Gash

That promised surf. Rubbish. Nice to be out at 6am in the sun though.

-65

39,000 feet, 11km up, -65degrees, seat 24c, another posting from the air, welcome back to the mile high blog.

Heading home with one third of my brain thinking about the glorious low tide rights of last weekend, one third on the aircraft bill of material numbers I have been crunching for two days and another third on this weekend's forecast. 4ft at 12 seconds on the east coast makes for a meaty swell, and after the recent run I am feeling up for this one..

So about last week, a long period small swell in strong offshore winds, a very low tide dawny at my current favourite spot beckoned.

Having been pessimistic about the size I only had my log in the car so the 9.4 Nineplus Don it was. 3 hours of punchy blissfull walling rights onto a shallow shoulder followed, waves shared with a just one or two others. There was some small inside barrels on offer and whilst I parked it in the pocket in one (causing a smile of appreciation from the channel), I never quite found the holy grail we are all looking for. 

However, the early catch of the longboard and the additional wave face that provides allowed for more time to think about positioning on the wave and I started to surf In the pocket more thus generating more speed down the line and ultimately more pace to do more with the wave. Another step in the right direction.

They say that fear makes the wolf look bigger, well when I was putting the log away I looked at my short board and it suddenly didn't looks so small and unstable. Starting to feel ready to really surf it properly. 4ft at 12s....it'll be in the car this weekend.

Report from 22a

Another day, another last minute set of instructions to spend more time in the sky, 22b to be exact. Flying over a very flooded uk.

Reporting a cracking swell at coldy, the recent weather has created some decent banks creating shape that has apparently been missing for the past few years. Stvedas steve was getting out as i arrived, and frothing from his session, true enough it was as good as promised with some quality punchy waves coming through. Most memorable for a couple of weightless drops, one to a backhand rail grab down the line and for a handful that ran through to the channels at either end of the bay. Praying that the run doesn't end.

Finally, how is this for a great golf hole, spotted whilst out with the family

Summing up a good run

Seems like in January the number of surfs finally overtook my ability to keep a level pegging post count on the blog. My unhealthy bit of self indulgence (as has been noted by someone) has been lapsing and time to catch up as I often seem to, on a flight, this one from Brussels to Manchester. Writing from 6b to be exact which seems to be the section between economy and business. This is a novel location in the aircraft, the fast track through security was good too..this is how to roll.

Anyway surfing.....the good run continues with a few good waves. A big swell rolled in and I plucked up the courage to walk in to a couple of waves I have been eyeballing off and on for a year. Succes was not measured so much by waves but the accumulation of knowledge. Still waves were caught and surfed and some time was spent knee deep an a stony reef facing down a nasty looking set. What is that they say about the journey being as much fun as arriving at the destination.

Next up (in my memory anyway) is what was an almost complete session on the log. The forecast brought little in the way of promise but the swell was there and the wind turned offshore. I dithered over location and almost missed out but my low tide gut feel was sound and an hour later I was solidly mid solo session in a run of a-framing chest to head punchy waves, with clean open rights being order of the day. Only once did I not make the channel, mainly due to a desire to go too deep on the peek rather than any failure in the wave. This is surfing up here as I hoped it would be. More of the same please.

Footnote - Interesting approach to Manchester, bumpy as hell in yet another storm, pilot fought it all the way till he opened the taps at about 10feet to go and we went round again. This was my kind of flying and I was looking forward to the next attempt till he announced that they went round again cos something was 'blocking the runnway' wtf? Anyway second attempt was still hairy but we seemed to be a little lower over Cheadle Royal and the pilot banged it onto the Tarmac without too much drama. What does blocking the runway mean and given we were nearly down, how close were we to the blockage! I guess I will never know.

Local Beach Works for Three Days

Only got one surf but plenty of waves.

Pease Fever

High tide.

Got down to Pease at a bit too high a tide but its been a good run and luck held. Chunky swell coming through and just two of us out after an initial crowd of three! 

Plenty of waves on offer for the single fin and most waves were open all the way to the beach, and therefore a dumping whenever I forgot to pull out.. Going down arms first in a foot of water off a head high shore dump is a fools game! 

Last of a great run of surfing and notable for a very clean cut back.

The Other Way

Magic surfing backhand in zee wind. Punchy good period swell. Fast waves all the way to the sand.