / secret spots up and down the coast. The last place anyone wanted to go on the best swell of the year was Fistral Beach, since everyone knows it’s going to be too crowded right? Well you can see how this logic worked in our favour today; sometimes it pays to be either a) illogical or b) just lazy.

The international version of this type of behaviour would be everyone going to Morocco and avoiding Lanzarote, for last week in Lanzo we did not see one rental car driving around with boards on the roof and surfed with just two or three other people much of the time.

 

My wave count was quite slow, but amongst it I got by far the best barrel I’ve had at Fistral, in fact, the best barrel I’ve had anywhere come to think of it. It was throwing right over and taking every ounce of concentration not to get clobbered by it. No photos exist, but that doesn’t matter because without photos you have to replay it in your minds eye and I reckon that makes you focus better on remembering the experience, rather than remembering the photo. Deffo one of the top five waves I’ve had.

All this mega fun within five minutes walk of the house! Isn’t that the stuff we dream of? The best waves you’ve ever had, shared with just a few people. It’s the ultimate long-haul secret spot fantasy, or something you hope Ireland might yield to you.

Last winter snow was threatening to close Heathrow and I was preparing to leave to Hawaii for six weeks. It was cold here; a  strange winter for Cornwall, Newquay hardly catches a frost most years. We’re back in business now though and it’s been overhead for about three weeks straight…

That’s it then. In my humble, biased and limited opinion, I hearby claim Newquay, taking into account waves, proximity of accommodation to the ocean, crowds and warmth, to be the finest surfing real estate in the Northern Hemisphere. At least it was on Saturday anyway.

 

 

Tags: barrel, Fistral, sunset, Surf, warm water, world class.

**Scroll down for video**

You may have noticed that many of the posts on this blog contain images and videos captured by my trusty GoPro HD camera. It’s a wonderful bit of kit and has never let me down, GoPro are often pushing out software (they call it firmware) updates and all sorts of mounts and LCD screens to ensure your camera is future proof.

This month, GoPro released the HD2. It’s basically the same unit, it uses all the same mounts and housings as before, but it shoots 11 megapixal images instead of the old 5, you can set the lens to 170degree wide angle or 120degree not so wide angle, it takes photos every 0.5 seconds in time-lapse mode and now shoots HD video at 1920×1080 pixels. It is basically bloody brilliant.

Here’s a quick vid I shot today in poor light. On the control bar at the bottom of the video, make sure you click the 360p button and set it to 1080p, then you’ll see the full HD power of this little camera. Ignore the surfing, I’m about a bus length in front of where I ought to be Plenty more shots and videos from this cracking camera coming this winter, can’t wait.

 

Link for mobile devices: http://youtu.be/Yz4-4WF4238?hd=1

Tags: cornwall, Fistral, Good waves, GoPro, HD2, Newquay, winter

The common wisdom in surfing is that the further outside of the ‘impact zone’ you are, the safer you will be. However there are times when you might need to ‘cut and run’ and give up the battle of trying to punch your way out of the impact zone.

On our recent Lanzarote trip, we encountered exactly this situation at the right hand point break of La Santa. The right at La Santa may not appear to be the hollowest or meanest wave on the island, but it can be shockingly heavy and deep-water waves push in here with an incredible amount of thickness and momentum behind them. It gets to the point where you are no longer able to duck dive the set waves as a) you won’t get deep enough to avoid the turbulence and b) your board will probably get ripped out of your hands and smacked into your head.

Unlike your average beach break where you can turn tail and head for shore, the treacherous reefs and currents at La Santa don’t give you that luxury. Heck, I even found Sunset Beach in Hawaii to be an easier place to negotiate size for size, as there you inevitably get blasted into deeper water.

