Nice Drops

Report from 19a Ryanair, Beziers to Edinburgh. So after a long run of flatness the East Coast suddenly woke up and things got interesting again. A decent long range swell showed up and for a couple of hours at least the wind came good, a bank held some shape and it went real glassy. Once again a small few were getting our fill.

As is often the case there was a short period of twenty mins when things were just so and the drops got steep and the shoulder real pretty.

More of the same due tomorrow and a new board has been bought on a whim on Scottish second hand surfboards Facebook page.

No surf pics but how about this 2cv6 I saw in Meze this week.

Cannock Chase - MTb

Decided to go and have ride of the Cannock chase trails which came on a recommendation.

Generally very good, the red was reasonably easy to do on the hard tail and the climbs were all easy after Macc Forrest and Glentress. Some of the single track was excellent and it was worth it for a few of the rock gardens and drop offs.

Clearly made the most of the elevation and space but is it really mountain biking if you can hear road noise most of the time? And the trails rarely leave the woods so you never get an appreciation of where you are or how far you have travelled.

Good though.

Gt again

So back up to Glentress again, another early start and a run over the red. This time I have burm baby burm a run which was also good, plus two or three runs over the free ride park including first drop of the Hucks.

Glentress

New hobby alert! Seem to have got addicted to riding my dad's mountain bike. Climbed 10,000 feet on it over the couple of weeks of Easter.

Firstly been riding over the cat and fiddle and trying the excellent down hill run from the a54 down Cumbernauld brook.

Then had a run up to Glentress and ran the red run which is huge fun, bumps jumps and well groomed routes, just like a good ski resort.

Drive home was good too!

Overhead stuff

Five surfs in a row in overhead waves spread over a week or so, a definite novelty in this part of the world. Mud in the car, cold wet wetsuits, painfull ears.. Ahh life on the east coast.

Fair to say the wind never made things perfect put whose worrying when there is finally some nice faces to play with. 

Surfed the single fin and the quad in equal measure, last surf on the quad and it felt like I was finally at home on it. Last wave at pease on the wrong tide at the far end, I took one of those rare rights and luckily had the speed to get round the first section, a head high face opened up the option for a nice cutback followed by a series of simple turns off the top, finally punching through the wave as it stood up on the beach. Happyness.

Prior to that had the single out at the reef on a busy (by our standards) day, battled with the better surfers and got my share -  highlight being a nicely shaped left followed up instantly by a large set right from the outside, twi longggg cutties before I got out of position due to avoiding someone and came out the back, but who is complaining when the faces look like that.

Two week break now due to half term so hopefully a flat period before it all kicks off again.

Flood on the A702

14 Second Period Swell

not everyday a 14second swell comes to our part of the world so first checked a spot that didn't look 14seconds but it sure looked overhead and clean, got in and some nice waves were coming through, second wave was wave of the winter - nicely overhead for the first 75 yards then it ran all the way to the inside, it just walled and walled and carried that perfect shape that good waves have. Backed that up with a left that was almost as good but directly into the sun. Caught a few more but the rip was a killer and I had as it turned out peaked for the day.

Went down to Coldy and had a bacon sarnie in the cafe, it looked nice and sizable from the window and after a dry hair paddle I discovered it was just that and seemed to be getting on for the period advertised. We scratched over one and I recall seeing the guy in front almost upright inside the face as he duck dived..and thinking there was room for someone else below him. Caught a couple but nowt special, lots of close outs and I ate shit a few times, one full out leap from the pitching lip - seemed to take a while to get to the water.

Made my way home and stopped to check our some reefs, which weirdly didn't look as sizable (and neither did Pease) - then ran into Danny, had a chat and watched him surf one of our waves for a while before calling it a day.