Sunday, 24 November 2013

Crazy day at Bellhaven

It had been a good forecast all week and all over the east coast meetings got cancelled, wives got abandoned, output deminished and and those that liked riding waves made excuses.

Naturally the forecast shrunk as it firmed up but it was still running at 14 seconds period so good waves were coming and i had a window. Got to the beach 6.4 in hand and surf was certainly up, well up and very clean.

Starting my paddle out I watched a guy catch one on the outside and although he was ahead of it he was being chased by a healthy sized barrel...

Things went downhill from there, I wasn't getting out, in fact fifteen minutes later, and feeling flogged I was back on the beach. I moved along and had another go and finally made it out having taken an absolute hammering.

I got one early and it was a big old lump, made it to the bottom before as it closed out and I ejected and faced that paddle again. I followed this up with 30 minutes of dodging some big dark sets and losing the feeling in my right hand due to a hole in my glove. 

After some mincing around I talked myself into another one and just kept telling myself to paddle hard and that I would have loads of time to make the drop..just keep calm. So I paddled hard for a big one and it went down hill from there. I made it to my feet but got caught and pitched by the lip - tried to hold on which seemed to make the situation worse and finally went over with the wave and took an absolute battering. Found the surface, sat outside for a while and called it a day, soundly beaten and kicking myself for being such a kook. 

Luckily the Internet made me feel better with reports of others who had struggled and suffered a similar fate.

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