TIME TO RIDE
Finally at 3pm the first lines of swell started to wrap into Gwithian just as the wind swung side shore. We made the decision to move down to a spot known as Sandy Acres which would still be cross off and were joined by Ian Black, Duncan Coombs and the King brothers who had all arrived ready to take on Ophelia for the late session. Back in the van my friend Fergus had managed to attack my lunch…grr! For the next three hours the waves built by the minute and checking the wave buoy off Land’s End the swell was now registering 22 feet! The wind was still blowing 30-40 knots but at least we were not enduring the wild 50-70 knot gusts from earlier in the day. Armed with 3.7m sails Ross and Jamie headed down the steep sandy track through the dunes to take on Ophelia. I loaded up with all the camera gear I could carry leaving Fergus in the van along with what was left of my food! Down by the water ghostly swirls of sand blown by the winds were sweeping along the shoreline. Earlier in the day the sandstorm driven by the gusts had literally been about 4 feet high close to the water, which actually would have made it impossible to be on the beach with a camera to shoot the action. The crew stayed out right until sunset scoring the best conditions of the day with a solid rising swell and slightly more manageable winds.
OVER AND OUT
The worst part about Sandy Acres is the steep walk back up the dunes at the end of the session but at least we were doing it after scoring the fallout from Ophelia after waiting patiently for the conditions to cooperate. Back at the van the boys derigged and traded stories about the session while Fergus rummaged around for some nice sized boulders for the return journey!”
JAMIE HANCOCK
“Windsurfing in storms can be a fun thing. To be out there in some wild conditions really makes you feel alive, albeit sometimes hard work. I foolishly only have a quiver down to 3.6m this year as I rarely use a 3.3m since I stopped sailing at Pozo every year. So with Ross on his 3.7m and others on 3.3m I had no choice but to battle it out. With a few tweaks and a bit more outhaul it was just about fine. The morning during storm Ophelia was incredibly windy but with no signs of swell. So we sat it out until later in the afternoon. Once the swell arrived it came in quickly and before we knew it was pretty chunky. It was luck of the draw whether the wave you took would be too windy to bottom turn or not, sometimes you just had to straighten out through the 50 knot gusts blowing through. But in the end we all scored a few nice waves.”