St. Ives Bay Kayak surf competition

This weekend saw the St. Ives Bay Surf Kayak competition. Surf kayak competitions always have a fairly laid back vibe to them, and crowd is always fun loving and mellow, it was just a shame that the weather really played havoc with the whole thing.
We all rolled up at a car park at Gwithian, at the far end of the bay, very early on Saturday morning, to be greeted by a howling gale, and horizontal wind. The competition site was relocated to 'The Bluff', closer to St. Ives, in an attempt find some more shelter. However shelter wasn't really that forthcoming, and the wind was still howling across the beach at 25mph+.

The pictures don't do it justice, it was horrid out there!

The Competition pushed on Regardless, and the first heats headed out into the maelstrom. I was in heat 2. I totally failed to get out back, never quite able to get past the point where the 6ft-ish waves were dumping, every time I got close another big set would dump on me, throwing me around, and leaving me back inside again, struggling to get out once again. I caught one small, and incredibly bad wave, and ended up about half a mile down the beach, courtesy of the wind. The wind, blowing totally cross shore, was so strong and I was so exhausted after my 15mins of wave battling, that I didn't have the strength to carry my boat back up the beach!
After 4 heats the organisers realised that the conditions were just too bad to carry on, and so the whole thing was put on hold for about three and a half hours.

The only indication of the wind speed is the spray whipping off of the wave, and the number of windsurfers!

After the break the conditions were better, the wind was just as strong, but the swell size had halved, and was no longer dumping heavily. So things kicked off again. Having been knocked out of my first round heat, I got the chance to try again in the repercharge. Only the first placed paddler would go through and get a chance to compete in the second round. I finished second, behind a paddler who wasn't listed as being in my rep, but never mind. That was my competition over.
But with the wind still blowing paddlers all over the beach, and the rain lashing down I was almost relived to be out of the competition, and able to get changed, dry, warm and be able to head off home!
The windsurfers however were loving the conditions, tearing all over the bay, hitting massive aerials off of the waves, boosting straight over close-outs and pulling some totally sick flips!