Was yesterday the last of the Big storms? Possibly finishing with the biggest of them all. The scenes from flooded Bournemouth, the 20 knot river running down what used to be the main road to Boscombe, ending in a water fall to the beach. The cars at Milford on Sea, blown down the river that used to be the main road. Apocalyptic scenes of windows being smashed in by rocks carried by the 90mph winds, and finally a massive pile of broken wood that used to be the Avon beach huts gave hints of what happened the previous night. Had we tried to get to Avon beach on the Friday evening it would have been impossible by car.
Jamie Hancock called me early Saturday morning to see if I knew what Avon was like, he asked what my plan B would have been had Avon been out of bounds. I suggested Boscombe, however the scenes of have since seen of Boscombe are quite incredible. You would not believe that those huge wheelie bins would be carried down the road, unstoppable by those trying to prevent more catastrophe. Wick village, literally just down the slightest of hills from where I live had to be evacuated!!!
Typically all the rest of us could think about was the forecast. We were not disappointed. Yet again it was 3.7-4.2 weather at Avon, with head to logo down the line waves and massive gaps of flat water in-between. Perhaps not the classic in terms of wave size as last Saturday, but nonetheless pretty special. To add to the conditions it was warm (relatively) admist blazing sunshine.
The only down side perhaps was my lack of boards. Just as I was about to load my 85 into the van, I noticed a hole in it. So that was a no go. In the end I managed to borrow a 74 JP of a few years ago of Ollie. The only problem, it just had one fin.
Now there still may be some thinking in the world of windsurfing that multi fin boards are a trend or a fad. However, after an hour on this board in some pretty good conditions I can put a big end to that myth. If this is what single fin wave boards are like then I am never going back. I don't want to say too much about it, but I was really not enjoying myself until Coxy lent me his 85 Quatro Cube Quad. The difference is staggering. I think the most simple way I can put it is that Single fins go where they want to go on a wave. On Quad (and twin, from my experience), you go where YOU want to go. I felt I had no control on the single fin, where despite it being 4.2 weather I had so much control on the quad. I like to think I am fairly good at waveriding, have my moments and all that. But with the JP I felt like I had gone back 10 years. I won't say any more, apart from get a quad in your life!!!!!
Yet again there was great banter on and off the water, the standard level of waveriding is pretty high really with loads hitting lips, going for aerials and just giving it some in general. Coxy, Jamie, Tim, Jack, Emile, Pete, Phil, Mark, John, Kelvin, Paul, Charlie W, Ollie and Jo to name a few.
Hopefully it is the end of all the rain but not the end of the ground swell...
All pictures by surfmunky
Jamie Hancock called me early Saturday morning to see if I knew what Avon was like, he asked what my plan B would have been had Avon been out of bounds. I suggested Boscombe, however the scenes of have since seen of Boscombe are quite incredible. You would not believe that those huge wheelie bins would be carried down the road, unstoppable by those trying to prevent more catastrophe. Wick village, literally just down the slightest of hills from where I live had to be evacuated!!!
Typically all the rest of us could think about was the forecast. We were not disappointed. Yet again it was 3.7-4.2 weather at Avon, with head to logo down the line waves and massive gaps of flat water in-between. Perhaps not the classic in terms of wave size as last Saturday, but nonetheless pretty special. To add to the conditions it was warm (relatively) admist blazing sunshine.
The only down side perhaps was my lack of boards. Just as I was about to load my 85 into the van, I noticed a hole in it. So that was a no go. In the end I managed to borrow a 74 JP of a few years ago of Ollie. The only problem, it just had one fin.
Now there still may be some thinking in the world of windsurfing that multi fin boards are a trend or a fad. However, after an hour on this board in some pretty good conditions I can put a big end to that myth. If this is what single fin wave boards are like then I am never going back. I don't want to say too much about it, but I was really not enjoying myself until Coxy lent me his 85 Quatro Cube Quad. The difference is staggering. I think the most simple way I can put it is that Single fins go where they want to go on a wave. On Quad (and twin, from my experience), you go where YOU want to go. I felt I had no control on the single fin, where despite it being 4.2 weather I had so much control on the quad. I like to think I am fairly good at waveriding, have my moments and all that. But with the JP I felt like I had gone back 10 years. I won't say any more, apart from get a quad in your life!!!!!
Yet again there was great banter on and off the water, the standard level of waveriding is pretty high really with loads hitting lips, going for aerials and just giving it some in general. Coxy, Jamie, Tim, Jack, Emile, Pete, Phil, Mark, John, Kelvin, Paul, Charlie W, Ollie and Jo to name a few.
Hopefully it is the end of all the rain but not the end of the ground swell...
All pictures by surfmunky
Quality, quality day. In fact straight in at #1 on my all-time top Avon sesh's after Monday Jan 6th.
ReplyDeleteInteresting thoughts about fin set up too (note to self : get a quad)
ReplyDelete