So you’re in the situation where you’re halfway through the long paddle out, wisely using the channel, and a wide set swings in on the horizon and suddenly all bets of you making it out to the point are off. The first wave rears up and slams down feet in front of you and with no choice, you bail the board and dive for the bottom. Slam! The force of the wave propels you straight down into the deep and despite all the talk of ‘relaxing through the wipeout’ you can’t help but scrabble desperately for the surface. Then the next one does exactly the same thing. Slams you straight down. You come up again, more exhausted, and maybe unaware that there are at least three more monsters lining up ready to do the same thing again and again.

This is an in incredibly overhwelming, exhausting and demoralizing experience. During the pounding, you aren’t blasted back to the shore but begin to drift out in line with The Slab – a horrible, heavy, nasty piece of water thundering down on a shallow lava reef. It is exactly where you don’t want to end up.

You haven’t got the strength to survive many more of these down-up poundings, you can’t make it out through the set, and a direct line back into the shore will put you straight onto The Slab.

What now skipper?

It all comes back to site assessment and risk management. Exciting stuff eh? Sounds like we’re about to plan foundations for a public building! Look at the map above. The key is thus:

Light blue lines: these are the ‘west’ sets that wrap around the point, and that you ideally want to take.

Darker blue lines: these are the ‘north’ sets. They are quite dreaded and will catch you out and push you into The Slab if you get caught by them and don’t react, or are kamikaze and take off on them.

Red lines: this is where you really don’t wanna be, The Slab!

Green line: this is your channel for paddling out. Hug the inside of the point, then swing out past The Slab and hopefully before a north set arrives.

Yellow line: your escape route! Getting hammered by a west peak might not be so bad as you will just get pushed in by the white water close to the point, but getting caught by a north swell is different. You can’t come straight back in, so you need instead to start swimming / paddling hard towards the point headland (the big land mass on the right) and let the walls of white water push you into the narrow channel of sanctuary.

Any tips then for surviving the beatings as the white water slams into you? My great friend and spiritual guide in these matters, Rob Small*, told me the best way is to just spread out and let the white water take you. Resist temptation to dive deep as this will put you into the down/up cycle of terror described earlier. At this point an impact vest would be a lovely thing to have on – surviving big waves is not about swimming under them, but about enduring the battle for survival in the overwhelming conditions once you end up near to where you don’t want to be. You probably won’t have an impact vest on though so it’s just as well you’ve been keeping on top of your cardio

First time I tried La Santa in larger surf (you still wouldn’t call it ‘big’ surf) I didn’t know this and got absolutely nailed. Next time, and after a briefing from Rob, I used the above method and was washed in without drama and able to paddle out for another go.

Time for a quick recap then:

1. Watch the ocean carefully and look out for wide sets that will catch you out.

2. Look out for hazards and currents that could affect you in the worst case scenario.

3. Swimming under large waves and getting pounded in the down/up motion is incredibly fatiguing – time to cut and run.

4. Let go of your board, spread out and let the white water smash you back towards the shore. This drubbing is less tiring than the down/up drubbing.

4a. Don’t try and swim to shore in the rip! Remember it’s a river flowing out to sea – you’ve got to go where the water is coming in, and that’s the breaking waves.

5. As the wave washing you in subsides, start swimming parallel to the shore to avoid any hazards on your inside.

6. Find your way back to sanctuary, take a few breaths and you’ll be fit to head out for another wave.

6a. Didn’t find your way back? No worries, you’re probably in the rip getting sucked out to sea, so get ready to give it another go! Get it right this time, not many people make it past the third cycle in these situations.

No amazing photos exist of me surfing at La Santa on this day, but I was there and below you can see a ‘speed blur’ capture of the only wave I got. I think I’ve surfed bigger waves at the Cribbar, definitely surfed bigger waves with the kite, but this wave felt like quite an achievement. May I humbly add there were four of us out that day – my mate Jacko and I, and two local chargers. Not a bad effort, but the reward for me was more in the learning process than the waves I caught.

*Rob lives in Lanza, gave me pretty much all the info for this article, and you could say was on of the pioneers of surfing in the bigger stuff at La Santa.

Tags: Big Waves, La Santa, Lanzarote, rob small, Surf, survival, wipeout