No More Heroes Any More
Tag Archives: westward ho
Warm Water, Glassy Waves…. Enjoyed
Had an amazingly fun session the other day at the local. The water’s still nice and warm and there wasn’t a breath of wind which meant the chest high swell was super glassy. It was hitting the banks at Sandymere just right too as some of the better ones peeled for 50 yards or so. I got one absolute stormer of a right on the Cre8tion Hot Pepperjelly. I did nothing special on the wave (I’m not special), just raced the sections, rising and falling in tune with the shape of the wall. It felt amazing. The sort of connection with the wave that keeps you turning up at the beach, waiting for the next ride.
Summer with the Otta
Been having some real fun on the Otta the last week or so, a session on the above day in particular sticks in the mind. It doesn’t look much in the photo but then you don’t need much to have a blast on these types of boards. It was a warm day and the swell was producing some real ramp shaped waves almost custom made for the Otta’s smooth belly into single concave.
The bellied nose and S-Deck feel like they really help get you into waves with not much effort needed before you can feel the board racing down the face. It’s really responsive too, lean back and twitch your heel and you can get it on a rail quickly, lean forward and your accelerating again….! It’s great fun and I’m so glad I stumbled down the Simmonsy route a while back because it’s made surfing days like this one something to remember rather than a frustration from not having a board with foam in all the right places. The great irony is that I’ve discovered a board ideal for my old local, Bournemouth Pier, seems it took me moving to Devon to discover it.
Fading Swell
Been some great sunny warm days at the beach recently…. This one was taken on the phone, Westward Ho! fading swell.
Hot PepperJelly
Had a few fun ones yesterday in lazy 2ft surf at the good old Ho! I’ve been hoping to get my new Doofer from Fourth wet but the conditions called for something with a bit more foam (the Doofer’s intended for good waves) to maximise the fun so out came the 5’7 Pepperjelly from Cre8tion – I swear you can catch a ripple on this thing. The sun came out for a while too which made the hoodless duck-dives just about bearable although ice cream headaches are still in full force! Here’s to some more fun summer stuff.
The Golden Hour
High Tide Backwash Capers at Sandymere
High tide Sandymere on Saturday was a weird one, I knew the tide was going to be high enough for some horrid backwash capers at about 9.30am so I planned fully to be in the water for before 8 to catch the last of the push for what was a really nice swell and almost no wind. However I made the mistake of dismissing my morning alarm instead of snoozing… dedication for you! So by the time I got to the beach it was nigh on high tide (top pic is when I arrived, bottom pic shows improving wave shape after I got out as the tide receded), I couldn’t be arsed to drive elsewhere so had an hour and a half trying to get into some steep to fat to steep to fat backwashy ones. Had one interesting air drop in an otherwise fairly un-noteworthy session. Great to see the sun breaking through though and giving rise to a run of more settled weather and more clean waves on the horizon this week, there’s a whiff of spring in the air and I for one can’t wait for things to warm up a little bit!
Mini Simmons at Sandymere
Hit Sandymere on Saturday for a few waves on the mini simmons. Surf was pretty lack-lustre with some waist high wind slop coming in. It turned out better than it looked (just) with a few open sections here and there. Although the sea felt colder than it has done previously this winter I had one lovely little whippy/weightless top turn on a wedgey right hander that made me smile whilst walking back across the beach evading the crazy kite-buggyists that had descended en masse!
