Swellies by night Friday, March 13, 2009

Yesterday was a really big tidal range with a high tide of 9.7 metres in Liverpool. Perhaps more importantly for us, the low tide was REALLY LOW! Only 0.4metres... That meant that the standing waves at the Swellies in the Menai Straits should be really well formed and calling out to be surfed! The only problem was that action time, when the waves form was about 6.30pm -- about the time it gets dark! But we couldn't resist such a big tide. Barry also wanted to check out a different wave, a bit higher upstream from the ''Swellies wave', which he's only seen 'working' (i.e surfable) when the low tide is REALLY low. It was working well last night, with the tide tanking through there, making it hard to get onto the front wave. The traditional Swellies wave is still my favourite though, and on our way back, in near pitch dark, it was steep and powerful. It was a bit scary, to be honest, especially when we could only see each other if we were very close. After Barry capsized and rolled, which I didn't see, we decided to get off the water, and go for a well deserved Pizza-and-a-Pint!