Tenerife Surf trip

View from Montana Roja

Warm and windy, no rain, what more ...... could you ask? I suppose I could whine about how flat and windless and damp it is at home. Better not.

Bottom Turn Fin Burner



Sunny Delight

I've got my eye on you

Offshore

Birds Eye View

Windswept

Looking South from the hotel
Montana Roja Tenerife

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about how it feels to blast across the water, fly through the air, or spin around in circles on my wave kit. So to help spread the stoke (and further give in to my addiction) a few of the boys and myself headed down south to Tenerife and hit the high wind area of El Medano (thanks Jen!). We arrived right after the famous Calima,and with that behind us the wind started blowing non stop.  Perfect timing.

Windy forecast. Check. Warm weather.  Check.  Hand full of friends.  Check.  Sounds like a typical surf trip.  Well that's how it started off.  The four hour flight down was ok (it was Easy Jet after all) and we were out the airport, checked into the hotel and out on the water within the hour.  I dived into my wetsuit and grabbed an RRD 75lts quad out the rack at the OTC Centre and paired it up with a 4.2 Goya guru. After four hours of slipping, sliding, jumping and looping it was time to get a beer, head back to the hotel and unpack.

Going for the back loop
on the
 83lts RRD Quad

The forecast for the rest of the week looked very good. Windy every day.  Been out on 3.7s and 4.2s most days with one day on a 5.0. The succeeding week consisted of a relatively regular routine. We would get up, go on the internet and have breakfast whilst waiting for the wind to pick up. Hit the coffee and split. Warzone out there. Windsurf the Harbour wall at low tide for a bit of down the line in the morning, come in for lunch and a beer. Then head back out onto the water for a few more hours sailing the beach. This normally involved smashing ourselves in a jump fest and resulting in numerous bruises, scratches, and pulled muscles.  Trips like this really make you realise what an awesome sport windsurfing is but unfortunately it all has to come to an end    

We're home from our surfing trip. I can't say I'm happy to be back to this grim weather after sailing in 30 degrees so here's a few pics to cheer us up! 

 Busting out some big air in 40 Knts down wind of the OTC.

 

I should push myself on jumps like these and go for a forward, but I haven't grown a set of balls big enough. 

.  

 Shore break

Lining up an outside section

Rider: Phil.

Location: El Medano.

Photos: Bartek Jankowski.

Wind Stength: 25-40.

Surf / Sea State: Waves / Big lumpy swells.

Air Temperature: Good.

Sea: Temperature: warm.

Weather: Sunny.

Phrase of the day: I should of changed down. 

Beach Bums
View from the balcony

Believe your luck

When life brings big winds of change that almost blow you over, close your eyes and hold on tight and believe your luck.

Just about found the strength to write this!  Guernsey has been firing on all cylinders! I’ll start at the beginning…

Here we are in 2012 and waves are streaming in toward our lovely coast.  Today I shared the water with Matt, Simon, Olly, Jas, Stu and a few others, and witnessed some well-versed wave riding. I watched Olly take off with speed on a waist-high left and then blast up onto the top of the wave for a long, fast, stylish floater. 

Been watching a low track across the Atlantic all week and the met office is alerting us that all the ingredients are in place for a blow.  Gusts of more than 50 mph were recorded in Cornwall as the storm roared in from the Atlantic. “There is a deep area of low pressure to the south-west of us, deep for this time of year and it's going to track north-east through Thursday night.  The Met Office has warned of strong winds expected in the south on Thursday and Friday. The unseasonable weather has already seen a number of trees brought down so it's time to dust of the cob webs and break out the wave gear.

Ridiculously flat water, early afternoon overpowered on 4.7 perfect for freestyle but it was waves we were looking for.  After sailing ankle slappers for an hour, the swell started to build as the low pressure and tide pushed in.

Thursday Late Afternoon Update:
By late afternoon/early evening, an explosive situation was in place with high instabilities and increasing wind shear, as the low pressure system intensified while moving toward the Channel Islands.

The approaching low had pushed in some heavy sets, building by late afternoon to some mast high bombs pushing in on the west coast.  So it was time to make the most of the blue skies, clear water and some epic cross off summer conditions.

