A Quick round up. River Dart and Surfing

It's been a bit busy here again, and I've only just gotten round to downloading pictures, let alone putting them on the web. So here is a quick round up of a few of things I've been doing.

I went to a surf kayaking competition at Westward Ho!, where I totally bombed out ending up joint 17th out of 21. The surf was a pretty good size, but not very clean, being pushed along by a steady on-shore wind.

An IC class paddler goes for a lip

Me in my first round

Walking down to the surf

Another IC class paddler going for it

Yet another IC class boat hitting the top

Sam the son of Satan, ripping in the HP final

I've also had a couple of trips on the Dart. Once in high water, getting two runs, and enjoying a spot of playboating, and a semi disastrous dawn raid with Ewart, where we both managed to forget different bits of kit, and ended up taking it in turns for a go on top wave!

Satu Westgarth enjoying topwave

Kate D spinning on topwave

A high water view of Triple drop

Jack R playing on the Dart loop

Ewart enjoying an early surf on a small top wave

Me, carving up topwave

Smooth and sunny Saunton surf.

Surfing at this time of year is great, the waters warm, the swell is good (and getting better every week!) and the air temperature hasn't dropped much yet. I managed to get a magical session in at Saunton on Wednesday, the swell was 2-3ft, sometimes smaller, sometimes bigger, but there wasn't a breath of wind, and the sun was shinning and the sky blue!
I managed to snag a few great rides. And then after my joints could take no more, I got the big camera out and snapped a few pics. The Sun was super bright, shining straight at me, and glaring off the water. So all the pics were very silhouette, and monochrome, but hey, I like it!

The swell forecast looks small for the weekend, but huge mid week next week, so hopefully I'll get some more surf action in soon......

Some surf action, and some new fins?

Another action round up. I've been trying to get out in the surf as often as possible. I've had a couple of Cornish sessions and a couple of North Devon sessions. The New Rush 7/2 is ripping in the surf!
After my little rock/fin incident I've set about re-shaping the remains of my fins and have made and started testing a new centre fin. So far the whole small side fin, larger center fin set up has been working really well, and the first prototype centre fin has worked well too. If all goes well I'll make some molds from these originals and try and make a few of them. I have a few other fins shape prototypes too, they just need re-fining and testing. Watch this space for more!

Fresh off the work bench, center fin prototype 1

The best looking surf boat ever??

The new fin set up after their first test

Cool new Yak Camo sticker

Hmmmm....... sparkly!

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!

Another weekly round-up

Well another busy week means that I've not managed to Blog things as they've happened, so here's a quick pictoral run-down of the last 10 days action.

from top to bottom:

Squirtboating at the Mighty Pots

Mountain bike fun at the Mafia Trails

Sunny Surfing at Saunton

Tom 'Maverick' taking a break from sinking at the Pots

Yak paddling Gear, Southern sales Manager Pete Ford gets down to work at The Mafia Trails!

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!

This weeks surf

I managed to get upto Saunton this week for some surf action. This week has been amazing, weather wise, and so I enjoyed a day of great 2-3ft surf with perfect off shores, and blazing sunshine! What a treat.

Clean lines, off shore wind and sunshine, pure bliss!

When the tide goes out you can't help but enjoy the wide views on the flat beach!

Another great set

Harlyn Surf action

I managed to score some more Cornish surf gold this week. With a stiff looking southerly wind I headed to Harlyn to find some clean waves. Once again my efforts were rewarded. I arrived right around low tide, when the waves at Harlyn never look quite as good as they can. So I unpacked the Big Camera and Long lens and tried my best to take some good photos. I got some half decent results.

A small wave throws a lip



As I watched the surf started to get bigger, and the wind stronger, so I headed back to the van, got geared up and hit the water. The waves were classic Harlyn, jacking up fast, going hollow, and then racing away lightning fast, sectioning, or just closing out, all in water about three feet deep!

Another grinding hollow Harlyn wave


The waves kept me on my toes, and while I got my Arse handed to me a couple of times, I also got a couple of really good rides. It was also good to test out my new fins. For years I have just been using cheap plastic fins, that break regularly and flex all over the place. So I finally splashed out and got some good Glass fins. I really noticed the difference, they gave me loads more drive, and grip, which was good when I needed to gun along a wave to out run the section!

The mighty Rush 7'2", and my new fins

Cross border surf raid

I headed out for a little cross border surf raid today. I made the drive to my favourite little Cornish surf break. There is something I always find exciting about heading to Cornwall for some surf. Is it that the waves are always better, the sea always blue, and at my favourite spot always empty? I don't know, but once again my effort was rewarded. I had the waves all to myself, the water was indeed blue, and the waves were clean, steep and fast.

The mighty Rush 7'2" at my favourite Cornish surf spot

The waves were generally around 3-4ft but there were regular rouge sets of about 6ft to keep me on my toes. I had an interesting time punching through a couple of sets, that do or die moment when you don't quite know if your going to make it over the wave, or if the lip is going to land on your head!

A mid sized set peeling its way across the beach

After about 2 1/2hrs of shredding it all on my own, the tide was getting to the point where the surf gets a bit 'weird'. So I said my thank yous to the gods of surfing, and headed home, happy but exhausted.