Bone Crunching Cougarville

Since I did my little surf trip at home project, the surf hasn’t stopped pumping and as we get near to one week later, I’m still going in the sea everyday. I’ll go in again tomorrow, so that’ll be two straight weeks of surfing everyday in genuinely fun surf. And to think that I have friends in Sri Lanka who have been lamenting the lack of swell there. Superb!

Approaching from the North Quay

Two main things I’ve noticed after two straight weeks of surfing: 1) Paddle fitness is much better. Powers of recovery are greatly improved too. All this adds up to a better wave count. And 2) Take off is much sharper and I notice that my ‘pop’ has a lot more spring to it. This seems to set me up for a better position on the wave face to get an early pump in which allows you to surf with more speed, thus improving the effectiveness of any turns you may put in.

Forehand top turn

Back in the Newquay Bay with me mate Jacko today, 4m swell at 15seconds is too much for Fistral to handle! Still, the Bay despite offering relative shelter was dealing out some bone crunching wipeouts with a volley of closeouts slamming down on a sandbar. I hit the bottom twice, and once was even aware of not being able to pull my arms and legs in tight against the turbulence as it tumbled me around in the darkness. Fortunately, wipeouts in the Bay are brief and you soon pop back up again.

Courgarville

We got in via the steps inside the harbour today. It saves a paddle out, but it’s also a bit of a novelty. The water was gushing out of the harbour mouth as the tide dropped, so all we had to do was sit on our boards to be sucked out to the lineup. Loads of people out there today, they can’t all live nearby so maybe the off season in Newquay is now filling out a bit.

Polishing glass

On the way back in we spotted this board floating in the shallows. The leash had snapped and its owner was enjoying a tough swim in. Yep, a heavy day in the Bay alright. Hardcore Bravery of the day award must go to four teenagers who were SWIMMING in the shallows in their undergarments. It’s enough to chill you to the marrow just thinking about it.

Snapped leash

Early reports suggest that next week the swell won’t dip below 3m or 15 seconds, plus it looks like loads of wind is on the way. If I can make it to 21 legitmate sessions in the sea, back to back, that certainly be a personal best. I certainly haven’t achieved that on any surf trip I’ve been on, I think even in Hawaii there was the odd break of one day here and there. That will mean if anyone asks me where is the most consistent place I have ever been to, I’d be telling the truth if I said Cornwall!

The last green wave of the session (for me).

Oh – nearly forgot to mention, I got my second ‘GoPro Photo of the Day’! Scroll down to the post below and check out the sand dredging close out wave photo, that’s the one that won it for me. The GoPro Photo of the Day is a little comp where GoPro (the makers of this awesome little camera that I use) select the best photo that’s been submitted to their Facebook page that day. If you win, you get to choose any GoPro mount and you also get an ego buffing with loads of people commenting and ‘liking’ your photo. I think I’m the only person to have scored two so far, and they were both in Cornwall.