Had a little session today.
A couple steep drops to closeouts.
Tripped on the bottom.
A couple metres in the wrong place.
A couple of new faces out.
A few full-throttle monster carves that leave my single fin burning.
In the wright place this time
Off the bottom with speed.
Off the top with full commitment.
Air-drops back down.
Beach break fun.
I've missed my winter spot.

The forecast is looking like it will be good for the next few days at least, so there is plenty more sailing to be had for those who came out early and missed the increasing swell.  Everyone was super pumped for the forecast the next day, 30 knots ALL DAY long!

Friday Update:
Serious wind out there this morning.
White-caps raging and colliding from beach to horizon.
Crystal clear sky.

After a well-earned nights sleep woke up to the howling offshores whipping through the trees outside. A gang of us headed back to Vazon on Friday as the forecast looked sick!  I was absolutely broken from four hours of sailing on Thursday so just had a quick two hour jumping session on 4.7 and my 76 single fin.

..Nasty..
 blister forming after the first days sailing

Two days of sailing later and I'm in a world of pain, no skin left on my hands, my back and sides are bloody from the harness rubbing, back spasms, tendinitis of the knees, elbow pain, sinus inflammation, small, infected cuts scream in pain all over my skin. Getting in the water at the start of my session was a blast of deafening sirens from my body saying, “this hurts, this will make the pain worse, stop” but of course I didn’t stop. Hell no.  Anyway, by halfway through the sesh injuries forgotten.  I had an awesome few hours out sailing smashing out some big air with nice cross-on down the line action on an angry and violent ocean. Loads of crew out and sailing really well today, good times!
Bring it on.............

Hopefully back with some photos soon as a few of us are heading down south to the canaries at the end of the month.
In the meantime here's a pic of my sore paws.

Devil Fish

This post has been a long time coming! I cannot believe it has been almost  three months since I blogged. Everything has been crazy busy. So it's been aaaaaaaaaages since I last posted... I am sorry! I've been a bit up and down lately, I've been working whilst trying to find a new house to move into. Anyway, enough about that, its been quite sunny lately over here in Guern land and the weather really did pick up last week so we decided to head out west and do some diving...  

Instead of the usual line.
"you should of seen the one that got away"
Stu will be saying.
"You should of seen the one I got away from"

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but even fish scientists agree that the bottom-dwelling Angler fish may be one of the least attractive creatures that swims off the coast .


Moving onto a slightly less attractive creature....
(My diving buddy)


Man vs. Monk fish/Angler fish

The result was a 10-minute battle to the death with a (27-lb), 1 metre (40-inch) fish armed with a massive mouth full of long, pointed teeth.

Recovering after his fight
with the beast

Stu was shaken long after his ordeal, which started when the 36 year-old was out diving with colleagues on the West coast.  He encountered the beast at about 25 metres deep. He made the sudden decision to try and capture the fish using a hand spear and stabbed it between the eyes, without getting the expected effect.

 "Then it flashed a wicked smile before returning for a second look and started to try and eat me. That was when I started having regrets, he said"...

Attacks on divers are rare, yet it's important to remain vigilant when dealing with toothy predators like this Angler fish.

The Curse is over after numerous dives and fishing trips  coming up short handed, finally Stu and I ended what we would like to call “The Curse”. After the classically dramatic man vs fish battle, the diver was finally able to boat the beast. I took my life in my hands and measured and officially weighed the devil fish at 27lbs 8oz.
Another great morning out diving 4 sole, 5 turbot, 2 brill and one very pissed off Angler fish. Brave man Mr Tucker for taking that thing on in it's own environment after a little assistance from yours truly..

woooh!!!
 Looks like it's got a right monk on!

Memories of how and when surfing started. Part 2

Jersey has been a surf destination for eighty years and for a few years was one of the most important surf spots in Europe. In the 1960s, thousands of people packed St Ouens bay to watch the British Surfing Team. The first surfing championships in Jersey took place at the Watersplash in 1963.  In the 1960s and 70s Jersey was a surfing mecca, hosting the European surfing championships, thousands of people packed St Ouens Bay to watch the 67 event with a Guernsey team attending the Europeans with Bob Warry placing 2nd right up to the semi finals alongside the likes of Rod Sumpter who went on to win.

