Boxing Day Surf

Happy Christmas everyone!

I Finally have a waveski of my own now, Louise bought the old Raider that I've been borrowing recently. So I decided to take it for another spin as it's rightful owner!
With the wind looking like a southerly to south-westerly I thought I'd make the extra little drive and head to Harlyn. I found the usual Harlyn fare, waves jacking up quickly, and then fast racing hollow walls, and lightening quick closeouts. It took a little while to get dialed into the waves, with fast hollow walls and so many closeouts there was little room to manoeuvre, quite literally! It was a case of drop in, charge along the wall, and either try and get up and out, or ride the whitewater, if you were lucky you could make a cut back, or a bit of a slash. Or if your me, you could fluke a 360 high on a wall that was about to close out!

Driving along a wall

Making a cut back, just a shame I missed the whitewater!

A view along the line up from the Go-Pro camera

Charging under a surfer into another hollow wall

Punching through a lip to avoid a close out

Making another cut back, this time higher, faster and hitting the whitewater!

Charging up off the bottom towards another beckoning lip

The Mafia strikes back!

It's been ages since I've last been to our 'secret' trails the Mafia Trails. The last time I believe I went was here: http://3rider.blogspot.com/2007/05/mafia-trails-session.html some time in May!
Since then there has been lots of activity, with many more trails, jumps, berms, drops and ladders added. I got the chance to hit the trails today and had a great day, biking and digging. One of the big new features is a wooden table-top jump. It's roughly about 8 foot long and 4 1/2 foot high. The only problem is that the down ramp is made out of a couple of varnished doors and kind of slick! If you hit it a bit squiff you went into a skid down the landing, then hit the soft dirt at the bottom fast and going sideways! A few people had a few close moments, and James and I both had good sized stacks! Lucky for me I was wearing all my padding and now just have a sore knee, James however wasn't so lucky, with no pads on he ended up hobbling about all afternoon with a big lump on his knee!

The table rocks, just watch the landing!

The Ladder that I originally built has seen a few changes. It has been moved back up the hill a couple of times, more doubling the size of the gap, it's now an 18 foot monster. But for those not so keen on going 'big' theres two other options, a floaty kicker to land you on the same down ramp about the size of my original gap, or a smaller simple drop that skirts round the landing ramp.

The view from Daddy bear, Mother bear just to the right

There has also been some activity above the ladder, originally a step-up step-off, but now a roll on hop off ladder that leads to the three ladder drops. This has been named Goldielocks, and the three bears! Baby bear being the little drop, Mother bear being the kicker/drop and Daddy bear being the BIG ladder!

The view from Goldielocks, looking towards the three bears

The original trail, snaking down the hill is still there. It too has had some changes, the berms are now well packed and fast, and it no longer leads you to our narrow step up, but via a new berm to the table-top. The narrow step-up has been cannibalised and part of it now forms a gap jump below the ladders.

The old berms are still just as good as ever!

We set to work building a new trail, and with so many hands available it went really quickly. From 'Trail-boss' Ewart roughly sketching out a new line to being ready to ride in about 2 hours or less!

Many hands make light work!

Unfortunately our original berm/wall ride thing has seen better days, so we tore it down and used the wood to make four new berms.

The older berm/wall ride comes down

The new line starts to take shape

Ewart marked out a line down the left side of the trails, berms were roughed out, stakes were banged in, logs were positioned and mud was shoveled. And then Ewart set to work shaping berms and directing others.

As the daylight faded the trail took shape, and with darkness rapidly falling we all managed to give it a try. Its fast, flowing and in some places incredibly close to the trees!

With light failing we hit the new line

Hopefully next time I wont wait seven months before I head back to the mighty Mafia Trails!

Back on the Waveski

After the Wet, Wild and Windy weather of the last few weeks, things have settled down with high pressure taking over again. It's been cold and crisp here, which is bad news for the river levels, but the swell charts have been looking great. Light off shore SE to E winds and regular solid swell pushing in all week and it looks the same for next week too!
So with that in mind, I loaded up my Waveski and went to Saunton. I wasn't disappointed with what I found, winds great, if a little strong, and swell upto 4 feet at times. Shame it was damned chilly and I'd forgotten my Towel!

You've got to love the retro colours on the ski!

