After the AI handled the rough stuff so well at Straddie I decided not to heed Jaro's call on the surf conditions and give it a bash on Friday 01Mar. I arrived early and met Pedro on his way out. He went to Sunshine Reef and I went north in the hunt for clean water. I had a light onshore breeze which with a little pedalling pushed me up the coast, hoping by the time I got to Halls that I might find some clean salt water. Sailed over both Little Halls and Halls, with the water still fresh, only a hint of salt. About half a mile north of Halls I turned and headed east and it took me another mile before finally crossing the foamy edge of the dirty water line; plenty of birds looking but none feeding. I trolled 5 different lures down the edge of the fresh until I was off Jew Shoal and then headed in over the top of it in hope of a hit before I was eating donuts.
Donuts it was as Pedro arrived at Middle Groyne in front of me with a couple of lippers.
Now for the fun part. Pedro made the beach with no problems while I did a couple of passes looking for a gap. Now I am a pretty impatient bloke and generally will jump on any wave to come in in any shape, so that's what I did. I had marvelled at Trev under full sail at Straddie surfing nicely in front of a nice wave and thought I would try the same, although the wave felt a little bigger and they were dumping on a sand bar at the end of the rockwall. My chosen wave picked me up and shot me down the face, my heart was pumping, everything was a blur and next thing you know I was on the beach. Wow that was fun, let's do it again sometime. NOT.
Pedro snapped a photo of me on the wave. Maybe he will post it and show how he saw my re-entry. Thanks.
Sprocket
Photo by pedro
sorry guys but I have just noticed I omitted a few lines in my original post. Upon reading it you may change your minds.
ReplyDeleteNow for the fun part, Pedro made the beach with no problems as I did a couple of passes looking for a gap. Now I am a pretty impatient bloke and generally will jump on any wave to come in in any shape, so thats what I did. I had marvelled at Trev under full sail at straddie surfing nicely in front of a nice wave and thought I would try the same, although the wave felt a little bigger and they were dumping on a sand bar at the end of the rockwall, it picked me up and shot me down the wave, my heart was pumping, everything was a blur from the spray coming of the front of the kayak as the wave stood up and sent the nose straight down, not being completely straight at the time she dug in and breached as the wave broke and flipped the kayak and me off the back as I was in eject mode by that stage. I came up out of the foam and found myself standing on the sandbar in about 4 feet of water. The first thing I noticed was the angle of the mast and outrigger, I remember thinking xxxx the mast is broken, anyway in the space of 1 wave I was underneath the mast pushing up trying to right the kayak and after the resistance of the full sail through the water I had it out and up in the air as high as I could trying to flip her back over when the next wave came through, it stood up underneath the hull, picked it up, righted it and sent it straight, still under full sail and next thing you know the Kayak was on the beach. Wow that was fun, lets do it again sometime. NOT.
Pedro snapped a photo of me on the wave, maybe he will post it and tell it how he saw my re-entry. Thanks. Sprocket.
ps I was very fortunate not to break or lose anything, just a little pride damaged.
Cheers,
Dave.