Semi finalists 1967 European Championships.
Left to Right
Barry Johnson (Gsy), French Team (?), Richard Browning (Gsy) French Team (?), Jean Pierre Lartigue (? fra), Arnaud de Rosnay (?), French Team (?), Bob Warry (Gsy wearing No1 vest), Roger Mansfield (UK), Unknown, Unknown, Rod Sumpter, Unknown, Steve Harewood (Jsy. Freedom Surfboard's), Unknown, Barry Jenkins (Jsy ?), Unknown.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enough of this memorabilia stuff, back to todays Funautical action.
Right, left, straight, whatever. 4 people out. Parking lot is empty. Kinda rolly, not breaking until well inside but you can see the lines in the water about half way out. Wondering; should I stay or should I go? Grey skies, slight drizzle with waist-chest high dribblers making their way eastward. Sitting in the line up waiting for some lumps to come through I was chatting to Martin Brouard about the up and coming long board comp. Check it out....   

The contest is in the final stages of organisation and the holding period will be starting from 01 March for 3 months, check out the contest website www.longboardclassic.moonfruit.com

longboardclassic.moonfruit.com

Entry Form available by e-mailing longboardclassic@hotmail.co.uk

The Morning After.

Fade2Grey live at Fermain Tavern Saturday, last night.
Nikk, Andi, Kriss and Little Gary Numan 'make up' Fade2Grey. It's as if the '80s electronica never went away...

Little Gary Numan Fade2Grey

Partied a little too hard last night with the girls? It happens to the best of us. Your head is pounding and your liver is begging for mercy, but at least you had a good time. If you can manage to function for a few seconds while you’re not literally laying horizontal in bed, try out this hangover remedy.

Drinking lots of water is the tried-and-true hangover therapy. Here’s a hint: Approximate the amount of alcohol you consumed last night and double it that’s how much water you need to drink. So, yeah, you’re gonna need a shitload of Aquafina to offset those six (or was it seven?) shots you vaguely remember downing. So in my wisdom what better place can you find a shitload of water apart from the tap!!!! next best thing...go surfing in cold water. wakes you right up n stops you thinking of the hangover. Otherwise stay in bed.


Oh my god. I need to get wet. So dry. My skin and wetsuit are cracking.
Well the end of the latest west swell just came and went.

 Not much on offer this morning but some waisties and a rare chest high.
But... I had more fun today than the other bigger day earlier in the week.
Pulled up to Portinfer and suited up.
Sat and sat. Enjoyed a couple small ones.
Eleven long boarders and two S.U.P's all fighting for the odd set wave.
The ocean is the best cure for a hangover there is nothing like cold salt water slapping you in the face to cure a  post party trauma..

Summers approaching ...

Clear nights, small waves and orange sunsets have been the order for last two days of sailing/surfing.
An occasional bigger set surfing at Portinfer Thursday, a little speed down the line wave sailing Wednesday brought some satisfaction to my restless mind. SURF ON!

Thursdays surf session

We had a lot of wind Wednesday leaving a nice swell,
anticipation for big spring tides,
does that mean I have to go left?
lets not forget about today,
solid 5 footers,
close Outs,
only two in the line up,
nice Sun Set,
feeling cold,
big 10 metre tide,
I hope
i did not over
do it today ...

Sailing Therapy or I'm going to take up Knitting

I have not sailed in what seems like a long time so I was going out no matter what today.

I had a nice fight with mother nature and was feeling like a rusty old tin can with a snarl.  After pacing around the house for a bit, I grabbed my 75lts and headed to the beach

A big and sloppy combo of WNW ground and NW wind swell is hammering all areas over Sunday.

 No one was in the water when I got to Vaz in the morning, due to onshore conditions. Making for very hard times getting to the outside and once you were there you did not really know what to do.  As not such a good day for Vaz, off I went to Pembroke for some better conditions...

 Did not care what kind of conditions awaited me today I was going sailing.  I got to Pembroke before 13:00, the wind was up, the tide was on the push (works best at low), and it looked like there was white water every where...., the boys were rigging so I followed suit. The swells on the outside had some size to them.
 Rigged a 4.2 sailed out and cursed the water for being so cold.   Bottom turned into a wave and cursed the clueless brainny who tried getting on the wave with me, My wave!...My wave!!....MY WAVE!!!! . Then the wave started doing what it does best, I took a few more bottom turns and a few more top turns, then feeling rather over-powered with the wind getting stronger and things getting messy in the soup, I caught a couple of small ones and headed back to the beach to change down to the 3.7.  Back into the waves and travelled down the line to a different place, all my frustrations were gone and I was once again content. I have to say you have to be in good shape to take advantage of these conditions after about 10 waves I was toast. Still, managed two hours.  Pretty good conditions (despite rigging the wrong sail)  the crowd was back, people every where, parking lot packed, short boarders, long boarders, and various wind propelled boarders.

