A Family Holiday..

Usually when you pre book a trip way in advance to Cornwall, you expect that the conditions will let you down. Especially on a family holiday. In a way maybe they did. The swell was pumping. We had put our money to good use and taken advantage of a deal at the Amazing Watergate Bay Hotel. As the dates approached I could see there was going to be some swell, it was also meant to be quite warm and also wall to wall sunshine. Amazing.

Then the swell kept getting bigger and bigger and even bigger. It was insane. It was too big for paddle boarding when combined with the 20-25knot bolt offshore wind. The waves were holding up and breaking with power and spray twice the height of the wave. It was quite amazing to watch. Even the better surfers were struggling to paddle in. When they did, they just couldnt' get enough speed to take control of the wave. If only there had been a slight side angle, it would have been the most amazing windsurfing session. As it was, trying to convince Liz that I needed to go and search some beaches on our "family holiday' was met with disdain. "It looks pretty good here"..

To put in perspective how good the swell was, it is rare it wraps round into Harlyn Bay. I managed to sneak out and have a super fun cross off, down the line session with a 5.0 and 95 quad, which made the gusty conditions very easy to deal with. Thorpy had a good day on the Sunday at Constantine. I had succumbed to man flu, typical first illness for years and years.

Back at Watergate I was waiting for the swell and wind to drop, this morning was perfect. Glass, 3 - 5 ft and some really long and fast waves. Much easier to deal with than 5 - 8 of the previous days.

Here are some pictures of various waves from the weekend. Liz managed to get one (just one) shot of me from the hotel.

This morning - mellower

lines

fun for aerials at Harlyn