Posted July 28th, 2009 by Paudie
I had seen the swell a long way off.
Further than normal. I usually try and not look more than three to four days ahead but I was looking forward to heading back to Clare for a weekend. Especially as I’ve been getting more board time myself recently and was keen to hit some reefs for a change.
There was a nice enough low tracking towards the south west coast and then turning to head north. If there wasn’t waves in Clare I could always head south a bit.
As the weekend got closer the forecast became more definite (I want to make a quantum mechanics joke here about probability but I’ll leave it). The low was definitely going to have a northerly track by Friday, but brush close enough to give strong Southerly winds.
All signs pointed north.
I started plotting my attack, trying to remember friends dotted around the coast who could give me a more informed opinion. The wind was south but the swell had a lot of south in it as well. Enough to wrap around those headlands? Maybe.
“Leave it until Saturday night” was the general consensus.
Saturday came I painted part of a fence and got headaches and a bit woozy from the fumes, despite my face mask, although I did have the most refreshing beer of my life. Was a real Shawshank moment, taking a break from working in the hot sun for five minutes to knock back a cold one.
Nice.
Went to a party. Kids took out their anger on a poor defenseless papier-maché donkey in the hope of getting sweeties.
Checked the charts, that swell is very south.
Went to another party had a bit too many drinks, decided I wasn’t going to make the trek north on an exploration mission. That’s the problem with exploring, you only want to do it if you think you’ll score perfection every time. Hard to convince yourself to drive a few hours on a maybe (although the “definite” sessions usually turn out to be hoaxs anyway).
Ambled up to the coast gradually, I’m trying to relax my driving a bit. I definitely go too fast when heading to waves.
Am I afraid I’ll miss the set of the day?
I guess so.
It was easier knowing I was just heading for a surf myself and not having to worry about missing anything.
I even stopped in to chat with my folks for a while, which was nice, the view from the cottage was windy but promising. A bay full of white as you can kind of make out from the shot below.
I wandered down to the village, saw there was a lot more swell than I had expected, then started to get a little excited, although I managed to keep control while driving.
Out to the local reef where I could see a good few cars lined up already.
I could also see huge lines rolling into the bay, the actual break was hidden behind a headland, but it had to be on if there was that much swell around.
Not being able to keep it contained any more I jumped straight into my suit, remembered just in time to stick some wax on the board and proceeded to run.
There was a fair few people in the line up already and, strangely enough, a good few windsurfers getting kitted out and walking down the reef. When I paddled out I realised how ideal this spot was for the windsurfers, the wave hits the reef then bends so much that at the end your almost ninety degrees away from where you were pointing originally.
This suited the windsurfers perfectly as they could ride in, catch the wave the wanted then kick out and take a big sweep out the back again without having to fight through broken water.
Although it was a bit more spectacular than that.
At first, when there was about ten surfers in the lineup they kept their distance, only occasionally coming to catch one of the smaller waves, and even at that kept well out on the shoulder, as they flew back out again they were getting huge air from the deeper water swell out in the bay. A few loops were attempted and I actually saw one guy pull off a 360, which seems really hard on a sail-board.
As the surfer crowd dwindled the windsurfers got a bit more confident and started “taking off” deeper, hitting the lip at more critical places and with a lot more speed.
It was cool to watch them progress before our eyes as they figured out the wave a bit more each time.
Although they still pulled off anything they saw a surfer going for, which was nice. Although deep down I felt entitled to waves over them, which I’m not sure is a good thing.
Either way there was a great buzz in the water and I even got chatting to a few of the sailors, nice blokes and just as stoked to be out there as we were.
Just opened my eyes a bit more to alternative forms of wave riding which is always a good thing*
And just for kicks here’s Shambles getting spat out of a slabby one from a while ago.
*unless you ride an SUP which, as I have previously noted, are completely pointless.