A Winter Dip with Mr Rotavator

Diving For Dinner

On this trip Gazza, Stu and I went diving for scallops. As you can see from the pictures, the bag full of scallops told of our success.


To a casual on looker, the sight of a bright red or white buoy floating on the ocean’s surface is a sign that lobster or crab are lurking beneath.

Mr Rotavator counting
and
sizing the days catch
to be cooked for dinner tonight!!!

Such a buoy usually marks a spot where a crab pot has been deposited on the sea bed.
But had such an on looker been near a particular buoy Saturday morning off the east coast, he or she might not have noticed a stream of bubbles coming up to the surface near that buoy, or that it was moving slowly with the current. He or she almost certainly would not have immediately recognized that below the buoy, which was connected by a length of rope to a mesh bag on the bottom, was a diver swimming along the bottom in search of his prey.

It can be hard diving against a current - you get tired quickly and in some cases it means you can't dive at all. However, you can take advantage of a current and use it to actually improve your dive. Drift diving is done in a current where you enter the water in one location... and exit far far away! Drifting with the current is like flying underwater - you literally just go with the flow!

When you are drift diving you can cover far more area than if you were just swimming along in slack water. This is useful for things like catching scallops because you can just pick them up along the way.
What can I say? Yes, we are at it again doing a sneaky sneak off dive.
The team got out to enjoy another great morning after the obligatory breakfast at the White Rock cafe. Even though the weather was a little poor, that darn lack of sun,warmth and only seeing rain and gloom, but hey, were going to get wet anyway.

On the helm

But despite that I could think of no other place that I’d rather be than at sea overlooking the cool clear waters. The viz looked awesome. The Viz at the moment is around 8 to 10 metres, or down to 1 if your following Mr Rotavator dragging a heavy bag full of scallops.

Stu & the Rotavator
unload a bag of scallops
 for sorting aboard Fortius

The haul
I'm tired, but real happy with a good haul!
 Almost as good as the
 "good old days out west"!

 Because we have dived this site many times before we knew exactly where we needed to enter the water and in which direction we needed to drift. As we had struck out on the flat fish last week we decided that a bag or two of scallops might be a good consolation.


Anyone like fresh scallops?

Back from the cold

Air temp 1.0 degree, sea temp 6.0 degrees, dive time 30 mins,

 bravado high,

 scallops plentiful, hands and face numb,

safety stops foregone

in favour of a coffee and bacon roll..

Time to dust of the ice from my dive gear."It takes a special kind of idiot to enjoy local diving,"  I am proud to say that I am a special kind of idiot along with my diving buddy Gary.  So this weekends adventures in fishing/diving were a wee bit on the chilly side. That might be the understatement of the year depending on who you ask. On the other hand, it was also a great weekend of fishing/ diving with a good bunch of friends.
The water is cold, looks uninviting, intense with big spring tides. Before you even think of dipping your feet in out here, you better have a dry suit, thermal under suit, wool socks, extra lead weights, lift bags, and a warm flask of coffee. (Gaz broke out nasty flask of teeth drying Hibiscus tea).
One of the most bracing truths about winter diving is that at this time January/February, its the coldest part of the year, January through March, the cold water has killed off the plankton blooms and normally gives some great vis, apart from today.
  The tidal changes here are up to 30 feet every 6 hours and most of the dives are performed in some sort of tide which can as in this case, kick up the sediment from the seabed. The brilliant vis of  last week has been replaced by some dirty water – spring tide and strong winds to blame. The water colour on the way down was a combination of blues, greens and browns, in patches and streaks, but although vis was poor near the surface, on the bottom it was a do-able 3-4 metres. Not great for this time of year. With temperatures barely reaching 5 degrees Fahrenheit, you wonder what drives people to jump in the ice cold water and go diving. Well, the answer is easy: they want to collect fresh scallops!