Magic on your doorstep Wednesday, June 22, 2005

I am blessed that after a not-so-wonderful day in front of a computer I have many fantastic locations on my doorstep where I can go and completely forget everyday life for a few hours. Last night the great escape was to Penrhyn Mawr tidal race with Gemma. The playspot can always be relied on to provide waves in some form or other and has the added advantage of being no more than a 20 minute paddle from Porthdafarch Beach. Last night there was a few foot of swell, a force3 wind and a bit of a bouncy ride out there. Great!

We got there about an hour before peak flow and the race was already in full glory with white walls of water crashing down. "Those waves look pretty powerful actually", said Gemma from the safety of the eddy. "um, they do" I replied as my heart started racing a little more. In we plunged, pointing our kayaks forward against the flow and trying to ride the surges that lifted the backs of our boats. As we took different lines (or were taken on different lines!) we were almost immediately a hundred metres apart from each other and I found it hard to see Gemma with 5 or 6 lines of waves inbetween us. This wasn't a day to be doing your own thing and I dropped back so we could paddle within sight of each other. And what a fantastic evening of waves we had. There is no better way to light up your life again than a blast with nature where you have to be alert at all times - get it wrong and you know you'll be trying to roll in very confused water, but get it right and you are harnessing the immense surging power of the glorious sea. Now there's a feeling!

Penrhyn Mawr is different every day - and yesterday the swell was making it very confused. There was a set of waves entering the race at right angles to the main flow so waves were breaking from all directions. You could be surfing down a steep face one second and then a set of waves would come in from your right and you'd suddenly be surfing uphill, then downhill, then uphill again.... a bit like a rollercoaster. Then of course the waves would combine so that you could be on top of a surging pyramid of water one second and dropping vertically downwards the next instant as the colliding waves moved off in different directions. My trusty kayak did things that it's never done before in a tidal race and four or five times the waves combined so my speeding kayak was stopped dead and the whole front end buried completely in the sea. I was pushing my limits and I was amazed that I didn't loop - although we did have 3 rolls between us!

I'm sure there are people shaking their heads at this description and thinking 'it couldn't possibly have been like that'! To be honest, I don't really care if you don't believe me - I go surfing to get away from the petty things in life like backstabbing and jealousy, and if I can inspire a few other people to just get out there and try it (whatever 'it' is) then that is an added bonus that I'm proud of. I think it's amazing what people can do when they just try - and surely it's better to be using your energy positively for yourself than wasting it bitching about other people!

Well, that was much more of a rant than I'd intended to spew out - it must have been a really bad day in the office yesterday! Here are some photos to try to capture what it was like yesterday. They're crap of course because it was much too scary to take my hands off the paddle in the race, but you get a bit of a feel of it I hope!

Right I can't put it off any more.... back to work!