The first signs of the forecast storm for the weekend of our arrival in Bude showed as we progressed along the A39 on the Friday [25th Oct]. In addition to the head-on wind we'd had all the way down, no sooner we passed the Clovelly turning, the heavens opened; the lightening flashed, and driving was reduced to an effective crawl. Saturday [26th Oct] wasn't much better, and although the wind eased mid afternoon, Ben & I's foray in at Widdy was to put it mildly a waste of time! Sure it was nice to get wet, but two and half months without any surf showed big time.

The storm eventually hit overnight [26th/27th Oct] and made for a spectacular sight on Sunday. We visited various spots throughout the day although with our spectator hats on and nothing else. The full fury of the ocean was breathtaking with 15-20' waves thumping in and not intent on taking prisoners! No-one would have been capable of taking this on, and you couldn't help but feel for any mariners out there.

And so it was that the first serious surf didn't take place till Monday [28th Oct]. Conditions weren't brilliant, and the forecast for later in the day wasn't sparkling either. Nonetheless, we all got in at Black Rock for a couple of hours to shake the cobwebs out properly. After the disappointment on Saturday with my general condition, I enjoyed a much better time, catching plenty of reforms in a messy 2-3'. Ben seemed to be getting back into stride too, and Sue's shoulder seemed to benefit from the exercise and cooler water.

Tuesday [29th Oct] signalled the beginning of a three day phase of better surfing conditions. The shoulder high stuff we found first thing at Widdy was worth getting in for even though they probably wouldn't last much beyond high tide at 10.30. I was straight into action with a string of rights and lefts almost at will. This though was distracted by Ben blotting his copybook of late by getting himself into difficulty close to the reef at the north end of Widemouth. Guiding him back to shore and a dressing down there and then [and later!] seemed to do the trick. My rhythmn was disrupted for a while though before finishing the session on a higher note.

A mini OTL meet with Parky and AndyO was planned for Wednesday [30th Oct], which went ahead in waist high and clean [almost at times, glassy] waves. Andy's son, Bryn came along too. We were in by 11.30 and enjoyed an early flurry of mellow rides before it dropped off for a bit around high tide at midday. Suz in the meantime moved over to Black Rock where there was more of a bodyboard wave to ride, while we all stayed put. Ben's performance was more on par although the lack of any power or speed in the waves did hinder him on his 6' 9" which eventually sparked a flurry of board swapping. I ended up on Parky's Custard Point, Ben on my 9' 3", while Parky tried his hand on Ben's shortboard, before swapping it with Bryn's DHD. Later too, Parky had a short spell on Andy's McTavish which rounded off the session.

Ben in the meantime started to get the feel of the longboard which provided me with an indicator for which direction to take with regards his next board. His appreciation of it's characteristics was noticable, even managing to knee paddle the thing; something I just cannot suss! He clearly needs something with a bit more volume so as to help increase his wave count. That said he could do with finding the confidence for that extra paddle stroke[s] to get into a wave; and to pop up a little sooner.

This was more apparent the following day [31st Oct] at Polzeath. Mr Rich on Spotlight the evening before; and Ceefax that morning forecast a larger clean wave to be had and so we decided to return there for the first time since summer 2001. It appeared reasonably busy, as ever, but then this being half term I suppose it was to be expected. There was though a nice looking shoulder-head high clean wave showing, particularly on both extremities to the break. I opted for a predominant left peak, to the left of the beach to begin with; the tide still on the way in as we all got in around midday. As it transpired, early on in what turned out to be 3 hour sess', I picked off a handfull of rights to get into a nice stride. Ben joined me out back soon after for an hour or so, before returning closer in to get some quantity rides. In this time I went off the boil a little, but then I could attribute this a little to concentrating on his efforts, and a slight drop in the number of sets coming in around high tide [13.20ish]. There was though one notable moment where for what must have been the first time ever in my surfing 'career', I had to elbow [gently] a drop-in, off 'my' wave.

Around 2pm with the tide now turning, the sets started to roll in again with one or two near head high waves in amongst them. My own performance improved as I got into a stride I enjoyed immensely. For about three quarters of an hour before it dropped right off, I seemed able to get into and ride all but one or two of the waves I selected. I achieved a pleasing trim on the quicker ones, and felt confident to try one or two things as well. No wonder I got out around 3pm with a huge grin which failed miserably to disguise the massive stoke I was feeling.

What a pity we were unable to follow this up before returning back to Lincs. on the Saturday [2nd Nov]. A brief splash around the day before, in 2-3' onshore mess, ended the week as it had begun with an undistinguished surf. Then the ultimate insult, as we set off for the journey back to where we live, a final look at the sea at both Widdy and Bude itself revealed a lovely 3' and super clean wave just begging to be whacked. Why couldn't that have shown it's face on Friday!?

By way of a small consolation I did manage a short one hour session at Huttoft the day after our return, on [Sunday 3rd Nov]. This was my first time in at a local break for some eight months and despite it being around high tide and thus very shorey and steep; so much so that I had no notable rides; it was nice to see Naips & co again. I got out around 5 in near darkness when it became obvious that there were no likely improvements for me. But I could though see the potential for better luck there when I could get in say 2 hours either side of high tide sometime.
posted by wollocks at 1:49 PM