Playboat in the surf

Well after waht feels like a summer long flat spell some swell finally hit the south-west. Shame it came with howling onshore winds! The north coast looked chunky but pretty messy, and I decided that I couldn't face a long drive for some poor super on shore surf. So instead I bimbled along the south coast, checking out a few spots, they were either really clean but tiny or moderate sized and messy. So in the end it gave in and went to Bigbury, where it was just about cross off shore, but blowing a gale.

Setting off on not a bad looking wave

The wind was so strong the van was rocking on it's suspension in the car park, and out on the water I had to paddle non stop just to stay in one spot! It also brought home the reality of 45 degree feather playboat paddles, great for playing, but terrible in a head wind!

I managed to get a few good waves, and even a few good moves, but after an hour of non stop paddling I was shattered!

Launching a big bounced blunt

Mind you the wind surfers were loving it, ripping along, surfing into the beach then charging out back to do it all again. One chap was getting some major airtime, and really knew how to pull a good cutback. But there did seem to be one downside, it they fell off inside the break, they then had to sort out their rig and try and do a water-start in between getting pounded by the waves! After seeing that I decided that while the air time looked good, the beatdown looked horrid!

Some old dude on a windsurfer getting a sweet floater