You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'Uncategorized' category.
September already! Where oh where has the year gone. September is the time of year when the swells start to pick up again after a summer calm.
Mike and his mates make the long journey up to the North coast for a surf trip and normally get a good few waves in on the many different beaches and breaks all along the North Coast. This year I went out with Gavin and met up with them to get the craic and catch some waves. This time Mike didnt paddle out, but sat on the beach with his fancy looking camera and took some shots. I dont proclaim to be a good surfer or paddler by any stretch of the imagination but I do have a great time doing what I do. However I rarely get the chance to see myself having fun as I am normally the one on the other side of the camera. However Mike shot a few action shots and emailed them to me on his return home. In his favour he must of neglected to send the pictures of me taking a swim!! I was impressed by the pictures as his fancy zoom lense somehow made it look like I knew what I was doing out in the surf instead of bumbling and bobbing around like an idiot in a wheely bin!
pic by Mike Marshall
The surf was far from ideal as many of the wave appeared to look very good only to back off at the last minute however there were a few good ones to be caught and I made the most of those. The venue was Melvich beach and I was on the water surrounded by boarders. They seamed like a nice bunch of guys and I managed to avoid any drop ins or clashes. It was unusual to be out on the water at the same time as so many others as I am used to having a whole beach to myself and whomever I am paddling with. The whole surf etiquette thing is worth learning to avoid any confusion as to who has right of way at any given time.
Pic by Mike Marshall
Some of the waves were dumping down unexpectedly so tested my recentl DIY replacement seal on my dry cag. I am glad to say the repair appears to of worked quite well!
Pick By Mike Marshall
And again
Pic by Mike Marshall
Then on Saturday the SCA were holding the Scottish Surf Champs and the Venue was once again Melvich. On Saturday however I was a spectator as I am not good enough to compete and to be honest I surf for enjoyment not for competitiveness so even if I could rip the waves up like an expert I am not sure I would want to pit myself up against others in short 20 minute heats rushing to catch as many waves as I could. It was good to watch though and my kids had a great time playing on the beach in the late season sun!
An unknown surfer gets a good ride in!
Went out for a surf today. Magic seaweed was giving 4 star surf so I wasnt expecting to get a beach to myself but away I went. Thurso was poor with loads of boardies out. So westwards I went Sandside flat! Melvich about 6inches!! Strathy about 3-4 foot Hardly what I would call 4 star surf but never mind. Offshore breeze and quite nice waves but 3 car loads of boardies. Never shared strathy before and I wondered how it would go. Everyone took positions and picked away at the bigger sets that were coming in for a good fun couple of hours. I have not been out much this year much to my disgust for various different reasons so it was nice to get out twice this month. My last trip out was a mixed bag with more swims and trashings than waves caught so I was a bit aprehensive this time. However once out on the water I was having great fun and caught quite a few of the better waves and maged some good long rides and some practice at bottom and top turns. Man I love the sound of the fins humbing in the water when you are flying! I was starting to get tired and a swim made me decide to call it quits. AsI am loading my kayak onto the roof rack a couple of the boarders came over so I wasnt sure what to expect. Anyway they were wanting to have a look at my funny kayak with fins! They told me they had seen kayakers in the surf before but always assumed that there were river boats. We had a nice chat about surfing on boards and kayaks and they said that they had been west at Farr beach earlier and there had been about 25 boards on the water so they steered clear because they didnt like the attitude of some surfers who thought they owned the place and hogged all the waves!! Looks like its not just “goat” boaters that some surfers dont like it is anyone else in the water. If only everyone you met in the water was a friendly and approachable as those lads everyone would be fine. They also said they thought my boat looked fast amd smart on the water so that made me Grin!! I must of been surfing well today if a boardy was dishing out compliments…. Looking forward to my next trip out.
My first Blogg. Haven’t made many trips recently so trip down to the Garry was very welcome. So an early start was planned for Wednesday morning www.wheresthewater.com told me a release was planned. So typically on the Saturday before the car wiper blades packed in. A trip to the garage revealed that it would be at least Wednesday before they could get a new bit. Bugger!! A phone call to the garage in Inverness revealed they had parts in stock and would keep one for us on Wednesday. I managed to bodge a temporary repair with one wiper blade clearing most of the screen until then. Phew that’s means I can still get wet on Wednesday. Then on Tuesday night the brakes stuck on the car and boiled the fluid giving me a scary moment, again somethings trying to stop me getting wet on Wednesday. So on Tuesday evening both front calipers were stripped and cleaned lubricated and reassembled. Black hands and skinned knuckles reminded me of why I normally pay garages for this type of work!
Still the paddling was back on again. I had arranged to meet my paddling buddies just before the Dingwall round-about and leave the wife and kids to go to Inverness to pick up the wiper parts and go shopping for the day whilst we cut cross country to get to the river. What else can go wrong? Well nothing I hoped but our supposed short cut through Dingwall was a mistake as we got stuck at a roundabout for about half an hour due to road works. At the river we changed quickly and walked up to the get in. Paddled to the play hole and Gavin went to have a play in the top hole. In he went and caught an edge straight away. A badly placed upstream high brace had him over and when he rolled up he was still in the hole with a missing blade that had just dropped off the end of his shaft. Over he went again not noticing the missing blade and rolled up again to see the blade float off downstream at this point he fell back over and popped his deck and swam. Its one of those days 5 minutes on the water and disaster struck! No spare paddle! So we decided to take turns running the river with one person left on the bank.
So after all that Mathew and Myself headed on down whilst Gavin waited on shore. We had a fairly quick run down the river that saw me vertically pinned between two rocks. What a day!!!!! Anyway after much pushing and shoving I was free and on we went. The drops appeared different from last time I had paddled here and it turns out that this was a small release. The stoppers were bouncy-er and the waves steeper which did not make it so friendly as it had been last year on the Andy Jackson memorial weekend. Luckily we manged a few more runs down without event well apart from me fluffing a roll and swimming out of the bottom hole. A swim is quite normal for me and I must really work hard on my roll this year but a lack of time makes things quite hard. Any way fun was had and an eventful day was concluded so it was back to the sneck to meet my wife where I fitted a new wiper motor and mechanism in the Eastgate car park for the way home. Why is it when one plastic bush is knackered you have to spend £85 on the whole gubbins to fix it.