Once kitted up I hit the waves. The conditions turned out to be trickier than I had anticipated. The wind making dropping in hard, and the swell coming in regular sets, meaning everyone (all seven of us!) was fighting for the same peak! The outside sets were coming in at a regular 4 foot, but with so much competition I decided to give the quieter inside waves a go. Trouble was when a couple of freight train outside set came through I got a serious beat down!

Dropping into a classic Saunton wall

Looking down the line, wondering what to do

Hanging on in, trying to stay on the shoulder

I finally get the timing right and bang one off the top of a little inside wave

Cruising on down the inside waves

However things started to calm down a bit, with the swell becoming more regular and more waves in the sets, and soon I was taking more waves. I'd decided to try the ski with the fins in a different position today. I ran them a little further back, only an inch or so, but it made a huge change to the feel of the ski. Previously I'd had the fins all the way forward, making the ski quick, but loose and skiddy. Moving the fins back should make it carve and hold a line better. I noticed the carving ability but I missed the loose and forgivingness, and found that I struggled to slash the tail as much as I would have liked.
But it was all good and I had a great session overall. The sun gently setting casting an amazing orange glow over beach, and lighting up the spray off of the waves. With the swell and winds looking good for the next week or so I hope to get out again soon.

Another Dart Day

On Sunday I decided to have another playboat session on the Dart. The level was great, flowing over the slab, But only just flowing over rocks at topwave. Not so high that it made it too hard to get back up the eddy, or get washed too far down stream when it all went wrong!
What more can you say about a topwave session, it was great, and I'm still aching over 24hrs later!

Top wave with a short Que, brilliant.

Dan W. Throws a blunt

Nick E. Also throwing a big blunt

I also ran the Loop twice, using the free shuttle to get back to Newbridge each time. Triple was good, the playwave was just there, but very fast, thrashy, surgie and the eddyline behind was evil trying to cross it in a playboat! But there were lots of waves all over the river to throw wave wheels off of.

The Triple wave, fast and surgie, but the eddyline was waiting for you!

I finally gave up as the river started to come up again, making the paddle back up to the wave longer and harder, sapping more and more strength till I felt that I couldn't take anymore!

Adventure Paddlers Weekend

This weekend the RDCP once again played host to the annual Gene17 Adventure Paddlers Weekend. And once again the Gods of rain delivered, and delivered BIG! While I had to work on Saturday many people got out on the rivers, however many people got far more than they bargained for. After several days of heavy rain all the dartmoor river were in full flow, and many were caught out by big water and rapidly rising river levels. The tales of carnage were many and varied!

Trying to find a clear view of the screen was hard

Saturday evening saw the main event, the lectures, raffle and the amazing freebie give away! This year featured four lectures, The west coast of the USA, Greenland, Gabon - Africa, and The Four borders expedition. The lectures were good, but the new layout of the bar kind of hampered things, there now only being one room including the bar. This meant that there was no space for people to socialise away from the lectures, so it became quite hard to hear and see what was going on sometimes.

The bar was busy all night!

The Freebie giveaway was as mad as usual, with Dave Carrol launching all sorts madly into the crowd. While I don't think that there were any give-away accidents this year it must have been close, I managed to get a drybag to the forehead!

Dave "the compare with the hair" Carrol giving away free stuff

The raffle was also a big draw, with the top prize being a Sweet Rocker helmet. There were loads of prizes, and many people left something, from books, DVD's, spraydecks, bags, drybags, throwlines and a huge array of accessories.

Ali and Liz selling raffle tickets

Water in the SW at last

At last! Enough rain to make all the rivers in the South West kick off. It seems that those who wanted got multiple runs on the multiple rivers. I just went to the Dart and Play -boated. I had a great session on a big top wave, then ran the loop with Jason S. and Owen D. Then after blagging a cheeky shuttle back to Newbridge I got back on for some more playing. Awesome.

I also managed to get a mountain of Pictures, here's a few highlights..........

Tim C. was ripping, as usual!

Tom B. launching a big one

Behind the spray is James H.

Robin L. forgot his playboat, and showed that the Jefe might be the creek-boat of choice, but not the play-boat of choice!

Dom C. bouncing in his Agent

Ed C. peeking over his shoulder and back blunting to his hearts content

Andy I. keeping it smooth

Dan W. Proving that Dagger Agents have got a lot of pop!