Thought I’d share these photos on the blog and write a little back story about this session. If you scroll down a couple of entries, you’ll actually see one or two of the shots, but I’ve tweaked them a bit using an online photo editor called Picnick and it’s done a pretty good job of it I reckon. Not bad for a freebie!
This was the Saturday, with the 4m swell at 14 seconds and strong southerly winds. As I explained in the post below, Gwithian Beach where these photos were shot is a bit more sheltered from W and especially SW swells than Watergate, Penhale and Fistral, so it doesn’t get the full force. When there’s a 4m swell running, this is a good thing unless you really want to go and take some big drops at Watergate, but during those sessions you don’t get much of a turn in.
Not that I was getting many turns in here, the waves were closing out during the time I was in, but you could tear along as steep a wall as you’d hope to find and then scurry shoreward as the whole thing exploded behind you. The inside ‘shorebreak’ was really thumping down hard, I wonder what would become of someone if they tried to get barrelled in it? Probably a snapped board at the least.
I was impressed with the GoPro in these gloomy conditions, and pleased that the lens stayed dry throughout the whole session. I’m using a Cabrinha Switchblade kite here and the front line split (where you mount the Kitehero) is a quite a way up the lines and so you get this nice aerial perspective, it shows what’s going on with the waves as well as you could hope. Coupled with the Picnick editor it’s a pretty nifty combo!
Let's start with this sand dredging close out!
Emergency evacuation proceedure
Found a bit of space for a turn on this one
Look at the gust patterns on the water, it really picked up
Nipping at yer heels, breathing down yer neck!
A relativel serene moment amidst the carnage
These were fantastic conditions, and the next day it got even better. Sadly, I wasn’t there the next day, I was were I was in the post below this one, but friends Richard Sills and Paul Sebbings were firing over texts that evening saying it was ‘best ever’ and ‘best kitsurfing session ever’ and so on. The ‘stoke’ factor, and the adrenaline factor, was certainly up there with some of the more exhilerating places I’ve kitesurfed. Isn’t it amazing that we’ve got these toys that can put us into out there into the sea on days like these?
Congratulations on the 50’000 pageviews. This post was my first introduction to your blog, my friend text me raving about the GoPro shots you had put up and that I had to check them out. These pictures and the stories got me hooked, the enjoyment I got from looking through past posts inspired me to start my own kiteboarding blog, and I am still checking back every few days to find out about your new adventures. Fantastic work and I look forward to keep reading well into the future.
James
Thanks James, glad to hear you’ve been finding some inspiration in the shots from this winter! When you get a moment, please reply back with the link to your blog, I’d like to check it out also. I love all this type of stuff, it’s great to see what people are up to around the country.
On a big magazine push at the moment, but hoping for some special content by the end of the week
All the best
Dom