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!

Dawn Raid: Dart

There's something about a dawn raid, is it the pay off for getting up early, is it the getting it all to yourself, or is it just something to do with being out and about as the sun comes up? I don't know. But I do know that whatever it is it's a great feeling. I've made a few dawn raids this year, board surfing at Constantine, kayak surfing at Bantham, wave ski surfing at Saunton, and some playboat missions on various spots locally, and they've all been great. The gamble of will there waves/water? will I make it back to work on time? all paying off. The thrill of being one of the only people at the break, or queuing in the eddy, knowing that there's more than enough to go round. I really just can't describe it, its something spine tinglingly good, that always makes the effort feel more than worth while.

The go-pro doesn't really like low light, but the water was just lapping onto the slab, honest!

And that's how it was when I pulled up at Newbridge in the fast approaching dawn. The water level great, just starting to wash onto the ledge. Top wave would just about be working, it was just a shame I didn't have time to get to Triple Three, that would have been perfect. But beggars can't be choosers, and a dawn raid on a small top wave before dashing back to work was way better than nothing.



It may not be a ripping ride, but it was better than no paddling!

Hopefully there'll be more water, or possibly surf (or even both!) this weekend, and I'll be able to get out for some more fun.

More fishing!

Another weekend with no water in the rivers, or surf at the beaches, and I can't find the enthusiasm for solo biking at the moment, so it was kayak fishing again. Having had a great time at Meadfoot beach last time, I thought I'd give it another go.

It was also a chance to try out some more tackle that I'd been given by my father in law, cheers Vic! So now with two rods and reels, I thought I'd try and get two lures in the water at once whilst trolling. However this turned into a complete mess with masses of line in a big knot. So I went back to just having one on the go at a time.

My only catch comes to the boat

The weather was far nicer this time than last time, with the sun blazing and no rain. After sorting out my line tangles things went much smoother, but I did manage to hook a plastic bag aswell as some seaweed.

All set up and ready to go

Eventually I managed to catch a fish, and it gave me a really good fight, I was quite surprised when I got it to the boat that it wasn't as big as I had expected. It turned out to be a 2Lb Sea Bass.

A strangely distorted shot of the boat all rigged up.

Kayak fishing, again.

After a kayak fishing trip earlier this year (check ewarts 3bsports blog) I'd been keen to get out there again and try my hand at fisihing again. I finally got the chance this weekend. I loaded up my freshly kitted out Manta Ray, and headed off to Meadfoot beach in Torbay.
Meadfoot is a great location for a bit of fishing, easy parking, a slipway straight to the beach/water and it seems to be host to some good fish too!

All the gear and no idea!

After a short while trolling around some mackerel feathers, I switched to a plug lure and started trolling with that. Almost immediately I caught a Sea Bass. Unfortunatly just as I was reaching into the water to pick it up it shook the lure, and shot off back to the depths! Bugger! oh well back to the trolling. I had a couple of other hits that reeled off a few foot of line but had gone by the time I grabbed the rod, and a cheeky seagull who managed to dive in and grab the lure, but luckly not hook itself.
And that seemed to be it,I was thinking oh well, time to call it a day, when I decided to go for one last lap round the rock in the bay. Just as I was about to turn to shore I got another hit. This time I managed to land it. It turned out to be a 2 1/2 Lb Sea Bass!

Mmmm..... dinner

Three hours on the water, two definate Sea Bass, two other strikes, and a sea gull! Not bad. The Bass tasted great, oven baked with butter, garlic, basil, bay leaves, lemon juice and some pepper. At this rate I could well be doing some more kayak fishing.

A day out at Duckpool.

As part of my un-ending quest to find good out of the way surf breaks, and generally explore more of the North Coast, I went to Duckpool beach today. At high tide it's barely a beach, just rocks and cliffs, but as the tide went out it turned into a lovely little beach.
From the car park the surf looked quite small, but when a couple of surfers got in I soon changed my mind! The sets were rolling in with 5-6ft faces, sweet!
Just a shame I didn't have any gear, just the cameras! Oh well better snap the action, check it out.

The biggest bummer of the day was when the air suspension on my van gave up on one side and left me with a wonky van. Time to call in the tow truck!

Happy birthday 3rider

Hey Hey, Its been a year today since 3Rider hit the web. So Far I've made 65 post (thats more than one a week!), added loads of photos, and had loads of fun along the way.

Heres to another years great blogging. See you out there!

White water at last!

Well finally it rained this weekend, and I was able to get out and enjoy some whitewater on the Dart. The rain didn't come till fairly late on Sunday.Meaning that I could enjoy a late start, before driving up to Ashburton, hooking up with Jemma and Andy and cruising up to Newbridge.

