What a pleasure it was yesterday afternoon to go for a surf locally at Sandilands and have all the family in the water for the first time ever on this side. Ben should be held responsible for this and not a bad thing either.

Fresh from his progress and successes last week on the 'new' minimal, he has been noticeably eager to take heed of Brox's suggestion to make more use of the east coast while we're still here. Consequently, there's been more than a weather eye on his part on possible swell via Ceefax, Cromer's webcam, and local weather forecasts. We had missed a chance on Sunday sadly; Naips had emailed Saturday, but despite there being some waves, we'd been unable to make it over. Yesterday however did seem promising and so with a bit of rush to get tasks completed in the morning, all the kit was chucked in and on the car along with Ben's mate, Ben Milnes, and off we went.

Pulling in to the car park around 2pm, the first sign was good; the flag on the front was being blown in an offshore direction. Some gusts were quite strong, but this could ease as the afternoon progressed. A quick eyeball at the sea revealed a ride-able wave even though the tide was already quite high with HT still and hour and a half away. Within 15 mins, everyone was kitted up and in. Suz and Ben M were on their bodyboards and immediately found the shorey conditions to their liking. I was last in and joined Ben out back. Our first wave was a two's-up do which brought smiles to our faces straight away, along with the jokey drop-in jibes on the paddle back out.

We both only managed a couple of half-rides in the hour or so leading up to high tide, as conditions became more finicky with the deeper water and a gustier off-cross shore breeze. Ben decided to opt for some body board and body-surf fun for a while at this point. I was wondering if it may be putting him off surfing here 'proper' again after that initial success. You never can tell with a teen mind. Whatever; I had a wander further up the beach where I noticed what looked like more of a peak to see if I could improve my wave count.

It proved to be a good move, though I wasn't expecting any changes to the wave pattern until perhaps a bit later. At about the HT time [15.44] one or two pulses started to show and I immediately got into a left which gave encouragement of better things. OK, it was still only 1-2', but when the breeze eased and a set or two came through, it did appear as if it was cleaning up some more. There followed a spell at this spot until about 4.30, where I snagged a good half dozen plus waves which produced some fun rides and gave me the confidence to experiment a bit.

Around this time, I noticed Ben getting leashed up to his board again which bought a smile [perhaps of re-assurance] to my face more than any ride could. Suz and Ben M. were headed in to get changed and spectate at this point after a very enjoyable time in the water.Suz would also, we discovered later, be experimenting with the digi camera's movie function. Will publish the best of these, along with some stills soon. With the benefit of using a spare wettie of ours, young Ben had obviously had the longest spell in the sea he'd ever had, something that would obviously aid a good night's sleep later! Suz too had never had so much fun on this coast and had great fun.

[Our] Ben had got in nearer to our initial entry point where to his credit he'd spotted some peaks forming as the tide had receded some on to the less steep part of the beach. As my area was providing less action, I made my way nearer to him. By this time another surfer had joined the ranks, swelling the line-up to 3!! For the next hour or so we traded wave after wave and it was so pleasing to see him enjoying by far his most intense [3.5 hours] surf on this side of the country to date. Earlier worries needn't have surfaced; I can see him and Suz accompanying me to actually surf here more often. By the time we do eventually sell up and get west, he'll clearly be a lot more competent and have less to catch up on ability-wise, than would have been the case.
posted by wollocks at 11:07 AM