Easterly Four to Six

Footage from the surf last Sunday. Some epic rides from Marcus and Charlie and a few unknowns in between. If you recognise yourself in any of these let me know.

A Step Away

Just one pica-point from perfect today with a solid East swell and offshore winds. For the fussy amongst us the wind was a bit on the wrong side of brisk which made take-offs tricky and there were more than a few (very) late drops. Some made it, some ended up getting rolled around in the ocean, boards got broken, and people got humbled.

Injury has kept me landlocked this past week so there's an extra helping of photos and, in a few hours when I get around to editing it, some footage (Charlie was the stand-out on the vid. with three back-to-back barrels on the corner reef). Pete was doing his best to get tenderised; only caught a couple of his waves and both were just in time for getting pole-axed and gently pulled through the rocks.

Had the bomb sound effect all lined up ready for Marcus on a crazy-late take-off that he side-slipped down into, making it in legendary style (this is also on the vid that I'll post later tonight). However, it'd be a shame to miss an opportunity to dust off the effect so here's the vid. of his spaceman free-fall from a similar swell last year*. Photos from today below the video.

* no apologies for the repetition. The man can surf so these moments of re-engaging with gravity warrant attention.

Marcus and the troops going out to do battle

In the eye of the storm

Seagull sweep

There were an insane number of these types of waves

The sets weren't mucking about

Tucked in

Wide view of the point

Stacked up

Big open face

Pre-humbling

About to get pole-axed or slotted?

Wee Trip North of the Border

Chatting to Paul about places we've surfed and got reminded of the superb trip we had up in North Scotland in August 1997. So this is tracking waaaaay back. It was an epic drive up from Bath, via some-place-I-don't-remember in the Midlands where we collected Big G from the train station a mere three hours late. He seemed pretty pleased to see us when we arrived. Especially since most of us didn't have mobile phones to let him know so I reckon he though we'd abandoned him.

We had a night in Glasgow which we navigated without getting hurt, then a further 10 hour drive before finally getting into the water on dusk, which was close to 9pm. The surf was consistently fun for the whole trip, the weather unbelievable, waves uncrowded, locals friendly and the beer cheap. Can't say as much in a positive vein for the hair styles of the times. Please remember it was the 90's before you judge.

 

Open Ocean

Dead South swell, big open ocean feel to the sets with that, "I'm out in deep water" sense to it as you lined up to unfamiliar landmarks. It wasn't really that big, it just had a lot of energy behind it. That sense that it had started its journey somewhere off the coast of Antarctica. The backwash wasn't helping, flicking it from overhead to double overhead as it bounced through. Check the footage below the pictures for the effect.

All of these minimum gripes aside caught a fair few good ones, paddling around a football pitch sized line-up to get into the right spot. The ones you waited for really made it worthwhile. Check the video below the pictures at around the 1min 10sec. mark where Marco caught himself ones of sets worth waiting for.

Open ocean sets

Inside section

Backhand hack

Audience

And here's a short segment of footage;

Summer Flashback

Digging around in the old archives and found this time-lapse from back on November, 2011. A stark reminder of how average the surf and how busy the beach gets during Summer.