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Paddle out at the U-Turn
Locked in & Locked out
After doing some early morning shopping we took a drive along the esplanade of our local beach, to check out if there was any change in the recent horrid conditions. Our local beach doesn't get much surf of any consequence but even if it's breaking at 1 foot here, then it's bound to be breaking better down in the Mid. Even though the breeze was coming from the northwest, which is a cross-offshore wind here, it seemed to be abating. So just for the hell of it and out of sheer desperation for a wave, I shoved the boards and gear in the car while the girl got herself ready to go. At the same moment that she slammed the door closed behind her a look of horror spread across her face. She had left all the keys inside the house and we were going nowhere fast. The only thing to do was go to the telephone box up the road and get a locksmith to remedy the situation as soon as possible. Three quarters of an hour and $70 later we were on our way down to the Mid and I can tell you that this is no great way to lift the stoke for any type of session.
Once down there and only taking a half glimpse at the prevailing conditions I started to change into my surf clobber and got my board ready. I thought the girl was doing the same but had changed her mind and decided not to go out because she thought it was beyond her limitations. Fair enough, I've never ever tried to talk anyone into going out somewhere where they're not comfortable.
I was all but ready to go when one of our club mates Paul pulled up and I decided to wait a few minutes extra while he changed. Shortly afterwards the two of us were paddling out to take on some slightly choppy, shoulder to head high waves. The water itself was a muddy brownish colour with lots of weed floating around. I didn’t think this was strange with all the recent storms lately and one of the local guys mentioned that the Mount Bold Reservoir up in the hills had been opened to let some of the excess water run out. With the winter over and the spring weather taking effect I noticed that the water wasn’t as cold as at my previous sessions. When I was sitting out the back I drifted over into an extremely warm patch of water, which really quite surprised a couple of others and myself. I tried to reason with myself that this was due to the run off from the big stormwater drain that now sits at the bottom of the cliffs nearby. I’ve never struck this before and if I have I can’t remember when, but it was a little unnerving to say the least.
As far as my own session went I had some surprisingly good rides along with some real shockers. Most of the big sets that were coming through were closing out and not worth worrying about, but some of the medium sized ones were lining up quite nicely. It was the third wave that I caught that really gave me a surprise. I had picked it up and had ridden it about halfway in when almost without warning it jacked up over a shallow part of the reef. I had just completed a bottom turn and was making my way up the face again when the lip pitched over the top of me and I was locked in. I was amazed when this happened as Threepoles doesn’t normally present itself like this but I was thankful, as it’s one of the most rewarding experiences about surfing. Another memorable ride was when I chose to take the left that turned into a nice semi hollow ride, which I got to use my backhand skills on. It must have looked a half decent ride, as later the girl who was standing on the beach with the camera made mention of it and said she got some shots of it.
Most of the blokes out there were fairly congenial and reasonably good riders, except for one who was an absolute goose. Not only did he look like an egg with his blue and white booties he was performing like one as well. It seemed like every time I started going for a wave there he was right in front of me paddling across my path. I guess you come across this type of bloke just about everywhere and it wouldn’t matter to them if you did your nana at them, as they wouldn’t take any notice as they think they’re shit hot.
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All in all I really enjoyed this session and so did my mate Paul, who agreed with me that although it didn't look that good from the cliffs it was far better out there. I don't think it will be any better tomorrow as a change in the weather is supposed to be coming through pretty fast overnight. I only hope that today’s improving swell size is just the start of an epic spring that’s going to be another one to remember.
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Photos by Sibylle Martens
Copyright: R Taylor/S Martens
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