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| 'Gary Friendly' signs, drawn in crayon! |
Surfing has always had the tag of 'cool' graffitied across it! Since I was a kid it was always something I wanted to try! Seeing those people surfing down the face of some huge waves, carving up and down these mountains of water looked amazing!
Growing up near Lee-on-Solent we didn't really see a lot of surfing. Hence it is a place not really known for it big rollers or huge swells! The Isle of Wight does a fantastic job of protecting Hampshire coastline from the waves (this does not mean that it's always calm sailing in the Solent!). Other than a bit of body-boarding in Gran Canaria I've never really had the chance to have a crack at surfing.
Fast forward about 16 years, and I am now a (relatively) established sailor. The best thing about being involved in any sport or hobby is that you meet like-minded people. Invariably we always have more than one passion in our lives and through chatting to one of my sailing buddies,it transpired that she surfs as well as sails! After a bit of discussion I manage to wrangle an invite on a surfing weekend down to Croyde in North Devon.
Through ju jitsu and sailing, I've got in the habit of doing some serious preparation for whatever adventure I was about to have a go at. Whether it is clothing or equipment I needed, or tailoring my gym routine. I wanted to try and be as best prepared as possible. In the case of surfing I started to read a few 'theory' bits online during my lunch breaks (just to give me an overview of what I should be doing). I watched 'Point Break' (so of course I was extremely well prepared as you can imagine!!) The main prep-work involved making sure my swimming was up to scratch. So I began to swim twice a week leading up to the weekend.
I love to swim, but like most people I only really swim when I am on holiday! I've been a member of the local gym for the past 6 years, but never used the pool. It always struck me as a bit of a 'sheep dip'. Luckily, when I actually go for a swim the pool turns out to be quite nice!
The infrequent swimming started to tell pretty quick as I just about manage to string 100 meters together! By week 2 my distance has now increased to 200m so progress was being made!
Friday of the surfing weekend finally came around and I could not wait to get out of work and head down to Devon! 5hrs later and I finally arrive in Croyde (under cover of darkness!). Luckily 'base camp' has already been set up by Amanda and Jo. We were soon joined by Margs, Cath and Alex and we all settled in for a few drinks under 'starry skies' to celebrate the start of our weekend adventure
Saturday morning arrived and early plans of visiting a local farmer's market was soon abandoned when we realized that everyone else in Croyde had the same idea! -A bit difficult when the only road in and out of town became clogged up with locals and tourists alike trying to get out to do some Saturday shopping! Food for the BBQ would just have to wait until later!
Once back at our campsite we made our way down to the beach and started to look round for a place to hire our boards and wet-suits for the day. We found a great little place called Baggy's Surf Lodge (just up the hill from the beach) that leased wet-suits and boards for the whole weekend for a really great price! After much laughter at trying to get into our wetsuits we headed off to the beach!
I'd toyed with the idea about having a surf lesson, but our groups' two experienced surfers (Cath and Amanda) assured the rest of us that we didn't need it. We just simply had to get in and have a go!
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| Very tired, but very happy! |
Paddling out into the waves was exciting! dodging breaking waves, as well as surfers that had successful got up on there boards and were making a very speedy journey towards the beach! It was all part of the fun! I finally got to place where waves had not broken and were simply 'rollers'. I awkwardly turned myself around and pointed the nose at the beach and craned my neck to watch the oncoming waves and waited...
I did not have to wait too long... The relative placid calm I had paddled out into soon showed signs of a set of waves building. I missed the first as I failed to accelerate to catch the correct point of the wave and simply rolled off the back of it! The second wave then came in, cresting in white foam at the very top! I paddled hard and felt the wave pick me up and I was soon rocketed down the face of what felt like a mountain of water! (In actual fact it was only about 4-5 ft in height but it felt tall enough for me!)
I placed my hands firmly on each rail of my board, just below where my shoulders were and attempted to 'pop up' onto my feet. My left place perfectly below my chest. Unfortunately my right dragged a bit in the water and I ended up on my knee! As I tried to stand fully, the board shot out from beneath me! Almost like a giant banana skin! Cue 'arms and legs' everywhere 'style' and a big splash! I then proceeded to get smashed by the next wave (as I was now placed perfectly in the 'kill zone' where the waves were breaking! Eventually I surfaced and tugged my board back to me by using the leash (connecting to me to the board). I recovered my board okay, but unfortunately the same could not be said for the 'hope' that I was a 'natural surfer' (which was washed clean away with the first wave!).
That said I paddled straight out again to have another go! I realised that I was utterly hooked! I have always loved swimming in the sea and surfing truly adds to that connection! Trying to get myself in time with this powerful, untamed beast was exhilarating!
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| 'Base Camp', preparing for our BBQ! Note: the bar was well stocked! |
When I got back in the water, it was pretty apparent that the current and the timing of the waves had picked up a bit. The lifeguards were constantly reminding us all to keep to the left side of the central marker (placed high up on the beach). The reason for this is that the current was sweeping everyone across towards the swimming zone. Beyond the swimmers a crop of rocks marking the edge of the bay jutted out of the surf. I definitely do not want to find myself in that area!
By now I was successfully getting up on my board, but the duration of my surf never really extended beyond 2-3 seconds! That said, each time I stood up it felt amazing! Throughout the day I'd been wearing my GoPro camera on a wrist strap. It wasn't really worth recording myself as I wasn't out of the water long enough to get on film! I was however catching some great footage of of the other surfers around me though and got some great 'wave' footage. During the afternoon I switched to placing my camera on my 'chest mount'. The hope was that I'd be able to record the start of my surf down a wave.
All was going well until I came off the back of a wave and promptly got splatted by the next wave rolling in behind it! It caught my board and smashed it into my chest. The camera took the full blow and the main clip holding it on to my chest mount sheared! The first I knew was when I resurfaced and gathered my board. I looked down and all I had was the harness...absent my beloved camera!
I tried searching with my feet in the area I was stood in, but with the strong current sweeping across the bay, I was well out of position from where I'd been parted from my camera. There was nothing that could be done, so it wasn't worth getting upset over. It was my own fault for not setting up a secondary leash/fixing to secure the camera. The only upsetting thing was all the photos and footage I'd captured that morning. Oh well, I'm sure whoever finds it gets some good use out of it, or it's probably giving a basking shark some indigestion!
By late afternoon my shoulders were burning! I was physically spent! I hiked up the beach where two of our group had already retired and were getting involved in some apre-surf, in the shape of some wine! So I had a sip and ended up playing 'fetch' with an aerobie that had made it's way to the beach with us.
Back at base camp we got the BBQ going and settled in to a great evening of food, drink and laughter!
I was up relatively early on the Sunday. I was really keen to get back in the water and have another go! After a bit of a walk and some brekkie, Margs, Cath and I headed back down to the beach with our boards for a few hours of surfing before heading home. It was amazing! I got up on my first wave! (for more than 3 seconds this time!). Feeling that it was a bit of a fluke, I had another go...and successfully got up on the second! The experience of Saturday was fresh in my mind (if not my shoulders!) which I put into practice straight away that morning.
It was an amazing weekend and I enjoyed every minute of it! While I won't be surfing every weekend (Essex again is another area not known for it's great surfing breaks!), I will certainly be heading back down to the South West in the near future to build on what I have learned!
Massive thank you to Cath, Alex, Jo, Margs and Amanda for allowing me to crash your party for the weekend!
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| Our group enjoying the 'apre-surf'! |
