Almost turned over and went back to sleep when the alarm went off at 7; pretty pleased in the end that I didn't. It sounded a bit breezier outside than forecast, and I had had a restless night just to compound the feeling of "I can't be bothered to do this". About half an hour later and with daylight beginning to show I relented and made the effort. By 8 I was off, maybe only 10 minutes or so later than I'd hoped.

I arrived at Sandilands around 8.45 and was greeted with the pleasant sight of a clean 1-2' wave; plenty enough to play with, with the longboard. I grabbed a pic or two [which I'll put up later] and then started to suit up just as Harry turned up. Naips wasn't far behind and by just after 9 I was on the beach stretching ready to paddle out. The offshore breeze was more noticable here, and it was soon clear that this could at times prove a bit too strong. As it materialised, there were one or two periods where it flattened things a bit, mainly around High Tide [10.56] which wasn't unexpected; and it was also necessary to keep an eye on positioning as it was all to easy to get blown out further beyond the peaks.

Even so, this was to turn into a reasonably rewarding session despite having to work quite hard at times to get the rides. The first two hours up to full tide were the more finicky, but some good waves were scored, both lefts and rights. I'd have been happier with a higher wave count than I was actually achieving at this stage, but allowing for the left hip which has been giving some gip of late I could live with that. Around HT, the Griff started to look a better bet, and so we made our way over to try our luck on the wedgy wave that forms there. To be fair I didn't get into it at all there and didn't stay longer than 20 minutes or so, before following Naips back up the beach where some more frequent sets had appeared again as the tide turned.

The last hour and a half were the most fruitful as it turned out. More do-able waves were showing and this inspired a personal 'second wind' and renewed energy. There was yet another close encounter of the seal kind to further encourage, and I managed not only to improve the wave count, but also the quality of rides too...which was nice. By 1pm, after near enough 4 hours I called it a day and got out. After changing, I took another couple of pix, just after Harry and Naips also got out. All in all a good start surf wise to the 2005.
posted by wollocks at 4:28 PM