Me, my surf kayak and some waves

Here's a quick round of pictures of me in my new Valley Rush 7/2 surf kayak. Once again southerly winds meant a trip down to Haryln. The swell was much smaller this time, only 1-2ft, but still super clean. But being a bank holiday also meant that the surf was very busy.

The only problem was when I took off on a good sized wave, went left, got closed out and then ended up surfing over some rocks. OUCH!!! A few clonks and bangs later and I was back on the beach inspecting the damage. Lucky for me the fins took almost all of the damage. My right fin loosing large amounts of glass, my left fin, only lost a little glass, but split and delaminated, and my centre fin barely seems to have been touched. As for might boat it only has a handful of very minor surface scratches across the hull. Phew!

Moments after this I ended up going over some of the rocks in the foreground.....

Ouch!

Time to invest in some new fins. Then take the grinder to the old ones and make a smaller set out of them!

Harlyn surf, and my new boat

I took my new Surf kayak out this morning for it's maiden voyage. Due to a strong wind from the south west I opted to head to Harlyn, to try and get some shelter. To get the best of the tide, and to avoid the worst of the crowds I set off while it was still dark, and hit the water before eight and at about mid tide. There were only 4 other guys in the water, and the surf was a good, 2-3ft.

The view from my cockpit

A boardie slots into a clean one

As the tide continued to push, the waves got busier, and the swell got bigger. What had started as a comfortable couple of feet soon turned into a 3-4ft, with the occasional bigger outside set that would race in at about the six foot mark and close out most of the bay! It kept me on my toes! Somehow I manged to get away with only the one working, possibly a new Harlyn record for me!

Classic Harlyn

A bigger set wave gives a boardie a good ride

As the tide hit the High mark I called it quits. My new Valley Rush 7/2 had acquitted itself well. I really noticed the extra stiffness and the speed it helped to generate, and the light weight meant that snapping off the top hadn't completely torn my stomach muscles to pieces! After a good session it now needs a bit more padding and more footrests. I also stopped to take a few pictures of the surfers ripping in the now quite sizeable waves. Harlyn gets a bit odd at high tide, but with a solid swell pumping it was going well.

My New Toy

The newest, latest and shiniest toy in my arsenal arrived just the other day. I'm now the proud owner of a Valley Surf Kayaks Rush 7/2. I had this little beauty custom made for me. Its built in the lightest and stiffest, Vac bagged Carbon Kevlar lay up, with a foam core deck and hull for extra stiffness without extra weight. When built, the guys at Valley weighed it and reckoned the shell (no foam seat, or pillar) came to about 9.5 kg. That's seriously light!

All it needs now is a few bit of foam here and there to pad it out, and then it'll be time to hit the waves!

This months Round up

I can't really believe that is been three weeks since I last posted anything. It's not because I've not had any news, I've been upto loads. But that is the problem, I've been doing so much that I've not had the time or energy in the evenings to post anything up.

So heres a quick photo round up of some of the things I've been upto this month.

Paddling the River Dart with Ewart, Liam and Kayleigh

Enjoying a dawn mission raid and after work mission in the surf at Sidmouth With Ed, Dan, Owen and Ewart

And Enjoying a great highwater day playing on Topwave and the Loop

As well as this lot I've also enjoyed a great evening messing about in the canal with Playboats, and a short weekend away in mid wales Mountain biking. It really has been all go here recently, more of the same please I say!

O.P. Trails

I got the chance today to hit up some semi-secret somerset trails. Tom KP, Ewart and I headed into somerset to ride the OP Trails, that Ewart and Tom had been shown last week. After a bit of overnight rain the trails had been transformed from last weeks bone dry, lightning fast, to todays, soggy edged, greasy, DH on ice surface.

Tom threading his way through a greasy S bend

Ewart exiting the S bend

This made the riding 'interesting' to say the least. Many of the sections were slightly off camber with occasional roots, this became suddenly very tricky, and my decision not to put the DH tires back on and leave the skinnier AM/XC on my bike looked like the wrong choice! On my first few runs, my attempts to hurl my bike into a berm ended with crossed up handle bars and the bike still going straight on!

