Contrasts

One weekend up in the mountains. Following weekend surfing turquoise waters in a 2mm wetsuit. It was a fortnight of contrasts.

Gnarled tree on the slopes

Mark tail grabbing in the park

Crystal rights 

Only two out

Lined up

Insanely clear water

Deceptive

The wind had been howling a steady Southerly overnight and into the morning, doing its best to rip sideways into the belly of a fairly solid 4-5ft swell. We had planned to go for the early but this combination of conditions doesn't bode well for anywhere aside from a few sheltered corners. Spots that would be packed to the edge as everyone else had the same idea.

As the wind swung around to SSW in the afternoon, opening up options, we headed down to have a look. Under a leaden sky the sets were crumbling in, throwing outwards on a shallower bank in the middle, but otherwise still suffering from wobble and sickness from the day's earlier wind. I opted out. Marcus opted in.

It looked like hard work but as the sun touched down on the horizon, clearing the clouds to touch the tops of the waves, and the wind dropped for a moment, there was a brief twenty minutes when it looked worthy of a paddle. Snapped off a few shots but with the light waning and Marcus periodically coming up the beach to tell me how much seawater was getting pushed into his lungs, there wasn't time to make the most of this interlude.

Photos are from this small window and make it look far, far better than it actually was. For the lucky few who were out at the time they had just five or six out and it largely to themselves. Mind you, it is a deception as it would have been preceded by a few hours of lumpy frustration. Though sometimes that's what makes a session all the better.

It was like this for a magic 20 minute window

Lefts were the pick	Paddle out	Outside
Scratching	Lots of white water	Heavy inside bank
Setting a line	Looking up	Nice lefts
The odd cover up	Rooster tail catching the sun	In the thick of it

Bolder

I don't have a new lens, I didn't commando crawl along the sand to creep up on the bird; and yet the detail in the shot is enough to see the fine brush strokes of small, water tight feathers crowning the head and neck. The bird was close, but a few feet away. Either this is a new intimidation tactic or he's getting much, much bolder. I'll be sleeping with one eye open from now on.

Northern Hemisphere

Saw this video (link originally courtesy of my good mate Howard at Fisher-Viking; his blog is an excellent read by the way).

"Uncommon Ideals", vid. below, is definitely worth a watch. For those that have had the pleasure of surfing in the Northern Hemisphere in anything other than the Summer months it does a spookily accurate job of capturing the experience without getting too scientific about water temperatures and wind chill.

For those with an aversion to art, or who have been raised on a strict diet of early years Taylor Steele videos, a pre-warning; it includes poetry. Though also surfing. You can always turn the sound down if it offends thee and thy disposition.


Uncommon Ideals. from Doggerland. on Vimeo.

Overhead for the Groms

[UPDATE - pictures from this morning added]

Report called it 1ft but it was definitely pushing +2ft (shoulder high) on the sets. Overhead for the groms who seem to be out in force today. Someone must've left a gate open overnight.

Had some incredibly fun lefts and rights with the odd cover up as the walls refracted into small bowls. The banks are perfect at the moment. Looking forward to when the mid-sized swell hits on Tuesday.

The final nuance to the session (and what really made it) where the two whales that strayed into the bay and popped up about 100m out from the beach. Even from that distance they looked huge and the line up sub-consciously paddled outwards en masse in a unified welcome party. It kept the mood just the right side of amiable. At least for a while. As the consistency dropped the good vibes halo effect of the whales faded and the crowd got a little hassly. Including a heinous drop in by my good self on Marcus. I swear he was going right. This bring the score to approximately even. Not that I'm keeping track or anything.

In other nature news I became some kind of landing satellite / docking station for a series of swimming crabs. Small (about the size of your thumbnail), round, and dark grey like a matte ball bearing. They seemed to enjoy hanging around for a while and crawling up my back. At least until I started to get a "The Mummy Returns" flashback and thought they might be trying to find a way to burrow into my skin. Decided to gently moved them on rather than deal with my irrational fear.

Pics. from the trip to the Maldives last week are in progress. As is a video for full motion viewing. Updates on this sometime soon.

Getting artistic with the iPhone	Refraction was doing its thing	Turquoise walls are back
Hack!	The nemesis has bought in some commando style reinforcements	Sliding
THere were a few of these today (mostly on the lefts....quietly claiming one of those)	Freight wasn't deterring the whales	Being under 40kgs means you can do stuff like this on next to nothing
This wee fella' was making mincemeat of the small waves	Down the corner - less consistent but some nice ones rolling through	These are the ones most people were looking out for

Give me Sunshine [for the very squeamish amongst you, look away now]

Had a suspect mole removed from my arm last week leaving an inch long cut and 3 stitches behind with a slice of muscle gone (this I can ill afford) and two weeks stuck on dry land. The advice to avoid the ball of continuous atomic reaction, or at least apply a heavy zinc coating to shield you from it, is worth considering.