LOSING IT
John Carter – “My alarm wakes me up promptly at 05:30 on the morning after ‘Brian’, one of the biggest storms of the autumn last year. Personally, the previous day had been an utter disaster. I had gambled on staying at home to shoot Niton, one of the Isle of Wight’s premier wave spots, on the outgoing tide in the afternoon with Ross Williams. Having thrown all my eggs in one basket, the plan totally backfired due to huge surges of water and waves off the Richter scale! The nuclear winds didn’t quite swing as forecast, leaving me totally dejected having seen shots online afterwards of epic sessions at the likes of Hayling Island, Avon Beach, Branksome Chine, and to cap it all, Thomas Traversa’s ridiculous big wave session at Red Strand on the south coast of Ireland. My part in the ‘Life of Brian’ had been an enormously frustrating mission which had totally failed; I was on the brink of losing it! The only possible saviour was to try and make amends by catching the fallout from ‘Brian’. Surely after 22 foot waves were recorded in the English Channel the previous day there would be some chunky leftovers on the limestone ledges of Kimmeridge. Determined to make amends, I instigated a military precision plan! Taking no chances, I left my home on the Isle of Wight the evening before and stayed with Paul Hunt overnight. Between us we duly emptied his fridge of beer while he constantly rubbed salt in the wounds by recalling how amazing the sailing had been at Hayling and Avon. Both slightly hungover, we crept out of Hunty’s house in the pitch black at 06:00 and hit the road bound for Kimmeridge. I had managed to persuade Ross Williams and Jamie Hancock along with freestyler Nic Hibdige to join the dawn patrol. Ross was on the 06:00 ferry from Yarmouth to Lymington while Jamie and Nic were also en-route and by 07:00 we were all in convoy bound for K-Bay, naturally via McDonalds for coffee and morning rations.