Jemma drops into the top wave

When we got there the water was just about level with the top corner of the rock slab, meaning it was just about worth paddling. By the time we'd got kitted up and carried our boats over it was lapping over the top corner of the slab, meaning it was well worth getting on. And by the time I returned two hours later to collect the van the slab was completely covered.

Andy blunting on top wave

Top wave was only just starting to show its true potential at these sort of water levels, but it was still more than worth spending a while surfin' it up!

Some times I can't help being a bit arty!

Local young ripper Jack

Dan W enjoying his new Agent on top wave

After a good session at the top wave we decided to head on down the river and enjoy the incredible autumn colours that the trees had to show. By now the rain was clearing, blue sky was appearing and the sun was throwing us a few rays.

Ouch! remember rocks are harder than plastic

Andy attempted to wave-wheel/cartwheel into Triple One, but managed to find rock ledge and re-modeled the front of his Orbit fish. I reckon he was lucky not to re-model his toes!!

Andy launches a big one at Triple

The play wave at Triple three was at an absolute perfect level, fast, shouldered, and with a fluffy pile in the middle. We spent a long time enjoying its watery perfection!

Me carving up and into another blunt

The autumn colours were nice

It's a shame the weather forecast looks so dry again, it was fantastic to be out on the Dart again, and I can't wait for my next Triple three play session!

I've seen the light, and it's a Wave-ski!!

It seems that there has been a recent upswing in the amount of interest in wave skis'. First off Circle One, the Devon based wetsuit and surfboard company made some Epoxy wave skis, aimed at beginner/intermediate paddlers, rather than being more full-on custom skis aimed at more experienced paddlers. There was much more interest in them than Circle One, or us at AS, had expected. As if that was enough, Atlantic based in North Devon, have started working on another beginner/intermediate wave ski.
We had one of the Atlantic skis dropped into the shop for us to cast an eye over, and I've been keen to give it a try out since it arrived. I first attempted to give it a whirl at Harlyn in North Cornwall last week. But unfortunately a broken fin and no replacement finished that attempt before it had even started. But this week I was able to give it two days solid use at Saunton, in some great 2-3ft waves.

Soft full rails and plenty of volume make it stable and forgiving

The waves couldn't have been better if I tried. A really good 2-3ft swell, and a perfect light off-shore wind, produced well lined up waves with faces upto five feet high and great walls and lips that held up for what felt like forever!
I was a little anxious when I first set out on the ski, tales of terror about unstable and unforgiving wave skis having tempered my thoughts. But it couldn't have been further from the truth. Once used to the sitting position, rather than being sat in a kayak being sat on the ski, it turned out to be stable and easy to paddle. It was a dream to paddle out, it literally skipped over broken waves no matter what size, and with a healthy dose of volume in the tail even when pushed hard on steep breaking waves it refused to back loop.
When taking off it was quick and easy to paddle in and quickly took off even on smaller inside waves. Once on a wave it would do anything you wanted with barely any effort needed. If you wanted to cruise down the line, just climbing and falling down the face, then just point it and go, hardly needing a paddle stroke. If you wanted to make some cut backs, push it into a few lips or cut loose with a tail slash then you just had to put a bit more aggression into it.
But at the same time when you needed that bit of forgivingness, when things went a little pear shaped then it was there. Several times I got caught high on a wave as it finally broke, thinking oh no, the ski just broke away, skidded down the wave and then put me back in control.

I want one now!

Well all in all, I can't fault it. It did everything I wanted as and when I wanted it. It was cruisey when I wanted a casual wave, it ripped when I wanted to push it a bit more, it paddled out easily through all conditions.
I have seen the light and it IS Ski shaped. Forget surf boards and surf boats, this is it, this is all you need.

South-West Canoe Show 2007

Just a few quick shots from this years South-West Canoe show. Once again it was a great event, the weather good, the crowds huge, loads of shiny new products and masses of people trying them out on the water.

The new Liquid Logic Remix

There were new boats on many of the stands. New Liquid Logic kayaks, the Remix range and new sizes in some of there existing range. New fishing sit-on-top, the Prowler 15 Trident from Ocean Kayak. Some New(ish) surf kayaks from Valley, the Rip and the Rush+. The new Lettmann range of sea kayaks, WW kayaks and sea racing kayak.

The new Sweet Legend series

There was also plenty of new kit on display. The latest colours in the Sweet helmet range. New drysuits to suit all uses from Palm. The all new WW cags from Nookie, the Airhead and the Zone. The all new Stealth drive battery powered motors for use with Sit-on-top kayaks.

The new Pyranha Rev

The show was very well attended, with over 300 people registering for demos, and many demoing more than one boat. At times the people in charge of the demos/pontoon area were concerned that there were to many people on the pontoon and that it was sinking!!

The demos in full swing