JC
As we rolled down the hill into Bigbury my immediate thought was that the conditions were too wild and out of control to risk sailing. Even Agatha Christie, who once resided at Burgh Island, would’ve found difficulty coming up with adjectives worthy of describing this tempestuous sea-state. Muzza seemed to have other plans and wasted no time rigging-up his 4.1 ready to challenge the elements. With George still on his way to the beach from his home town of Praa, further up the coast, Muzza was going to have to go it alone.
MUZZA
After staying overnight with Dave Hackford, where JC proceeded to drink most of Dave’s favourite ales, until 2am, we got up and hit the beach at 8 am. The Sea state was wild with crazy 50-knot squalls blasting across the Bay. JC wasn’t even sure if it was safe for me to go out in these hazardous conditions but I was determined to give it a try. I rigged up my 4.1m, and got totally flattened on my first run so had to sheepishly return to the car park and change down to my 3.7. The wind was funneling through the gap between the land and Burgh Island making it ridiculously gusty. I think that ‘challenging’ was the word of the day! One minute it was sunny with howling winds and the next it was a torrent of rain and hail bombarding down on us. The river between Bigbury and Bantham was flowing out like crazy and it stank of farm slurry. Right when you hit the waves there were shifty patches of gale-force winds combined with glassy patches making it really tricky to go big. I did find a few ramps to launch some pretty high, floaty ‘old-fashioned’ straight jumps and a couple of sneaky cheese rolls but it was very difficult to completely let loose because there was so much current and variation with the wind. It was a bit frustrating because JC was there and I wanted to do something massive for the camera but on this particular day survival was higher on the agenda than taking silly risks!