8.30am: Timo: I have sailed this spot quite a few times now, it’s a full on hard-core, horrendous launch over rocks, gusty cross-off winds and then the wave itself is probably one of the heaviest barrelling surfing waves in Europe! That might sound like hell to most windsurfers but having sailed this spot on smaller swells and seen its power I really wanted to tackle it on a macking day.
9. am: JC: I have been hiking around the coast for half an hour. Timo had given me instructions to head downwind round the base of the cliffs to shoot the wave. The wind swirling round must be forty to fifty knots while crumbling rocks falling from above add to the hazardous conditions. There does not seem like too much room at the base of these cliffs even at low tide. Maybe the tide’s already flooding in? Out on the water its howling cross offshore with plumes of spray flying high in the air as the waves smash onto the reefs. It is survival conditions, full-stop. Make no bones about it – if anything goes wrong for Timo, there doesn’t seem to be many options to make it back in – especially with the ferocious looking rips and lack of landing spots at the base of the cliffs.