Me, about the air out of the bomb hole jump

The slippery conditions get the best of Tom

But after a few runs to get a feel for the slippy conditions we all slowly got the hang of it, with the speed slowly picking up. But then just when you were thinking you'd finally got a run wired, you suddenly wash out, or slip on a root and all of a sudden that great line and speed had gone! Oh well, it was great riding, and it made a change to be really challenged by the conditions.

Ewart airing into the bomb hole




Tom, mid flight, bomb hole jump

Sidmouth surf session

Unless you've been living underground recently you can't have failed to notice that it's been hot, really hot! And hot weather means no whitewater, and quite often no surf. But Team AS watersports struck it lucky this week. We managed to get some surf (albeit very small surf) at Sidmouth this week, which meant that everyone was able to get out on the water after work and enjoy a good mess-around in the water. Check it out!

Me, on a micro-wave!

Ewart, back in the water, and enjoy the Valley Rush

Jemma, catching a 'big' wave!


Ewart, checking out my ski

Andy and Big Dan competing for a ripple!

Kayleigh, Mitch and Dan, chilling in the evening sun

Sunday Saunton Surf

After what seems like ages without being in the surf, I got to Saunton on Sunday afternoon. I managed to get the afternoon pushing tide, after the worst of the crowds had gone home, and I managed to get some reasonably clean solid 4ft swell.
I also tried out my new Circle One Noir 3mm zipless summer wetsuit. My old summer 'suit was truly on it's last legs, with multiple repairs it was really starting to look it's age. My new suit is super comfy as well as super stretchy. The zipless entry is really easy to get in and out of, and despite getting a couple of good beat downs, it remained really dry, I didn't get any 'flushing' at all.

Hacking into a decent sized wave

Driving through a turn

Another good wave

Getting some air on the way out back

South Coast Fish Fest

I've been out on the water along the South Coast a couple of times this week doing a spot of Kayak Fishing. On Friday night Ewart and I went down to Seaton on the Jurassic Coast. I didn't manage to get any pictures that time, we were too busy fishing, and it got too dark too quickly! However we headed home with enough Mackerel for a fish supper.

And then today Ewart and I went out again at Teignmouth. We flogged away for hours and hours, but only managed to get a meager trio of Mackerel. However Ewart caught the biggest Mackerel I've ever seen! But on the up side the sun was shining and the weather was great!

Launching from the beach at Teignmouth

Ewart and his monster mackerel

Sunshine and paddling, it's not all bad!

Ewart and our massive Mackerel haul!

Another weekly round up

Another hectic week here, results in another weekly round up from the ongoing shenanigans of 3Rider.

Last weekend a nice day out at the beach, fun snorkeling, lumpy surf and a relaxing afternoon!

Lots of rain on Wednesday led to a fun quick trip down the Dart Loop with Andy and Ewart. Ewarts first time on moving water since his shoulder Op.

And Thursday night saw the 'Tour event' road cycling race in Exeter. 50 Pro road riders tearing round a 1.5km road circuit in the middle of Exeter for an hour.

Large and lumpy surf at my favourite Cornish spot

Getting on the dart loop on Wednesday

Andy having fun at Triple play wave

me, in a Liquid Logic Biscuit at Triple

Riders flying through the first corner out of the high street

And tearing down the hill at almost 40mph

A week on the North coast of Scotland

We've just returned from a fantastic week on the North Coast of Scotland. We rented a cottage overlooking Armadale bay, in the centre of the North Coast, and literally a short stroll from the beach. We had a week of perfect weather, blazing sunshine and warm days and not a single Midge to be seen!
We enjoyed a range of great activities that the North of Scotland has to offer. We surfed at Armadale and Farr Bay, Mountain biked at Carbisdale and Balblair on the Kyle of Sutherland, fished from the rocks in front of our cottage, and visited a whiskey distillery of course!

Here is just a quick selection of the pictures we took during our week.

Me on the Black trail at Balblair

Candy mountain on the black route at Balblair

Riding a rock slab on the red route at Carbisdale


Louise on a rock slab on the Blue graded route at Carbisdale

Enjoying good surf, but howling off-shore wind at Farr Bay

Mini Head Dip at Farr Bay

Awesome ride!

Clean on calm waves at Armadale

Fishing from the rocks, in crystal clear water

Lots of small pollack!

The sun sinking into the sea, Sunset at 10.30!

Strolling down the beach at Armadale

Another wave rolls casually into Armadale bay

The view just outside our cottage

Not another footprint to be seen, perfection